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To: Israel who wrote (9592)3/24/2003 10:05:39 PM
From: Victor Lazlo  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 10157
 
<<And so were the Russians for decades.. and what purpose did that serve?? >>

The russians (correction: Soviets)were in afghanistan for decades? What decades?



To: Israel who wrote (9592)3/24/2003 11:10:40 PM
From: Victor Lazlo  Respond to of 10157
 
I was a naive fool to be a human shield for Saddam
By Daniel Pepper
(Filed: 23/03/2003)
...
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?"
...

opinion.telegraph.co.uk.