Human Shields

Babes in Saddamland
Human shields, a German beauty queen and Gustavo the search-and-rescue dog have all converged on Iraq. For peace activists worldwide, all roads now lead to Baghdad

By Melinda Liu
NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE


    Feb. 28 ;  Looking out from the top of a red double-decker bus careening through Baghdad, American antiwar activist Ken O;Keefe sees the whole world as on his side. ;How can The New York Times say Iraqis are hoping for war; asks the California-born veteran of the Persian Gulf War, busily videotaping himself with a minicam, ;How do you explain all those Iraqis waving and clapping out there?;
ON THE STREET, local Iraqis seemed at first startled, then bemused, at the bizarre convoy snaking through their suburbs. Led by buses festooned with peace slogans, Beatles pictures and a panoply of mostly European antiwar activists, the convoy was headed to a power station, where some ;human shields; would hunker down to try to thwart possible U.S. bombing. As someone strummed a guitar, a long-haired Turkish hippie, dressed in a patchwork jacket embroidered with tiny mirrors, flashed peace signs out the front window of the bus in between tokes on a marijuana cigarette.
        More than 200 international human shields, including at least a handful of Americans, have arrived in Baghdad to protest against a U.S.-led war. Many traveled some 3,000 miles on the two double-decker buses through continental Europe, Turkey and Syria. They say they;ll attach themselves to power facilities, water treatment plants, bridges, hospitals and other installations crucial to civilian life. O;Keefe, the founder of www.humanshields.org, last set foot in Iraq as part of a U.S. Marine unit charged with securing a major highway between Kuwait and Iraq during the gulf war. Now O;Keefe, who has a teardrop tattooed under his left eye;to represent the suffering in the world;lives in Hawaii rescuing marine turtles. ;I don;t let fear dictate my life; he says, ;I;m more fearful riding a big wave in Hawaii than I was in combat;
As far as I am concerned if these people want to put themselves in harms way it is their choice. IMO if military action is occurs no special precautions should be taken because of there presence. What is your opinion?

http://www.msnbc.com/news/878871.asp?0cv=KB20