# Human Shield Spends 5 Weeks in Iraq, Learns Nothing. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 3, 2003, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-shield-spends-5-weeks-in-iraq-learns-nothing/166271 "2003-04-03T18:46:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-shield-spends-5-weeks-in-iraq-learns-nothing/166271/1 "2003-04-03T18:46:02Z")
CNN just aired an interview with a human shield who’s just left Iraq. This guy’s a drooling fucktard if I ever saw one. Here’s some of the things he said > [@](#): > > I saw no evidence of Iraq being a dictatorship. Saddam seems to spend his days posing for artists. And when asked if he thought that the Iraqi people would be better off without Saddam he said, emphasizing his words heavily > [@](#): > > No. I do not. WTF??? I don’t think I’ve heard anyone who’s anti-war say anything so stupid! Saddam’s not a dictator? Iraq is better under Saddam than without him? In fact, the human shield seemed to think prison rape in the US was a far more serious crime than any Saddam committed! Tell that to the folks who’ve been tortured and killed by Saddam’s henchmen! Sheesh! It’s one thing to be anti-war, it’s another thing to be a flaming idiot! ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-shield-spends-5-weeks-in-iraq-learns-nothing/166271/2 "2003-04-03T19:01:00Z")
Wasn’t there a story about a man who went over to be a human shield and came back, horrified, at the atrocities over there, and ended up changing his mind about the war? ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-shield-spends-5-weeks-in-iraq-learns-nothing/166271/3 "2003-04-03T19:06:56Z")
Whyever did the person in the OP leave, if the conditions were so good? ---
**Author:** ![Payton\_s\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3da27b/32.png) [@Payton\_s\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Payton_s_Servant)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-shield-spends-5-weeks-in-iraq-learns-nothing/166271/4 "2003-04-03T19:31:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by iampunha \* > \*\*Whyever did the person in the OP leave, if the conditions were so good? \*\* It was time for pie and ice cream. ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-shield-spends-5-weeks-in-iraq-learns-nothing/166271/5 "2003-04-03T19:34:43Z")
**ivylass** , I assume you’re talking about one of [these](http://www.instapundit.com/archives/008384.php) [two](http://www.assyrianchristians.com/i_was_wrong_mar_26_03.htm) people. And as for Iraq “not being a dictatorship”- that’s a new one on me. Although I guess if said dictator is dead\*, you’re technically no longer a dictatorship. \*[sub]my guess is that he is dead but Iraqi scientists are currently busy trying to clone him from the remaining pieces of leftover nose.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-shield-spends-5-weeks-in-iraq-learns-nothing/166271/6 "2003-04-03T19:43:22Z")
I’m in the “This war stinks” camp myself, and I have to agree-- what an idiot. He seemed like an extremely unkind caricature of the Berkley Loony Left, beard-and-all. I’m not sure what makes a better sound-bite, the simple “I don’t know anything about Saddam Hussein,” or his brilliant parry against Wolf’s mention of Ba’ath Party human rights abuses, which was a bit of hysterical raving about the “sexual torture” in “America’s Gulags.” ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-shield-spends-5-weeks-in-iraq-learns-nothing/166271/7 "2003-04-03T19:46:56Z")
If he goes any further left he might turn into Rush Limbaugh. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-shield-spends-5-weeks-in-iraq-learns-nothing/166271/8 "2003-04-03T23:28:10Z")
Link? LinketyMcLink? Oh, wait, here it is. [http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/03/cahill.cnna/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/03/cahill.cnna/index.html) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-shield-spends-5-weeks-in-iraq-learns-nothing/166271/9 "2003-04-03T23:56:28Z")
Do these fuckers ever work? ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-shield-spends-5-weeks-in-iraq-learns-nothing/166271/10 "2003-04-04T00:00:12Z")
Gee, and the antiwar crowd wonder why they aren’t taken seriously. ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-shield-spends-5-weeks-in-iraq-learns-nothing/166271/11 "2003-04-04T00:53:05Z")
You’d think that someone who was in the presence of professional state handlers 24 hours a day would be skeptical of the first hand accounts he receives… ---
**Author:** ![DrLizardo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5fc32e/32.png) [@DrLizardo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrLizardo)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-shield-spends-5-weeks-in-iraq-learns-nothing/166271/12 "2003-04-04T01:48:58Z")
I’m just sorta stunned here… First off, let me say flat out I’m in favor of the war, a not-popular position here. And no, I’m not going to hide behind euphemism and say I ‘support our troops’. I do, but I also think we’re doing the right thing by going over there in the first place. (Note: I will not respond to debate on this topic in this thread. I’m providing my bias/perspective, not seeking to hijack, or ‘prove’ I’m right) Having said that, this is just sad to me. It’s a shame that someone didn’t come out and say “well, I found that a lot of it’s exaggerated. I’m not saying Iraq is the Ritz, but I didn’t see anything as awful as what’s being played out over here in the slightly hysterical media reports – especially on FOX.” THAT, at least, would have been credible. That, at least, would have provided a reasonable counterpoint to the human shields who came out horrified and “converted.” That, at least, I would enjoy slamming on… This, as gobear points out, simply degrades the position of the anti-war group. And while I don’t agree with them, I take no pleasure in seeing someone’s position undercut by sheer boneheaded stupidity rather than by reasoned debate and facts. I certainly don’t feel like this has “proved the point.” It’s rather like winning because the other team’s bus broke down and they defaulted – it’s not what you want to do and you feel kind of ashamed even putting it in your team’s “win” column. This, in fact, just degrades the whole debate. It smacks of idiocy. Unless of course it’s all a subtle conpiracy, and this fellow was put up to it BY the “hawks” knowing it would reflect poorly on the anti-war crowd… Yeah, and the trilateral commission secretly controls the world through the illuminati too (hey fellow travelers, CODE 23…). I think we’re just dealing with a bonehead here and I’m not surprised that pretty much anyone on any side of the debate is dealing with this as a “duh…!” ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-shield-spends-5-weeks-in-iraq-learns-nothing/166271/13 "2003-04-04T02:54:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DrLizardo \* > \*\*I think we’re just dealing with a bonehead here and I’m not surprised that pretty much anyone on any side of the debate is dealing with this as a “duh…!” \*\* It reminds me of Sean Penn going and seeing all the poor children dying in the hospital from the economic embargo. When Frontline/World went there the reporter got a word in with the attending physician and it turns out that none of the children in the ward that was shone to that reporter were actually there due to lack of food/medicine. They all had garden variety illnesses that will fill a hospital ward in any city of millions. The guy sounds so gullible that I wouldn’t be suprised if, next time a comet comes around, he cuts his own balls off and drinks hemlock. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-shield-spends-5-weeks-in-iraq-learns-nothing/166271/14 "2003-04-04T03:22:59Z")
Two things jump out at me: > [@](#): > > I’ve been an activist all my adult life. I’m 66. I’ve been an activist more than 40 years. And the rage in me has been growing all these years and > [@](#): > > I’m president of Stop Prisoner Rape. He seems to be working out some sort of anger from something that hapened to him in the past…but I can’t quite put my finger on it. He is so blind with his rage at his own government that he can’t see the obvious. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-shield-spends-5-weeks-in-iraq-learns-nothing/166271/15 "2003-04-04T03:41:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gobear \* > Gee, and the antiwar crowd wonder why they aren’t taken seriously. That’s not entirely fair, **gobear**. You can’t very well punish the well-read, intelligent members of a particular opinion for what the less-educated, downright stupid people think. Unless you have no use for the baby in that bathwater, in which case I’d be happy to take care of it for you;) ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-shield-spends-5-weeks-in-iraq-learns-nothing/166271/16 "2003-04-04T03:45:06Z")
I find it interesting (not to mention surprising,) that the transcript omits his reference to “American Gulags.” > [@](#): > > As far as human rights are concerned, President Bush has a problem in the United States. I’m president of Stop Prisoner Rape. Look this up on the Internet. Tens of thousands of young Americans are sexually tortured in the American [prison system] every day. Why replace “gulags” with a simple, value-free descriptor like “prison system?” The guy implied that _every_ incarcerated murderer, rapist, burglar, kiddie-diddler, embezzler, mugger, dealer, vandal, etc., in the U.S. [is a _political prisoner_](http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=34923&dict=CALD), and CNN took it upon themselves to provide him with a free editorial service that makes him look marginally less stark-staring-mad. Maybe they felt sorry for him. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-shield-spends-5-weeks-in-iraq-learns-nothing/166271/17 "2003-04-04T03:45:40Z")
> [@](#): > > That’s not entirely fair, gobear. You can’t very well punish the well-read, intelligent members of a particular opinion for what the less-educated, downright stupid people think. True, but my point is that the human shields are the sort of people who the antiwar crowd have let be their public voice. There are a lot of sensible arguments against the war, but all one ever hears is “Bush is a war criminal, " No blood for oil,” or “Iraq is not a dictatorship.” When you let professional crankypants like the antiquated hippie in the linked article set your PR, you have to expect to be treated in like manner. ---
**Author:** ![Enki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5ac83/32.png) [@Enki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enki)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-shield-spends-5-weeks-in-iraq-learns-nothing/166271/18 "2003-04-04T03:59:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mojo \* > \*\*. > \*[sub]my guess is that he is dead but Iraqi scientists are currently busy trying to clone him from the remaining pieces of leftover nose.[/sub] \*\* Sorry, but I think you have Saddam confused with Micheal Jackson. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-shield-spends-5-weeks-in-iraq-learns-nothing/166271/19 "2003-04-04T04:06:14Z")
Just in case anyone thinks I’m being a language-nazi by interpreting his use of “gulag” in the most literal sense, and are inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt, assuming that he merely meant “prison system,” [look this up on the internet:](http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=gulag+cahill+site%3Aspr.org+&btnG=Google+Search) > [@](#): > > “The United States is the biggest gulag, a term used for a Russian political prison, in the world. There are more prisoners per capita than any other nation. We have no statistics of women and children raped in captivity, but we estimate they are much fewer simply because there are far more males locked up,” Cahill said. He knows what the word means. > [@](#): > > **gobear** : When you let professional crankypants like the antiquated hippie in the linked article set your PR, you have to expect to be treated in like manner. Does this mean that you’re “letting” [folks like this](http://www.stormpages.com/den76/wwwboard/152.html) handle _your_ ‘PR?’ An ignorant opinion is an ignorant opinion, regardless of which side of the fence it’s on. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-shield-spends-5-weeks-in-iraq-learns-nothing/166271/20 "2003-04-04T04:46:00Z")
> [@](#): > > That’s not entirely fair, gobear. You can’t very well punish the well-read, intelligent members of a particular opinion for what the less-educated, downright stupid people think. Let me know when he gets interviewed on CNN (although Fox would be more likely) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-shield-spends-5-weeks-in-iraq-learns-nothing/166271.md?page=2)