Western "human shields" head for Iraq this is one of several articles about westerners voluntarily going to iraq to act as "human shields", first of all i must state that i have mixed feelings about the potential for war in iraq, i do not it would seem place the same priority on the elimination of suddam as do the current administration, and i think there are more pressing issues both foreign and domestic, let me state for the record that the use of involuntary human shields is repulsive and i decry the loss of any civilian life in a war, however when one volunteers to be a human shield than imho he/she is no longer a "civilian" and in fact has become a combatant, and frankly if war does occur their presence should be ignored when selecting legitimate military targets, i pray that war does not occur, but if it does they have made a stand, and they alone are responsible for their fate