Volunteer Human Shields

[evildave]

There are protesters going to Iraq to camp out at strategic sites so they won't be attacked. Some American moron was sitting there on TV saying "I dare the U.S. to attack!"

I wonder how their "volunteer" status will hold up after the bombs begin to fall? Will they continue to hold their "moral high ground" on top of the targetson their own, or with a little help from their host?

I wonder what their legal status would be in Iraq if they tried to flee?

I wonder what their legal status would be if they ever got home again?

Darwin Award contenders. Every one.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Originally posted by evildave
There are protesters going to Iraq to camp out at strategic sites so they won't be attacked. Some American moron was sitting there on TV saying "I dare the U.S. to attack!"

I wonder how their "volunteer" status will hold up after the bombs begin to fall? Will they continue to hold their "moral high ground" on top of the targetson their own, or with a little help from their host?

I wonder what their legal status would be in Iraq if they tried to flee?

I wonder what their legal status would be if they ever got home again?

Darwin Award contenders. Every one.

I imagine if some 4 year old Iraqi popped a balloon, this crowd would head for the hills!!!

[Reginald]

They are a wierd bunch irrespective of their view.

There was an item about some of them huddling around a desalination plant on UK TV tonight. They seem somewhat hopeless, They just dont have the man power to cover everything they want.

Amazingly at the start of the year a young lady student from the Uk stated that she expected tens of thousands of people to offer themselves up for the cause. I think her guess would have been closer had she simply said "10".

On the same program tonight they were saying that the Iraqi Gov. had handed out 3 months rations to everyone, the correspondent then said that because some of the people were so poor, they were selling the food they have been given.

Then the thought crossed my mind.......to buy what????:confused:

[The Fool]

I'm reliably informed that if your timing is spot and you have plenty of oil rubbed into your mit on it is possible to catch a tomahawk missile without it going off.

[Ben Shniper]

They are a mixed bag of deluded human rights protesters, anti-American anti-Israelis, and old-line communists.

We won't miss them.

-Ben

[Advocate]

Originally posted by evildave
I wonder what their legal status would be in Iraq if they tried to flee?

I wonder what their legal status would be if they ever got home again?

If the war starts while they are still doing this, I suspect their legal status will quickly become "deceased".

[headscratcher4]

I hope they are positioning themselves around Saddam's security service's prisions so that when the bombs fall, they will not hurt the torture victems and political prisioners being held against their will inside.....

[Drooper]

Originally posted by headscratcher4
I hope they are positioning themselves around Saddam's security service's prisions so that when the bombs fall, they will not hurt the torture victems and political prisioners being held against their will inside.....

Excellent repost scratcher. I am going to plagarise this at the first opportunity.

[Segnosaur]

Originally posted by evildave
There are protesters going to Iraq to camp out at strategic sites so they won't be attacked. Some American moron was sitting there on TV saying "I dare the U.S. to attack!"
Funniest story I heard...

Some 'Human Shields' were unhappy because they thought they'd be positioned at schools, day care centers, etc. However, they ended up being positioned at a power plant. However, right behind the power plant is an army base. When someone expressed concern about it, they were reassured "its only a small army base".

http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/02/23/wshield23.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/02/23/ixworld.html/news/2003/02/23/wshield23.xml

[aerosolben]

Originally posted by Segnosaur

Some 'Human Shields' were unhappy because they thought they'd be positioned at schools, day care centers, etc.

Inside the Pentagon:

General: Gentlemen, today we commence our bombing campaign on Iraq. Primary targets are as follows:

1. Old People
2. Small Children
3. Students

Any questions?

Aide: Wait, General! I've just received word that American citizens have stationed themselves throughout Iraq. Every day care center and nursing home has a human shield!

General: Damn! Well, I guess there's nothing to bomb, now! Might as well call the whole thing off...

[Michael Redman]

Originally posted by Segnosaur
Some 'Human Shields' were unhappy because they thought they'd be positioned at schools, day care centers, etc. Because we all know the Great Satan would otherwise seek out and target such sites, in an effort to kill as many children as possible. Brave, rational volunteers! Where would humanity be without you?


aerosolben, you beat me to it!

[shuize]

It's all about self-congratulation. When the war ends and the schools and hospitals are still standing, the volunteer 'shields' can pat themselves on the back and say, "because of me this school was not bombed."

As for those silly enough to bunk at the electric plants, I doubt they'll be saying much of anything.

These 'shields' remind me of an old anti-nuke activist I saw on television who laid across the railroad tracks in front of a train supposedly carrying some kind of nuclear material. The train, of course, did not stop and the T.V. crew continued filming as this guy got both his legs chopped off. But, hey, he sure showed the government.

[rikzilla]

What a bunch of

fools.... (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61990-2003Feb24.html)

From the link:
At the plant, which was hit by six bombs in 1991 and still operates at only half its prewar capacity, director Ihsan Obeidi said he expected the presence of the shields to spare the facility from another airstrike. "These are good people who are helping innocent Iraqi people," he said.

But other workers seemed less optimistic. Sabah Hassan, an engineer in a blue boiler suit, said that if the bombs start falling, he would not hesitate to flee. "I will go home," he said. "The foreign volunteers can stay."



Mr. Hassan,..unlike the "shields",...makes good sense.

-zilla

[Victor Danilchenko]

You gotta give these people 10 points for being willing to stand by their beliefs (if they actually stand...), and deduct 100 points for stupidity.

[Akots]

Originally posted by Ben Shniper
We won't miss them.

Not by much, at least... :D


Originally posted by Victor Danilchenko
You gotta give these people 10 points for being willing to stand by their beliefs (if they actually stand)

They probably brought lawn chairs.

[Barkhorn1x]

Akots beat me to it.

Mine was;

Originally posted by Ben Shniper
We won't miss them.

Not w/ the newer Block III version of the Tomahawk we won't. ;)

Barkhorn.

[subgenius]

Nucking futz.

[evildave]

I wonder if we'll get some video of the laser designator on one of these bozos' lawn chairs.

Legally... dead. I like that one.

[Thumper]

Just curious here (and definitely linking with a different thread), how many French are in that group of 200 "Human Sields"?

[ssibal]

Originally posted by Thumper
Just curious here (and definitely linking with a different thread), how many French are in that group of 200 "Human Sields"?

Wrong group. You will find them among the group of surrendering Iraqis.

[hammegk]

I'll volunteer to coordinate raising airfare to Iraq for any of the whiny, cheap-shot, anti-Americanists who post on JREF. :)

[RandFan]

What do you call 100 protestors who act as human shields...




...a good start. :D

[hammegk]

Well, 100 would clear out most of the trash here anyway. :p

[crocodile deathroll]

I think the center of Baghdad would be the safest place in Iraq, because no way would America bomb it to rubble in fear of an even far more serious backlash from the Islamic world that they already have.
And they will never enter Baghdad with boots on the ground in fear of a protracted guerilla warfare that will drag on for years with thousand of American and Iraqi casualties.

[Mike B.]

If there is a war what is their legal status?

If they are captured by US/UK or other country troops are they enemy combatants (provided they are not incinerated)?

ABC News had one of these morons hopping around in joy that Saddam gave them a fully loaded refrigerator with food. Does this moron know what she signed up for?

[evildave]

They probably believe they'll be "martyred" for peace.

Yee-haw.

[headscratcher4]

Originally posted by Mike B.
If there is a war what is their legal status?

If they are captured by US/UK or other country troops are they enemy combatants (provided they are not incinerated)?

ABC News had one of these morons hopping around in joy that Saddam gave them a fully loaded refrigerator with food. Does this moron know what she signed up for?

Isn't it interesting that Saddam can give this moron a fully loaded refridgerator, but every time they show official pictures of a hospital, the State shows some underfed, suffering child? One would think that the human shield would take the food to a starving child...well, maybe not.

[aerocontrols]

A reader sent me an angry email a couple of days ago (not the reader who writes in the comments, someone else) asking me why I dislike the “human shields” so much, he/she actually asked “why do you spit on them?”. Ewww. Now I was never that unfriendly. I have not met any of them in person, which just might happen in the next couple of days, what I dislike is the idea. But since dissing them gets people so exited, here we go and do what [destiny’s child] don’t, “cause their mamma taught them better than that”, we be dissing the shields again on the internet.

One of the latest group to arrive in Baghdad, mostly Europeans, were welcomed to the Rasheed hotel , which is like the Waldorf Astoria of Baghdad, no other hotel is more expensive and exclusive. All of them were wearing T-shirts with what was supposed to be "Human Shields" in Arabic, but they had it all wrong it said "Adra'a Basharia" instead of "Duru'u Basharia" which got them a few giggles and a new name; they are now the "Adra'a" just to show how clueless they are. A lot of funny Arabic these days with all these HS's running around, a van with a foreign number plate standing near the ministry of information has "No War" written all over it in many languages the biggest in Arabic. All over the front of it is says "La Harba" which is wrong and sounds like a night club, my cousin thought that was cute. Anyway, what really got my goat this time was finding out that they get food coupons worth 15,000 dinars per meal, 3 for every day.fifteen thousan.

Do you know how much the monthly food ration for a 4 person family is worth, for a whole month not per meal (real cost, not subsidized) ? 30,000 dinars, if you get someone to buy the bad rice they give you for a decent price. 15,000. What are they eating? A whole lamb every meal? Let's put this within context. Today in the morning Raed, our friend G. and I went for a late big breakfast we had 2 tishreeb bagilas (can't explain that, you have to be an Iraqi to get it otherwise it sounds inedible) and a makhlama (which is an omelet with minced meat), tea, fizzy drinks and argila afterwards (the water-pipe-thingy) all for 4,750 dinars, and we were not going super cheap. A lunch in any above-average restaurant will not be more than 8,000 dinars and that includes everything. 15,000 thousand is a meal in a super expensive restaurant in Arasat Street, in one of those places that really almost have an "only foreigners allowed, no Iraqis welcome unless you are UN staff" sign on it. I will stop calling them tourist when they stop taking all this pampering from the Iraqi government. Did I tell you about the tours? Today was Babylon day. You are really missing it, the cheapest way to do the Iraq trip you have wanted to do but were too scared.

And I have a tip for all freelance journalists who are not getting their Visas. Join your colleagues. It's the best way to get past the visa thing, every third one of these "shields" will be writing an article somewhere. Hurry contact your local "war tourism" travel agent. (http://www.humanshields.org/)

Read more of 'Salam Pax' here (http://www.dear_raed.blogspot.com)

MattJ

[evildave]

Maybe they get the generous food rations because Iraq wants them to cover A LOT of ground.

Normally, it would take five skinny protestors to do the job of one fat blimp of a human shield.