Kindle
Noah Shachtman writes in Defense Tech:
Anti-war movements usually attract quite a number of, shall we say, eccentric ideas. But this has to be one of the strangest pleas for peace ever: activists are begging the Pope to go to Baghdad and become "the ultimate human shield." Dr. Helen Caldicott, a former Harvard professor, is urging people from around the globe to e-mail, fax, call, and snail mail the Vatican, and ask the Pope to "travel to Baghdad and to remain there until a peaceful solution to this crisis has been implemented." The idea, Caldicott writes, is that the Bush Administration wouldn't risk a bombing campaign in Iraq if the Pope's life were in danger. There's been no official word from Rome in reaction to Caldicott's entreaty. But new-age guru Deepak Chopra said late last month that he'd join John Paul II and the Dalai Lama in Baghdad, if the two spiritual leaders were willing to place themselves in harm's way.Discuss