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Friday, March 21, 2003 Page: 7A
I read recently that some of the so-called “human shields” have decided
to leave Iraq. Some cited safety concerns. Is it just me or did these people
not fully grasp the idea of what a shield is?
A shield is used to deflect your enemy’s weapons away from you. The shield
absorbs the blow of the weapon so you don’t have to. Shields are for
protection, not deterrence. It is doubtful that any attacker ever ran away
upon seeing that his target was holding a flat piece of wood in front of them.
And as for using a human as a shield, that might work when matched against a
knife, fist or even a hollow-point bullet. But when a bomb or cruise missile
comes knocking on your door, I would want something stronger than soft flesh
between my enemy and me.
In the past Iraq has intentionally placed civilians at weapon-storage and
weapon-production sites. The purpose is one of propaganda. Saddam puts these
people in front of legitimate military targets. So rather than “human
shields” these people are really “bomb catchers” (I guess that name might
have hurt recruiting efforts). Their sole purpose is to provide corpses for
the television cameras after a bombing attack. Then Iraq can try to get public
sympathy by showing how America kills innocent civilians (who just happened to
be sleeping ~at a chemical weapons storage facility).
If these Ameri~can and British bomb catchers did not realize that was why
they were in Iraq, then we need to come up with a word far stronger than
ignorant to describe them (I can think of a few but none for print). Some left
because Iraq wouldn’t let them pick the sites where they could bomb-catch.
They wanted to go to hospitals but hospitals already have people/potential
corpses in them.
~Evidently, in addition to being ignorant, bomb catchers are also arrogant.
They honestly believe that the U.S. would have no problem with intentionally
blowing up a hospital full of Iraqis, but the U.S. would totally call off all
war plans in order to ensure the safety of an American or Brit aiding the
enemy.
Hopefully the activists that remain in Iraq realize that bomb catching is
indeed dangerous, and if they die, they will do so as fools, not martyrs.
Rich Van Saders
Clarks Summit