This Year’s Darwin Award Winners

“‘Human shields’ limp into Baghdad.” Two busloads of would-be “human shields” arrived in Baghdad yesterday after departing London on January 25. You can’t make this stuff up:
“Ken O’Keefe, their informal leader and a former American Marine, burned his U.S. passport and designed himself new travel documents proclaiming him a ‘Citizen of the World.’ As a result, he was detained in three countries.
“Mr. O’Keefe has yet to arrive in Baghdad, and Mr. Joffe-Walt last heard of him in Syria. ”
“Mr. Vandyke, 38, served in the Royal Navy for eight years and believes there is no terrorist threat to Britain. Prime Minister Tony Blair was ‘deliberately terrorizing his own people,’ he said.” I guess they missed the ricin story.
“Among the British contingent are a married couple, Helen and Kevin Williams, 34-year-old vegans from Newport, south Wales who kept strictly to their diet throughout the bus journey. ‘It was very important to us,’ said Mrs. Williams, who wore a T-shirt reading, ‘Animal Killers, close them down.'”
“Saddam Hussein’s regime, which normally admits Westerners with great reluctance and treats them with deep suspicion, has granted the human shields three-month visas and given them freedom to go where they wish.” Which, of course, distinguishes them from Iraqi citizens.
Being a human shield isn’t what it used to be. These “shields” are secure in the confidence that the United States will not bomb the civilian areas they intend to inhabit. If they really wanted to demonstrate solidarity with Saddam, they could station themselves among his soldiers. But they won’t do that, and most if not all of them will no doubt limp back out of Iraq before long.