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Recriminations of a human shield in iraq about war

I found a rather striking commentary about a war protester who did what a lot of us did not: a trip to Baghdad to be a human shield and who was shocked at his experience....
I found a rather striking commentary about a war protester who did what a lot of us did not: a trip to Baghdad to be a human shield and who was shocked at his experience....

I was one of the 12,000 people protesting in Chicago last thursday against the war, specifically for my views, the failure of diplomacy and tact and sheer arrogance that our government exhibited in dealing with other nations about Iraq. Luckily, I was at the very front of the march and managed to escape getting arrested at the Drake by running past the cops before they sealed everyoen off and acting like a confused tourist. Once there, I was arguing with some insensitive jerks about him wanting me to leave America, but thats besides the point.

I like living in Chicago. I'm a DePaul student. I know that Saddam is a very bad man. I dont want anyone to die. I had the desire to join the masses in the protest and did so without getting my ass beaten by the vicious CPD. I was reading news blips from my RSS aggregator (Net News Wire -- for Mac OS X) when I stumbled on a British man of Jewish-American descent who was so moved by the impending doom of Iraqi innocents that he went to Baghdad to be a human shield.

Yes, I'm not making this up. Click the portal link to read his account. I'm also not making up the fact that this is a Jewish man in a fear-crazed Arab country that most likely will kill a Jew on sight.

That man has a lot more courage than all of us. Are any of us that moved to go to Iraq and experience any of this first hand? We might be able to stop traffic on LSD for a day and protest that way, but we all live comfortable lives in Chicago. Most of us are college kids, although at the big march, I noticed people of varied ages as well.

This whole topic is really complex. Here are my rants and feelings:

I dont want anyone to die.
I am royally angry at our government for bullheadedly picking a fight with another country.
Saddam did not attack us.
He better not have supplied money or help to any terrorist group. Whatever happened to Osama Bin Laden?
I dislike the corporate media for sitting on its ass this whole time, then enthusiatically drumming up the conflict for "ratings"....
I also have 2 cousins in tanks in Iraq right now.
I hope they get out of this mess alive.
It seems like we underestimated how determined the Iraqi thugs are to protect their thuggery.
Yeah, shock and awe, and they'll meekly roll right over and roll out a red carpet right to Saddam's gilded doorstep.
What does the Iraqi common person think about this?
Our country better not get into another vietnam type situation where we are there for years and years and nothing happens.
Our economy stinks, Shrub's squandering a surplus with tax cuts for the rich, and he hits congress with a $75 billion dollar tab?
Shrub's friend Tom Hicks owns a little chain of radio stations called Crap Channel that supported the pro war rallies.... HMM.... Hicks made Shrub reallly rich due to the purchase of the Texas Rangers. Backscratching anyone?
Iraq first, then Iran, then North Korea? Iran ( to my limited knowledge ) hasnt done squat since Khomeini died.
North Korea is brazenly trying to piss off China, the US, South Korea, and Japan.
How many Pacific Island "countries" are in the coalition of the willing?
It sucks that we are dogs that the Saudis can jerk around (they have so much oil that they can raise or drop the price to teach us lessons)
I read that in the Wall Street Journal last week.'
I want this all to end soon.
Saddam really is a bad man.
This isnt my real name, I'm not a stooge or troll or an astroturfer, I'm not trying to pitch a blog, I'm just trying to make some sense out of our senseless times. My quest for knowledge and understanding is something that the Tribune Corporation (Tribune) or Conrad Black's Scandal-Times (Sun Times) will not do.
 
 

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