Interesting Article

**The Wastrel** · Posted On: 3/16/2003 12:44pm

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/15/opinion/15EWAL.html

Get Out of the Way
By THOMAS H. B. EWALD

alling themselves "human shields," groups of Westerners, including some Americans, are volunteering to encamp at potential bombing targets throughout Iraq in what they say is an effort to protect the people of Iraq if there is a war. What they're really doing is putting themselves and others in danger for a dubious cause.

During the Persian Gulf war, I too was a human shield — though not by choice. I was held hostage by the Iraqi secret police at a possible military target near Baghdad, and the point wasn't to protect Iraqis, but the Iraqi war machine.

So I find it difficult to understand why people would volunteer to put themselves in such a position. Instead of stopping the war, they're running the risk of prolonging it and the agony of the people living under Saddam Hussein, as well as increasing the risk to the allied armed forces.

Thirteen years ago, on July 31, 1990, I arrived in Kuwait to work for a bank; two days later, the country was invaded by Saddam Hussein. Three weeks later, the Iraqi government announced that all Americans and Britons trapped in Kuwait were to be rounded up and taken to Baghdad. Those who failed to report would be hunted down by special Republican Guard units. Those who were caught harboring fugitives were to be immediately executed along with all members of their household.

I had been in Kuwait so briefly that I had no friends in the city, yet within an hour of the Iraqi announcement, the phone in my hotel room rang three times: one call came from a Kuwaiti, one from an Egyptian, and one from a Lebanese-American, each one a work acquaintance offering his home as a haven.

For the next two weeks I moved from house to house in an effort to remain out of the hands of Saddam Hussein's agents. Eventually, I was captured and threatened with execution unless I revealed where the other Americans were hiding and who had been protecting me. I insisted I didn't know and was was ultimately taken to a factory outside Baghdad, where I was used as a human shield.

There, because of the kindness of the Iraqis who were in charge of me, I was well treated and ultimately released. But my experience was far better than most. I know of one American who was shot by the Iraqis as he tried to escape; another, a colleague, died in captivity. Several others I knew nearly died of malnutrition and disease, and to this day suffer the effects of their imprisonment.

From the moment of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2 until my release a month and a half later, I saw what it was like to live under Saddam Hussein's rule. It was terrible. When a society suffers a loss of civil order, which is what happens in any invasion, little is stable, and the weak are especially vulnerable. But what the Iraqi Army and secret police did was more than violent; it was cruel. On the second day of the invasion, I saw a woman minutes after she had been raped by a member of the Republican Guard. I saw stores and homes robbed. I saw Iraqi tanks shooting at civilians fleeing the country in a small motorboat, and anti-aircraft cannons firing into a residential neighborhood.

In all of these acts of violence, there was one malevolent constant: those who opposed Saddam Hussein could expect torture and execution. Still, I was aided by numerous Arabs who were willing to risk their lives. I am deeply grateful to them. "Human shields" say they are risking their lives to help the people of Iraq — but their actions can accomplish only the opposite.

Thomas H.B. Ewald, a money manager in New York, was deputy head of international lending at Al Ahli, a bank in Kuwait City.

**The most miraculous power that can verifiably be attributed to "chi" is its ability to be all things to virtually all people, depending on what version of the superstition they are attempting to defend at any given moment.**

**Deadpan Scientist** · Posted On: 3/16/2003 1:43pm

Wastrel, didn't you get the memo that the iraqi's are nice guys, fair to women, and peaceful. It's Bush that's the evil, war-mongering oil seeker here...

**deus ex machina** · Posted On: 3/16/2003 3:04pm

Okay, enough of your "propaganda" Wastrel.

~
daniel

**Shura** · Posted On: 3/16/2003 3:11pm

I just can't stand the mentality of volunterr human sheilds. They must be truly fucked up in the head. Then again, if they are willing to die for Saddam, I guess they asked for it.

There's something inside me that pulls beneath the surface, consuming...

**The Wastrel** · Posted On: 3/16/2003 3:26pm

Hey deus! I oppose a unilateral invasion of Iraq on pragmatic grounds. I just thought it was interesting to hear someone's first-person account of a very strange experience.

**The most miraculous power that can verifiably be attributed to "chi" is its ability to be all things to virtually all people, depending on what version of the superstition they are attempting to defend at any given moment.**

**Deadpan Scientist** · Posted On: 3/16/2003 4:12pm

Is it really unilateral if there are 90 countries supporting the us's plan?

**deus ex machina** · Posted On: 3/16/2003 5:13pm

I SAID, enough of your "propaganda" Wastrel!

~
daniel

**The Wastrel** · Posted On: 3/16/2003 6:06pm

Roger. Brand, it's unilateral if the ones that matter don't. (Except Britain, which most certainly does matter.)

**The most miraculous power that can verifiably be attributed to "chi" is its ability to be all things to virtually all people, depending on what version of the superstition they are attempting to defend at any given moment.**

**Deadpan Scientist** · Posted On: 3/16/2003 6:30pm

err,

Main Entry: uni·lat·er·al
Pronunciation: "yü-ni-'la-t&-r&l, -'la-tr&l
Function: adjective
Date: 1802
1 a : done or undertaken by one person or party
b : of, relating to, or affecting one side of a subject : ONE-SIDED
c : constituting or relating to a contract or engagement by which an express obligation to do or forbear is imposed on only one party
2 a : having parts arranged on one side &lt;a unilateral raceme&gt;
b : occurring on, performed on, or affecting one side of the body or one of its parts &lt;unilateral exophthalmos&gt;

Unilateral is the wrong word. I realize it's not well supported by the UN, but 90 smaller countries have to count for something.

**The Wastrel** · Posted On: 3/16/2003 6:55pm

Brandeis,
Unilateral as an institutional distinction. It isn't multilateral just because a number of countries mouth support for it. It's unilateral if you manage to get commitments for the war chest (Japan funded like 70% of the first Gulf War), of troops, long-term administration etc. Whether or not Spain and Portugal can actually pony up with any kind of significant support really does matter. UK support will only go as far as Tony Blair's remaining political career. (Do you smell vote of confidence SamHarber? When's the next mandatory election?)
Anyway, I wasn't characterizing an operation with combined UK/Spanish/Portugese support as unilateral, but we'll see whether or not that's how it turns out. When I say I oppose a unilateral invasion, that's what I oppose. Do you see what I mean?
Please do me the honor of assuming that if I say unilateral, I know what I'm talking about and that I don't need you to post a definition for me.

**The most miraculous power that can verifiably be attributed to "chi" is its ability to be all things to virtually all people, depending on what version of the superstition they are attempting to defend at any given moment.**