Attack Of The 50-foot Verbose Mutant Killer Fountain Pens From Mars, page 109 by Mark Cantrell
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hing more."
Bold words, but with the US and the UK still mobilising for war - with the threats of action with or without the UN - Karl Dallas stands in the middle, along with thousands of others, between peace and war, life and death. They, like the civilian population of Iraq, are caught between a rock and a hard place.
Human Shield became a notorious phrase during the first Gulf War, when Westerners were used by Saddam Hussain as hostages, secured in strategic places. That was then, this is now, and the phrase has been co-opted by campaigners thoroughly opposed to war.
Think of the Human Shields as a civilian occupation force, there to try and force peace - not with force of arms, but by the very presence of their bodies and their diversity.
"More and more people are arriving every day and we are virtually taking over the city, organising demonstrations, public music performances all the time. It's like a city-wide festival," Karl has said, in an email sent from the Human Shield offices in Baghdad.
"We invaded the Baghdad press centre in protest at a New York Times story that said Iraqi people would welcome war. If that's so they're not talking to the same people I do. We went on the roof and had a Beatles-style rooftop concert, singing Give Peace A Chance. After that we met a crowd of Iraqi guys in a local park and made a circle singing to each other. After we left to find something to eat, they were still chanting No, No, Not In My Name!"
For all the dangers, he is clearly enjoying himself, though he has encountered reminders of the harsh realities that face Iraq. He has visited the graveyard of Iraqi tanks smashed by depleted uranium shells and he has also visited the 'graveyards' of collateral damage.
"We went to the Al-Ameria shelter, where 408 people were killed in a direct hit in February 1991," he said. "Shadows were burnt on the ground and walls just like Hiroshima."
The Human Shield organisation is the brainchild of Ken O'Keefe. He is a former US