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| Shields down to 20% | |
Western peace-mongers who
went to Iraq to risk their
lives for the name of peace in the coming war have had a change of heart,
and 80% are on their way home. The 200 Human shields in Iraq were summoned to a meeting on Saturday. The
head of the Friendship, Peace and Solidarity organization, which is hosting the
Human Shields instructed them to choose between nine "strategic sites" by
Sunday or leave Iraq. Obviously these people expected that free choice played a
greater role in Iraqi life. Apparently they had expected to be able to shield
'humanitarian' sites like hospitals - ie the kind of sites that they know the
highly accurate US smart bombs will not target. Of course the peace-mongers claim that millions of innocent Iraqi babies
will die in a US attack - ie that the bombs will drop everywhere. If that were
the case, then hospitals wouldn't be any safer than oil refineries, power plants andx
water-purification sites But now, when instructed to shield strategic sites only, the
peace-mongers are fleeing for their lives. In fairness, there are other reasons why some of them may have decided to
return home. Many of them are apparently out of money (it seems that the dole
checks stop when you become a human shield), and expecting to do something
complex like counting their money before they go is unrealistic. The other reason that many Human Shields may have lost heart is the Iraqis
themselves. Even the most strident war opponent would agree there are some
Iraqis who want the war - who think they can gain from the regime change and
the lifting of sanctions. The booming Baghdad
property prices themselves are strong evidence of this. These people have
no love for the West,
or Westerners - especially the whining peace protesters who are slowing the war
momentum. It would be no surprise to see an overzealous Iraqi taking matters into his
own hands to re-lubricate the war machine, by slotting one of the Western human
shields. So for the peace-mongers, it's back to their safe Western nations - to
collect their pensions and their dole checks; back to their
guaranteed democratic rights, civil liberties and
police protection, so they can ready themselves for the next protest to
criticize the very system which provides them those protections. What better way to show contempt for dogs of war than biting the hand that
feeds them?
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