Nicholas Horrock of UPI has an article - Feature: Odyssey of a human shield - that's filled with predictable blather from a "human shield" doing the Baghdad bugout to Jordan with some of his like-minded chums. But I liked one paragraph:
They were roaring down the highway to Amman when they were stopped by a group long-haired, armed men in desert uniforms. They all sat frightened in the bus until one shield, a woman from Australia, jumped up and ran out to talk to the soldiers. He could hear her say "G'day." She had seen the patches. They were Australian special operations soldiers.Reuters reporter Nadim Ladki also hit the road to Jordan and provides a travelogue. It has the usual Reuters slant, but I found the following of interest:
About 50 miles farther on, things changed. There was an Iraqi military position at the side of the road but it was now manned by coalition special forces. From that point on, anything that looked like it was Iraqi military, wasn't.
There were two checkpoints, at the town of Rutba, with some 20 vehicles and heavy machine guns set up.
My car was stopped by two Arabs who said they were Iraqi forces. But their accent wasn't Iraqi. They asked me to drive ahead 130 feet where there were coalition forces.
One man was wearing a cap with a British flag on it. He asked me in Arabic if he could look into the car. I asked them where they were from. They didn't say, but I'm almost sure they were American, British or Australian.
I asked them what was happening in Rutba. They said there were remnants of Iraqi forces, but they were chasing them out. We chatted. They seemed very relaxed.
