Exactly what I’ve come to expect from certain groups.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2812677.stm
Human shield Britons leave Iraq
Up to a dozen Britons who travelled to Iraq to form a human shield against military action are returning home amid safety fears.
The anti-war campaigners are on their way back to London in two of the double-decker buses which took them to Baghdad last month.
About 12 other Britons will stay on as part of the 200-strong international Truth Justice Peace Human Shield Action Group.
But a spokesman for those remaining said they may now act as witnesses, rather than as human shields.
Christiaan Briggs, a coordinator for the action group in Baghdad, said those returning had always planned to do so before any bombing started.
He said many had run out of money or were concerned about safety, after Iraq started dictating which sites they could “protect”.
Mr Briggs said: "Now we are being told we cannot go to certain sites, such as hospitals, so we are reassessing our strategy.
"I must stress the people on the bus were always intending on going back.
“The aim was always a mass migration and if we had had five to ten thousand people here, there would never be a war.”
The two buses left Baghdad on Saturday and could now be travelling towards Syria.
On 17 February, a multinational group of 75 people arrived in the Iraqi capital, after the marathon 3,000-mile bus journey from London.
It was led by former US marine and Gulf War veteran Ken Nichols O’Keefe.
A few days later, about 100 other protesters arrived from Heathrow to join them.
Mr Briggs said about a dozen Britons were still in Baghdad and that they may now concentrate on acting as witnesses to any military action.
Explaining the group’s change of heart on the original human shield aim he said: “I said right from the start, I was prepared to die but when I knew I had a chance of affecting change.”