March 8, 2003

On the eve of the 1991 Persian Gulf war, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
outraged the world by holding expatriates from other countries against their
will as human shields. He released them before bombs started to drop.

This time around, the human shields came willingly to Iraq. Peace activists
had hoped to attract thousands to their movement. Said one of the
organizers, Liev Aleo, on a movement Web page: "Stopping the war with our
presence is almost 100 percent assured."

Not exactly. The thousands never showed up. A couple hundred did arrive in
February, eager to keep bombs from falling on innocent Iraqis. They were
Algerians, Americans, Brits, Finns, French, Norwegians, Russians, South
Africans--a veritable United Nations of the peaceful.

At first, it all went fairly well. Iraq put them up in hotels in Baghdad and
provided telephone lines and Internet access. The human shields had it all
planned out. They would protect hospitals and schools, maybe help treat the
wounded.

Saddam had other ideas. Operating under the quite rational theory that U.S.
military planners most likely won't be aiming their bombs at schools and
hospitals, the Iraqis ordered the human shields to head to potential
strategic targets--oil refineries, power plants and the like. Protect them,
please, said the government.

"Now we are being told we cannot go to certain sites, such as hospitals,"
said one of the annoyed organizers. When ordered to go to power plants and
refineries, some of the shields more or less said: Are you nuts? We could
get killed!

Shocked to discover that (a) they couldn't do as they wished in this police
state, and (b) this could get really dangerous, many of the shields have
wisely taken a powder. (No, not anthrax.)

An American organizer, Kenneth O'Keefe, said he wasn't concerned that some
might see the shield movement as supporting Saddam rather than the Iraqi
people. "You cannot separate the two," he said. With that much, Saddam would
certainly agree. At least for now.


Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune




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