Human Shield

In 1991 Antoinette McCormick was shipped to the Persian Gulf as a jet mechanic with the United States Navy. 12 years later she returned, but this time she was not in uniform and hers was a non-combat battalion. She was a "human shield."

McCormick justifies her participation in the first Gulf War as part political naiveté, part reverence for the idea of public service, and part need for a job -- a seemingly typical equation for a young American soldier. Twelve years later, the distinctions she saw between the two conflicts and an increasing alienation from mainstream politics fueled her radical decision to return to Iraq as a shield and not as a soldier. "I'm not a pacifist," says McCormick. "In 1991, Saddam was the aggressor, and obviously a brutal man. In this situation we were the aggressor. I'm a patriot, but I'm not a blind patriot."

As President George Bush began to gather his "coalition of the willing," countries supportive of military intervention in Iraq, McCormick grew increasingly alienated. "I really wanted to stop the war. Ok, when that's not possible, let's minimize the damage. The human shield movement was a way of putting out your body in a way that's much stronger than a single vote," says McCormick.

The idea to be a human shield, of traveling to Iraq to occupy power plants, food silos, schools and hospitals that were crucial to Iraqi civilian life and protecting them from U.S. bombs, appealed to McCormick's now broader definition of public service. "I think it's important to represent that Americans aren't all assholes," she said. She solicited funds from the Quakers in Yorkshire, England, where she was living at the time, and threw herself into the organizational center of the human shield movement. "We were all a bunch of amateurs, and that was part of its charm and success. We were called together by a visionary and the Internet."

		"I really wanted to stop the war. Ok, when that's not possible, let's minimize the damage. The human shield movement was a way of putting out your body in a way that's much stronger than a single vote."

The visionary was Ken Nickels O'Keefe, another Gulf War veteran. In January 2003, O'Keefe put out a call to convene 10,000 foreign peace activists in Iraq and force the coalition forces to reconsider their planned attack on Iraq. Only 300 would get to Baghdad and of those, only 70 stayed for the bombing. McCormick was part of O'Keefe's Peace Truth Justice (TJP) group. Chicago based Voices in the Wilderness and the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) also organized groups.

In the media circus that ensued, the human shields were America's favorite freak show. Fraught with organizational breakdown and a duplicitous Iraqi regime, they were branded as "peace tourists" by conservative media commentators back home. Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, assailed them as treasoners who threatened the effectiveness and safety of his troops' operations. But in the polarized political climate of the war, when restaurants were selling "freedom fries" while pouring out bottles of French wine, this international brigade of non-violent activists felt compelled to fight back the overwhelming drumbeat for war with simple sit-ins for peace.

The use of human shields was not a new tactic. In 1991, the Iraqi regime used Western businessmen they had captured in Kuwait as human shields at various infrastructural sites. Although the shields this time around were volunteers organized by American groups, they did come into contact with the Iraqi regime.

Many of the voluntary human shields from TJP arrived in Baghdad with no money and were welcomed by Abdul Razzaq Al-Hashimi, a former Baath party official from the Ministry of Information. The regime had arranged Mr. Hashimi to be the head of the Organization of Friendship, Peace and Solidarity, and they paid for the food and lodging of many of the TJP shields. When Hashimi demanded control over the movement and selection of sites (food silos and power plants over schools and hospitals), "the velvet gloves came off," said McCormick.