From: "Anthony Crifasi" <crifasi-AT-hotmail.com>
Subject: RE: doing a chomsky
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 00:27:12 +0000


Dragon wrote:

> > Take it from a former human shield who
> > returned from
> > Iraq with a quite different view, a view so changed by what he
> > saw (and he
> > was THERE, whereas you were not) that he was driven to write the
> > following
> > article titled simply and honestly, "I was wrong." It is here:
> >
> > http://www.assyrianchristians.com/i_was_wrong_mar_26_03.htm
> >
> > Anthony Crifasi
>
>Who, apart from Anthony Crifasi, can be fooled by such crass propaganda?
>
>Extract: 'Over and over I questioned them `Why could you want war? Why 
>could
>any human being desire war?` They're [sic] answer was quiet and measured.
>`Look at our lives!`We are living like animals. No food, no car, no
>telephone, no job and most of all no hope'.'
>
>'No food, no car ...'   No food, no CAR?? Well that rings natural and true,
>doesn't it.
>
>Certainly not American, no siree.
>
>The rest is just as ridiculous. This is great: 'We cannot wait anymore. We
>want the war and we want it now.' Is Ali Ismail Abbas joining in?

I'm sorry that this did not satisfy your obviously high standards. Perhaps 
this one by yet another former human shield:

I was a naive fool to be a human shield for Saddam
By Daniel Pepper
telegraph.co.uk
(Filed: 23/03/2003)

I wanted to join the human shields in Baghdad because it was direct action 
which had a chance of bringing the anti-war movement to the forefront of 
world attention. It was inspiring: the human shield volunteers were making a 
sacrifice for their political views - much more of a personal investment 
than going to a demonstration in Washington or London. It was simple - you 
get on the bus and you represent yourself.

So that is exactly what I did on the morning of Saturday, January 25. I am a 
23-year-old Jewish-American photographer living in Islington, north London. 
I had travelled in the Middle East before: as a student, I went to the 
Palestinian West Bank during the intifada. I also went to Afghanistan as a 
photographer for Newsweek.

The human shields appealed to my anti-war stance, but by the time I had left 
Baghdad five weeks later my views had changed drastically. I wouldn’t say 
that I was exactly pro-war - no, I am ambivalent - but I have a strong 
desire to see Saddam removed.

We on the bus felt that we were sympathetic to the views of the Iraqi 
civilians, even though we didn’t actually know any. The group was less 
interested in standing up for their rights than protesting against the US 
and UK governments.

I was shocked when I first met a pro-war Iraqi in Baghdad - a taxi driver 
taking me back to my hotel late at night. I explained that I was American 
and said, as we shields always did, "Bush bad, war bad, Iraq good". He 
looked at me with an expression of incredulity.
As he realised I was serious, he slowed down and started to speak in broken 
English about the evils of Saddam’s regime. Until then I had only heard the 
President spoken of with respect, but now this guy was telling me how all of 
Iraq’s oil money went into Saddam’s pocket and that if you opposed him 
politically he would kill your whole family.

It scared the hell out of me. First I was thinking that maybe it was the 
secret police trying to trick me but later I got the impression that he 
wanted me to help him escape. I felt so bad. I told him: "Listen, I am just 
a schmuck from the United States, I am not with the UN, I’m not with the CIA 
- I just can’t help you."

Of course I had read reports that Iraqis hated Saddam Hussein, but this was 
the real thing. Someone had explained it to me face to face. I told a few 
journalists who I knew. They said that this sort of thing often happened - 
spontaneous, emotional, and secretive outbursts imploring visitors to free 
them from Saddam’s tyrannical Iraq.

I became increasingly concerned about the way the Iraqi regime was 
restricting the movement of the shields, so a few days later I left Baghdad 
for Jordan by taxi with five others. Once over the border we felt 
comfortable enough to ask our driver what he felt about the regime and the 
threat of an aerial bombardment.

"Don’t you listen to Powell on Voice of America radio?" he said. "Of course 
the Americans don’t want to bomb civilians. They want to bomb government and 
Saddam’s palaces. We want America to bomb Saddam."

We just sat, listening, our mouths open wide. Jake, one of the others, just 
kept saying, "Oh my God" as the driver described the horrors of the regime. 
Jake was so shocked at how naive he had been. We all were. It hadn’t 
occurred to anyone that the Iraqis might actually be pro-war.

The driver’s most emphatic statement was: "All Iraqi people want this war." 
He seemed convinced that civilian casualties would be small; he had such 
enormous faith in the American war machine to follow through on its 
promises. Certainly more faith than any of us had.
Perhaps the most crushing thing we learned was that most ordinary Iraqis 
thought Saddam Hussein had paid us to come to protest in Iraq.  Although we 
explained that this was categorically not the case, I don’t think he 
believed us. Later he asked me: "Really, how much did Saddam pay you to 
come?"

It hit me on visceral and emotional levels: this was a real portrayal of 
Iraq life. After the first conversation, I completely rethought my view of 
the Iraqi situation. My understanding changed on intellectual, emotional, 
psychological levels. I remembered the experience of seeing Saddam’s 
egomaniacal portraits everywhere for the past two weeks and tried to place 
myself in the shoes of someone who had been subjected to seeing them every 
day for the last 20 or so years.

Last Thursday night I went to photograph the anti-war rally in Parliament 
Square. Thousands of people were shouting "No war" but without thinking 
about the implications for Iraqis. Some of them were drinking, dancing to 
Samba music and sparring with the police. It was as if the protesters were 
talking about a different country where the ruling government is perfectly 
acceptable. It really upset me.

Anyone with half a brain must see that Saddam has to be taken out. It is 
extraordinarily ironic that the anti-war protesters are marching to defend a 
government which stops its people exercising that freedom.

===========================Is that better, Dragon?

Anthony Crifasi

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