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2003-01-22 Home Front

Volunteer ’Human Shields’ to Head for Iraq

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Posted by Stalk of Wheat ----------<<<<- 2003-01-22 08:37 am|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| [11134 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Go ahead. Blow the idiots away and raise the average IQ of the West at the same time...

Posted by Ptah 2003-01-22 08:50:38|| 2003-01-22 08:50:38|| Front Page Top

#2 We are on the verge of something big," said volunteer Christiaan Briggs, 26, from New Zealand
uh, yeah, like 500lbs of high explosives packed in a JDAM? Darwin's law in action... a win-win! Take these fools out first

Posted by Frank G 2003-01-22 08:53:14|| 2003-01-22 08:53:14|| Front Page Top

#3 Damn those lefties, they have our number! They know that if they sit on the roof of an Iraqi WMD lab wearing one of their tinfoil hats, our orbital death rays will be neutralized completely. Quickly comrades, we must retune the death ray so that it vaporizes white people too, not just the brown ones!!!

Posted by Bent Pyramid 2003-01-22 08:58:55|| 2003-01-22 08:58:55|| Front Page Top

#4 We need to know some history about Ken Nichols and his game (you know, Paul Harvey's "Rest of the Story"). Then we need to figure out how this travelling road show is going to make it to Baghdad in time across some dangerous country in one piece. There seems to be some missing neuron paths here...

Posted by Alaska Paul 2003-01-22 10:06:27|| 2003-01-22 10:06:27|| Front Page Top

#5 "I am shocked that anyone would want to put themselves in such a situation."

I will be shocked to actually see you chained to a target in Baghdad somewhere. Get some footage because I will definately not believe that you were there. Any bets?

Posted by Rw 2003-01-22 10:27:02|| 2003-01-22 10:27:02|| Front Page Top

#6 It's simple, Paul. They don't want to be there when the bombs are falling. That's why they are driving and not flying in. Bet the bus will be covered with peace signs and flowers and anti-american slogans and stop at every newspaper and tv station enroute.

Posted by Steve 2003-01-22 10:27:04|| 2003-01-22 10:27:04|| Front Page Top

#7 Hehe. Love the tin foil hat comment. Abs of steel videos will be studied to stop conventional weapons...

Posted by flash91 2003-01-22 10:39:46|| 2003-01-22 10:39:46|| Front Page Top

#8 Den Beste points out that it will take a while to drive the 6,000 km or so. It will also require the Turks to allow them to drive to the border, and pass through the border, highly unlikely. Just a publicity stunt. They'll be drinking wine in Sofia and bemoaning the fact that they couldn't actually make it to Iraq.

Posted by Chuck 2003-01-22 11:16:22|| [blog.simmins.org] 2003-01-22 11:16:22|| Front Page Top

#9 I wonder if the Iraq government will allow any shield members to leave the country after the bombs start falling.

Posted by Dan 2003-01-22 12:32:35|| 2003-01-22 12:32:35|| Front Page Top

#10 "The first will travel in a pair of double-decker buses, led by a car with a white peace flag on it."

Wonder what I'm looking for if I'm cruising around in my F-18. They got a "No Bus" zone in Iraq?

Posted by tu3031 2003-01-22 13:29:45|| 2003-01-22 13:29:45|| Front Page Top

#11 Dan, after the bombs start falling there won't be an Iraqi gov't...
OT, but Don's comment yesterday on the possible denial of benefits for the victims (and their families) in yesterday's Kuwait attack was picked up in Joe Katzmans's www.windsofchange.net today, and I sincerely hope these people are taken care of to the best of our ability...

Posted by Frank G 2003-01-22 13:37:57|| 2003-01-22 13:37:57|| Front Page Top

#12 >> Den Beste points out that it will take a while to drive the 6,000 km or so. It will also require the Turks to allow them to drive to the border, and pass through the border, highly unlikely. Just a publicity stunt. They'll be drinking wine in Sofia and bemoaning the fact that they couldn't actually make it to Iraq.<<

And good luck to them if they try to make it with any of those beauties spotted disporting themselves with U.S. Marines as recorded photographically on your blog, Chuck. Somehow, from all the reports I've heard and read, I think the probability of anti-Americans receiving a warm welcome in Bulgaria is somewhere between the chances of the Rev. Al winning the Dem nomination and Scott Ritter getting everyone to forget about his underage sex arrests. I am skeptical if those numbnuts will even be able to get Sofia bartenders to serve them decent wine if they should reveal their political leanings.

Posted by Joe 2003-01-22 17:44:29|| 2003-01-22 17:44:29|| Front Page Top

#13 No doubt it will come as a bit of a shock all around to discover that there are a certain number of true-blue, down-home Yankees who are actually willing to die unarmed on the Iraqi side, in order to make the point that many Americans really don't want a world full of crusades, jihad, religious warfare, or clash of civilizations. 4GW, anyone? It's an interlocked, interlaced world these days, not a single Russian Front or Maginot Line! There are all sorts of ways to defend the American Homeland, and as far as I'm concerned, this is one of them.

Posted by A Four Freedoms Fan 2003-01-22 20:19:30|| [www.libertynet.org/~edcivic/fdr.html] 2003-01-22 20:19:30|| Front Page Top

#14 Four Freedoms Fan-
Ken Nichols, the guy who organized this thing, renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1999. He has written an article today in 'The Guardian', where he says, among other things, that the worst decision he ever made in his life was to join the U.S. Marines. Hardly a "true-blue, down-home Yankee". Get educated before you speak out.

Posted by Charlotte 2003-01-22 22:12:05|| 2003-01-22 22:12:05|| Front Page Top

#15 FFF--Better hurry up pal...the Ken Kesey peace bus is leaving! But before you go, make sure to stock up on plenty of Depends undergarments.
And do you mind if we shag your hairy-legged dog faced girlfriend while you're gone? Thought not.

Posted by JDB 2003-01-22 22:23:51|| 2003-01-22 22:23:51|| Front Page Top

#16 4GW, anyone?

Posted by Fred 2003-01-22 22:58:16|| 2003-01-22 22:58:16|| Front Page Top

#17 I read the 4GW article, and I've also read Bevin Alexander's "How Wars are Won" which covers the same ground. The Al Queda writer misses a very massive point, though he actually raises it: 4GW warfare, to be successful, absolutely depends on the ability for terrorists to "swim among the fishes."

All soldiers, including terrorists, depend on support. Successful 4GW depends on the support of the populace. The terrorist must be able to rely on the local population to keep him safe. Trying to set up an "us" vs. "them" scenario, as in Algeria where the French colonialists were the "them" won't work in the U.S.

It's real hard to do that when you're a foreigner. And you can make it even harder by doing the most obvious of things: deny immigration from nations that are terrorism's centers. We're going this way ever more strongly, and if there is ever another attack on the U.S., expect even more forceful action in the immigration area. Frankly, if I was in charge (ha,ha) there would be an outright ban right now on nationals from the usual suspect nations. And yeah, I'd be deporting a lot of people as well.
Sept. 11 was a sucker punch. If we deal with the immigration situation correctly, they don't get another crack at us like that.

Part 2 of dealing with 4GW is taking the war directly to the nations that support terrorism. We did this in Afghanistan, which from a purely anti-terrorism standpoint, was a huge success. We will do this next week in Iraq. Terrorists MUST have safe havens and training grounds to be effective. Once we are in Iraq, the pressures on Syrian, Iran, and Saudi Arabia to clamp down on these combatants will escalate exponentially.

Eventually, the terrorists run out of people trained in Afghanistan. They will have to set up training camps somewhere else, sooner of later, if they expect to do anything of consequence.

Post-9/11 we aren't going to allow this. The first small action was the Yemen Hellfire case. Alexander argues that the way to deal with terrorists in the offensive phase is to use small units to annhilate training grounds. We've already got the forces to do this. Again, watch Iraq. After that's over, and frankly even now, what nation in their right mind is going to permit terrorist training camps on their soil if they KNOW we're going to punish them severely and destroy the camps to boot.

Terrorists also depend on financial support, contrary to what the writer in Fred's link implies. You cut that off (like by scaring the living shit out of the Saudis) and there is no way to buy the weapons that are truly frightening.

I keep coming back to Iraq, because it is the key. Terrorists can truly do us serious harm only if they get WMDs. By cutting off what would have been their major source of WMDs they become little more than nuisances. Eventually, we will have to deal with NKorea for the very same reason: to keep the damage potential of these nutbags as low as possible.

These terrorist numbnuts really and truly no NOTHING about American history which is a very good thing. They both fear us and underestimate us, just as many other enemies have done.

They know nothing about the fact that we have ALWAYS adapted faster than anyone else to the new realities of warfare. They, on the other hand, are totally unoriginal and have very little capacity to think outside the box. It's not in the nature of their culture or their religion or their education. There is nothing original about terrorism, suiciders, or zealots.

On the other hand, the willingness to try new ideas is a fundamental feature in the American character. It's in our bones to try out something, and if don't work, try something else.

Bush was right: it'll take decades to eliminate terrorism and war alone won't do it. But these guys fight a hopeless battle that is based entirely on a negative: revenge for alleged "humiliations." We will fight for entirely different, positive reasons: freedom and survival.

There is no way we lose this war. Zero.

Posted by R. McLeod 2003-01-23 04:42:13|| 2003-01-23 04:42:13|| Front Page Top

04:42 R. McLeod
03:09 Paul
22:58 Fred
22:46 Fred
22:40 Fred
22:25 Alaska Paul
22:23 JDB
22:21 Alaska Paul
22:12 Charlotte
22:11 JDB
22:11 Steve White
22:06 Steve White
21:58 parallel
21:57 TJ Jackson
21:55 Steve White
21:53 TJ Jackson
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21:39 Mike
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20:30 Denny
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20:19 A Four Freedoms Fan
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