>They're obviously nervous about a wide-scale US war that could lead to their
>downfall.
By all reports, there's considerable popular anxiety and outrage across the region. It's not just the despots who rule places like Saudi Arabia. Quoting from the Reuters story on the human shields:
>PROPAGANDA ACCUSATIONS
>
>"We the People" organizers said the self-financing human shield
>volunteers had come forward from a range of Western nations
>including the United States, Britain, Ireland, Switzerland, The
>Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and Denmark.
>
>There were also some volunteers from Muslim nation Turkey.
>
>The major rallying point for Muslims, however, is in Iraq's neighbor
>Jordan. There, a campaign led by leftist parties and civic bodies is
>seeking 100,000 shield volunteers.
>
>Baghdad has welcomed the plans, but volunteers smart at suggestions
>that they are handing a propaganda gift to Saddam.
>
>Washington and London are sending troops to the Gulf and threatening
>military action against Saddam unless he admits to possessing
>weapons of mass destruction and disarms.
>
>"It's laughable to say that we are working for Saddam when it was
>the UK and the U.S. who gave him his biological and other weapons in
>the first place," Nichols said.