Will 1000 American ‘human shields’ stop another criminal war?

DAMASCUS — A sort of roller coaster atmosphere
pervades Damascus these days with “good” and “bad”
news rising and falling, often by the quarter hour.
Much of the population is monitoring closely the
news and quickly expressing their interpretations of
the latest media reports and rumors as well as
predicting the fairly precise timing of the now
assumed American attack on their country.
In the very popular and normally crowded Abaa
Coffee House on the edge of the old city, in what is
called the Sarugha section, students and others enjoy
the fine cool mist, as Damascenes have done for
years, that is sprayed from ceiling pipes to provide
welcome relief from the 37 degree Celsius (98 degrees
F) outside temperatures. Many are clued to their
laptops and/or in animated conversation analyzing
the likely extent and timing of the soon believed to be
arriving American missiles.
This observer often meets interlocutors in the Abaa
because it’s very pleasant, large with dozens of
tables, cheap and two blocks from my hotel. I have
noticed that common greetings are changing from
“kif hallack” (how are you?) and “Arak
lahekan” (see you later) to “Get home safely” and
“Good luck with the checkpoints.”
But there is also a distinct growing esprit de corps
and a broad coming together of much of the
population here as the countdown to the American
attack on Syria begins. An evident rallying around
the Assad regime, which one presumes is the opposite
of what the White House was hoping would result
from its threats.
A good friend from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent
Society (SARCS), a humanitarian organization doing
amazing rescue and medical services for Syrians and
Palestinians during this expanding crisis, described
one way that her friends are preparing for the
American attack. “We gathered our important
documents, birth, marriage certificate and passport
and made photo copies. Then we leave them with
friends in ‘safe’ areas or even bury them somewhere.
No one knows how bad the Americans will bomb us.
At work we have been told during our final practice
drill last Saturday that the next siren will be the ‘real
thing’ and we will do as we have planned for.”
She added, “Many of my friends and family are
leaving but it’s not easy and is very expensive now to
go to Lebanon and they don’t want us—and my
family has decided to stay in our home no matter
what happens in the coming days.”
One common topic being discussed is the reluctance
of the American public to attack Syria and how
Obama can ignore it. “What kind of Democracy do
you have that your President can ignore the will of
the American public?” this observer is frequently
asked.
One soldier who is stationed with his unit just outside
my hotel seemed to speak from his heart: “You
Americans claim you are trying to help the Syrian
people. Every child knows, both here and in your
country I think, that the coming attack will make
things much worse for the Syrian people and many
others. The American people are good and we hope
they can control their government, but we are
preparing for the worst and there will be
consequences you will come to regret as with
Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.”
The government here is assuring the public that Syria
is ready for the American attack and that public
services will continue. TV channels show around the
clock images of heroic Syrian army exploits with
marital and patriotic music. Youngsters, students and
workers are gathering at presumed targets offering
themselves as Human Shields in solidarity with their
countrymen while challenging President Obama to
bomb their beloved Syria.
Interestingly, an International Human Shield
movement is coalescing according to informed
sources here and abroad. One initiative is to bring
1,000 Americans and thousands of others to Syria
within the next ten days to guard likely bomb sites,
reminding one of the International Solidarity
Movement international volunteer’s efforts in
Occupied Palestine in order to try to protect homes of
Palestinians from Government bulldozing.
Some redacted specifics have been disclosed to this
observer from an international organizing
committee working around the clock on this Human
Shield initiative.
Some descriptive excerpts:
“International Human Shields are planning on
coming to Syria in solidarity with the Syrian people
and in an effort to send a global message and
hopefully deter an American attack next week.”
“Timing – While moves can be made fast and with all
other key elements in place, time is not in our
favor. Ten mores days for preparation would be
ideal. The HS initiative assumes that it must be done
in such a way that very little time lapse from the
official announcement of the action to the actual
arrival of the Human Shields on the ground in
Syria.”
“Impact – In order to achieve a significant impact
having at least 1,000 Americans and several
thousand international Human Shields deployed in
Syria is the objective. With ideally at least one
representative from every UN Member State, as
evidence of the true ‘international community’
opposing the American attack.”
The US activist-based steering committee is quickly
bringing together professionals in IT, marketing,
logistical planning and implementation,
spokesperson(s), public relations, accounting,
documentarians, and experienced project managers.
Ferries from European ports are to be arranged to
carry significant numbers of Human Shields from
Major European cities. Ideally, several jumbo jets
will be chartered to carry human shields from some
of the world’s major cities and use of land convoys
are under consideration.
More excerpts:
“HS/Government Relations – The first objective of the
enemies of Syria will be to portray Human Shields as
nothing more than pawns of President Bashar al-
Assad. This was precisely what the mainstream media
did in 2003, presenting Human Shields as pawns of
Saddam. In order for the Human Shields to have
power they must be seen as independent supporters
of the people of Syria who represent the will of the
vast majority of people around the world who oppose
the pending US-led western attack. The HS should
however work with prominent leaders in the civilian
sector of Syrian society and great effort should be
made to produce daily news stories of the Human
Shields and Syrian people working together to protect
Syria from the ongoing foreign instigated aggression.
There are once again many details here and these
would need to be discussed and agreed if any action
will be able to reach its full potential.”
“Strategy – The sites that Human Shields deploy to
must be very well publicized and these sites must be
identified as protected sites under the Fourth Geneva
Convention. The White House is saying that they are
not going to attack infrastructure (as they did with
Iraq in 2003), but they must attack the infrastructure
as the goal is to drive Syria into the stone age and
make it so weak that Israel will through its agents
eventually take Syria over. They know that the
Syrian people and military cannot be defeated
without massive attacks on the infrastructure.
“So it is absolutely vital that all power plants, water
treatment facilities, bomb shelters (if they exist),
civilian communications sites, food storage sites and
other such sites that are critical to the civilian
population are the primary if not sole focus of sites
for the HS to deploy. They cannot deploy to military
sites, although I personally feel this is morally
defensible, it will neutralize the power of the HS in
the public relations realm and intelligent public
relations is absolutely critical.
“A comprehensive list of protected sites is to be
produced immediately and these sites will need to be
verified by the most independent sources we can
manage to obtain. UN representatives or former
representatives would be great, human rights
attorneys, legal experts and others of this type are
very useful.
“There will be room to deploy to sites not specifically
listed in the Fourth Geneva Convention, such as with
ethnic and religious minority communities who are
deathly afraid of the foreign invaders/terrorist.
Special emphasis should be placed on Christian
populations as the western audience sadly has more
sympathy for Christians than Muslims.”
“Our goal is to personalize the people of Syria and
show their suffering through the eyes of the HS with
effective daily reports to be uploaded on the Internet
and reported by legitimate news agencies such as
Press TV, RT and Telesur. A massive effort must be
made to educate the public about the reasons for the
Fourth Geneva Convention (FGC) and the imperial
powers undeniable record of knowingly destroying
the lives of ‘protected persons’ as defined in the FGC.
There must be high quality, well-spoken Arabic/
English speaking spokespersons.
“We should be ready to provide evidence of any
attack on such sites the moment it happens and have
legal briefs prepared to immediately charge the
aggressors with war crimes. This is why it is critical
that the HS are almost exclusively at sites that are
protected by the FGC.”
The Action Plan concludes: “We cannot necessarily
stop them from doing what they intend to do, but we
can make their aggression harm them far more than
Syria and its people in the end. Herein lays the
power, using the enemy’s momentum against him in
the most powerful way possible.”
Time will tell which Americans will arrive first in
Syria, the military or the American public. Many
Syrian are today praying it will be the latter and
have pledged to join them to defeat the coming
aggression.