Standoff: Demonstrators and Police Face Off

Saddam Hussein gassed 60,000 people while in power. And you idiots are protesting our government for trying to remove him from power. And the sad part is... you do so in the name of peace! If you truly supported peace efforts, you'd see that the only chance to stop the murder in Iraq is to get Hussein out of power. Look at the big picture and stop crying over innocent people dying that you know nothing about. They want Hussein out of power. They want peace. They want a future for themselves and their children. What do you want? Say "fuck Bush" and all... yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

While you're protesting the war, Saddam Hussein, one of the most evil dictators in the past several hundred years... can watch your demonstration... and smile. Congratulations. You're total assholes.

and your tax dollars paid for the gas, silly amerikan, do your homework.

American tax dollars are also spent on humanitarian aid such as medical and food supplies, economic aid to poor and impoverish countries, and funding of a variety of world environmental issues. The American Tax Payer “supports” a variety of issues that covers the full scope of the political spectrum. Sounds like you too also need to do some more homework.

Amazing how hard you're trying to hide the truth, from a human shield whose eyes were opened in Baghdad. Don't you at least think you should let everyone read this, and judge for themselves? I thought one of the things that you most believed in was the freedom of speech. Then prove it, and leave this post alone.

For the 7th time today:

Originally published in The Sunday Telegraph, a newspaper from Great Britain.


I was a naive fool to be a human shield for Saddam
By Daniel Pepper
(Filed: 23/03/2003)

I wanted to join the human shields in Baghdad because it was direct action which had a chance of bringing the anti-war movement to the forefront of world attention. It was inspiring: the human shield volunteers were making a sacrifice for their political views - much more of a personal investment than going to a demonstration in Washington or London. It was simple - you get on the bus and you represent yourself.

So that is exactly what I did on the morning of Saturday, January 25. I am a 23-year-old Jewish-American photographer living in Islington, north London. I had travelled in the Middle East before: as a student, I went to the Palestinian West Bank during the intifada. I also went to Afghanistan as a photographer for Newsweek.

The human shields appealed to my anti-war stance, but by the time I had left Baghdad five weeks later my views had changed drastically. I wouldn't say that I was exactly pro-war - no, I am ambivalent - but I have a strong desire to see Saddam removed.

We on the bus felt that we were sympathetic to the views of the Iraqi civilians, even though we didn't actually know any. The group was less interested in standing up for their rights than protesting against the US and UK governments.

I was shocked when I first met a pro-war Iraqi in Baghdad - a taxi driver taking me back to my hotel late at night. I explained that I was American and said, as we shields always did, "Bush bad, war bad, Iraq good". He looked at me with an expression of incredulity.

As he realised I was serious, he slowed down and started to speak in broken English about the evils of Saddam's regime. Until then I had only heard the President spoken of with respect, but now this guy was telling me how all of Iraq's oil money went into Saddam's pocket and that if you opposed him politically he would kill your whole family.

It scared the hell out of me. First I was thinking that maybe it was the secret police trying to trick me but later I got the impression that he wanted me to help him escape. I felt so bad. I told him: "Listen, I am just a schmuck from the United States, I am not with the UN, I'm not with the CIA - I just can't help you."

Of course I had read reports that Iraqis hated Saddam Hussein, but this was the real thing. Someone had explained it to me face to face. I told a few journalists who I knew. They said that this sort of thing often happened - spontaneous, emotional, and secretive outbursts imploring visitors to free them from Saddam's tyrannical Iraq.

I became increasingly concerned about the way the Iraqi regime was restricting the movement of the shields, so a few days later I left Baghdad for Jordan by taxi with five others. Once over the border we felt comfortable enough to ask our driver what he felt about the regime and the threat of an aerial bombardment.

"Don't you listen to Powell on Voice of America radio?" he said. "Of course the Americans don't want to bomb civilians. They want to bomb government and Saddam's palaces. We want America to bomb Saddam."

We just sat, listening, our mouths open wide. Jake, one of the others, just kept saying, "Oh my God" as the driver described the horrors of the regime. Jake was so shocked at how naive he had been. We all were. It hadn't occurred to anyone that the Iraqis might actually be pro-war.

The driver's most emphatic statement was: "All Iraqi people want this war." He seemed convinced that civilian casualties would be small; he had such enormous faith in the American war machine to follow through on its promises. Certainly more faith than any of us had.

Perhaps the most crushing thing we learned was that most ordinary Iraqis thought Saddam Hussein had paid us to come to protest in Iraq. Although we explained that this was categorically not the case, I don't think he believed us. Later he asked me: "Really, how much did Saddam pay you to come?"

It hit me on visceral and emotional levels: this was a real portrayal of Iraq life. After the first conversation, I completely rethought my view of the Iraqi situation. My understanding changed on intellectual, emotional, psychological levels. I remembered the experience of seeing Saddam's egomaniacal portraits everywhere for the past two weeks and tried to place myself in the shoes of someone who had been subjected to seeing them every day for the last 20 or so years.

Last Thursday night I went to photograph the anti-war rally in Parliament Square. Thousands of people were shouting "No war" but without thinking about the implications for Iraqis. Some of them were drinking, dancing to Samba music and sparring with the police. It was as if the protesters were talking about a different country where the ruling government is perfectly acceptable. It really upset me.

Anyone with half a brain must see that Saddam has to be taken out. It is extraordinarily ironic that the anti-war protesters are marching to defend a government which stops its people exercising that freedom.

While the hawks and the doves snarl and peck at each other, the fact remains that this war is an act of colossal stupidity. People, get your heads out of the sand and read some history! The US made Saddam. Saddam is not responsible for 9/11, the Saudis are. The US sucks up to the Saudis and coddles Pakistan which not only supported the Taliban, but now gives Osama sanctuary. Make sense to you?

In the end, it is YOU and I and innocent civilians like us in other countries who pay the price for our megalomaniac leaders and their narrow, selfish goals. We're the ones who get blown out of planes and crushed under concrete. WAKE UP and DEMAND accountability. Get your news from sources other than the US media to get a truly balanced perspective. THINK, who gains most from this diversionary tactic of war? Why was it necessary to take such extreme measures NOW? Why did nobody demand a solution to the anthrax deaths when it was found that the source was local? Why did the trail of those mega-financial scandals mysteriously grow cold as it drew closer to certain people at the top? It's idiotic, you know -- the economy is shot, the deficit is immense, our childrens education is being shortchanged because there's no money, and as for retirement -- well, everybody had just better shoot themselves at a certain age. And instead of focusing on the things that truly matter, this government tells us that some bogeyman who is Very Bad to his People has to be taken out right now. To do this, the US has to accomplish the equivalent of detonating a high rise to kill one rat. Surgical Strikes, my eye. That line may satisfy videogamers.

These protesters, whatever the rest of you may think of them, are what make the US a great country, a free and vibrant country, where life need not be lived as though we were black and white pawns with limited moves on a chessboard.

Crazey but true got the point Will spread word Good for u