[Vision2020] Anti-War Protestors: "I Was A Fool For Being A Human Shield"

[John Harrell]

I Was A Naive Fool For Being A Human Shield For Saddam

The Sunday Telegraph, UK
March 23, 2003
Daniel Pepper


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. 


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