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A 'first' wave...?
Jan. 22nd, 2003 02:59 pmReuters reported the following yesterday, under the headline Volunteer 'Human Shields' to Head for Iraq:
To tell the truth, these shields make up in guts what they lack in brains.
Primo, you know this group has got to be infiltrated by the "bad guys" (i.e., people working for the U.S.), so even assuming these bozos get to Iraq, you can pretty much rule out their being allowed anywhere near any targets of importance.
Yet if they are not allowed to camp out next to (or on top of) places such as comm bunkers or weapons caches, their value as shields is minimized. So, most certainly, none of this group that is permitted to hang out near important targets will be allowed anywhere near any kind of phone or other communications gear, at least not without close (and armed) supervision.
Segundo - and here some of you will surely start to think my meds have driven me around the bend, but no: it's just that I've hung out too long with Russians - the usefulness of this group (to the Iraqis) can be measured only by the extent of casualties among its members.
If an insufficient number of shields die in the course of a U.S. attack, then (a) that will support the position that a lot of the shields are working for the CIA, et al., using some kind of comm technology the Iraqis could not defeat, which will provide an additional reason for the Iraqis to (b) whack some significant number of them, in a manner consistent with the U.S. attack doctrine, in an attempt to rack up some propaganda points with the world press.
If you don't think the Iraqis'd do that, you haven't been paying attention to events in that part of the world.
Later in the article, we find the following:
Cheers...
LONDON (Reuters) - A first wave of mainly Western volunteers will leave London this weekend on a convoy bound for Iraq to act as "human shields" at key sites and populous areas in case of a U.S.-led war on Baghdad.I find it interesting that in 1991, Iraq retained human shields in Kuwait at the point of a gun; this time, there are some people who feel strongly enough about preserving Baghdad's stellar record on human rights (cough) - or who just plain hate the United States on principle - to place themselves in harm's way in an attempt to prevent the destruction of military targets.
[...The] planned human shield convoys are one of several such efforts around the world to mobilize activists in Iraq as a deterrent against military strikes on Baghdad.
To tell the truth, these shields make up in guts what they lack in brains.
Primo, you know this group has got to be infiltrated by the "bad guys" (i.e., people working for the U.S.), so even assuming these bozos get to Iraq, you can pretty much rule out their being allowed anywhere near any targets of importance.
Yet if they are not allowed to camp out next to (or on top of) places such as comm bunkers or weapons caches, their value as shields is minimized. So, most certainly, none of this group that is permitted to hang out near important targets will be allowed anywhere near any kind of phone or other communications gear, at least not without close (and armed) supervision.
Segundo - and here some of you will surely start to think my meds have driven me around the bend, but no: it's just that I've hung out too long with Russians - the usefulness of this group (to the Iraqis) can be measured only by the extent of casualties among its members.
If an insufficient number of shields die in the course of a U.S. attack, then (a) that will support the position that a lot of the shields are working for the CIA, et al., using some kind of comm technology the Iraqis could not defeat, which will provide an additional reason for the Iraqis to (b) whack some significant number of them, in a manner consistent with the U.S. attack doctrine, in an attempt to rack up some propaganda points with the world press.
If you don't think the Iraqis'd do that, you haven't been paying attention to events in that part of the world.
Later in the article, we find the following:
In Bucharest, more than 100 Romanian diehard communists said Tuesday they would travel by bus to Iraq to act as human shields in case of a U.S. attack.Ah, well... you know what they say about birds of a feather.
Members of the tiny Romanian Workers Party, which took the mantle of ousted dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's defunct Communist party in 1995, said they would set off next month to support "the cause of the people."
Cheers...
