March 13, 2003
HAVE YOU, AT LONG LAST, NO SHAME, MR. HUSSEIN:
'Human Shields' Booted After Criticizing Iraq's Instructions (Fox News, March 13, 2003)Five volunteers who went to Iraq to serve as "human shields," including two Americans, were forced out of the country because they were critical of the government's choice of sites to protect, the head of the group said Wednesday.They had chosen locations "essential to the civilian population," such as food storage warehouses and water and electricity facilities, said Ken O'Keefe, of Haleiwa, Hawaii.
But the Iraqi government wanted the shields in more sensitive locations, he said. He did not elaborate, but some earlier activists have also left Iraq, reportedly after being told they would be posted at potentially strategic targets, such as oil refineries and power plants.
Shooting his way to power; purging the government; oppressing minorities; the millions killed in the Iran War; attacking Kuwait; savagely repressing rebellions; funding suicide bombers;...these we can accept, but how can he be so mean to these sweet kids? Posted by Orrin Judd at March 13, 2003 7:56 PM
Unfortunately, the human shields seemed to have failed to communicate to Mr. Hussein that their gesture was really meant to be a higher-proflie form of street theater than anti-war protesters have practices for the past 35 years. The whole idea was the gesture itself, which I'm sure in their minds would get massive press attention and turn all remaining supporters of the war on Iraq against Bush, Blair and their allies.
Saddam's actually expecting the human shields to be human shields was not something they were counting on, though I'm sure after a couple of days outside of the country, they'll have convinced themselves that the Iraqi leader was merely stressed out because of U.S. actions and didn't know what he was doing.