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| Human Shields Ineffective |
| April 9, 2003 |
| Once thought of as a powerful defensive weapon against the U.S. armed forces, human shields turned out to be almost useless under battle conditions, according to a U.S. army study. The study found human flesh too fragile to give effective protection against modern military weapons. In fact, those weaknesses could have led to the collapse of the Saddam Hussein regime. "We believed the war would continue for much longer than it really has because of the use of human shields," Brigadier General Vicent Brooks told reporters at Tuesday's CENTCOM briefing. "It turned out that U.S. soldiers had no problems in defeating that type of armor." Before the start of the war, Saddam Hussein had threatened to use human shields to protect targets throughout Iraq. Thousands of human shields were bused to oil fields, military strongholds, and government palaces. "The [shields] caught on quickly about their own ineffectiveness," General Brooks said. "As soon as the first of them were obliterated, others realized their weakness and demanded to go back home to France." In the times before modern weaponry, human shields boasted an excellent track record against arrows, lighter rocks and stones, and even hand-to-hand combat. Their success was neutralized as soon as combatants began using heavier rocks. Researchers at U.S. defense companies have already begun to heed the findings of the new study, and have again endorsed Kevlar and steel plating as the two most effective types of defensive shielding. |
| The Archives Read past articles. |
| NEW STUDY FINDS HUMAN FLESH RELATIVELY EASY TO PENETRATE |