Posted on 04/17/2005 5:10:12 PM PDT by jimbo123
SAN FRANCISCO - A woman who founded a humanitarian group to aid civilian casualties in Iraq has died in a car bombing in Baghdad, officials said Sunday.
Marla Ruzicka, founder of Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, died Saturday in the blast, which also killed an Iraqi and another foreigner, officials said. She had been in Iraq conducting door-to-door surveys trying to determine the number of civilian casualties in the country.
Ruzicka, 28, founded CIVIC in 2003 to "mitigate the impact of the conflict and its aftermath on the people of Iraq by ensuring that timely and effective life-saving assistance is provided to those in need," according to the group's Web site.
Ruzicka's parents said Sunday they were notified of her death just hours after the explosion. U.S. Embassy officials publicly released Ruzicka's name Sunday.
"We've been very worried about her but we know better than to tell our children not to do anything. We were supportive and just reminded her to be careful," said her mother, Nancy Ruzicka, of Lakeport.
She said her daughter had left her a telephone message the night before her death that said, "Mom and dad, I love you. I'm OK."
"She cared about people and gave people her love and help," Nancy Ruzicka said. "I'll remember the love she spread around the world and the good ambassador that she was for her country."
Ruzicka got her start working for non-governmental organizations 10 years ago at the San Francisco-based human rights group Global Exchange.
"It's a terrible tragedy and a tragic irony that somebody who devoted her life to helping the victims of war would herself become a victim of war," said Medea Benjamin, the group's director.
The fact that she was an American civilian probably had a lot to do with her being targeted, philz.
Prayers up for her and her family.
Jack.
From your link"
http://www.civicworldwide.org/press/press-05-0205-NYTimes.htm
Marla's Letter to the Editor
Feb 5 , 2005
The New York Times
To the Editor:
Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis's comments during a speech in San Diego, remarking that "it's fun to shoot some people," in reference to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, are appalling. At a time when the United States military is trying to win hearts and minds in both countries, and when Iraqis think that American forces are trigger-happy, his words are counterproductive. For our troops who are dying every day, making war sound like a sport is beyond distasteful.
General Mattis was defended by Gen. Michael W. Hagee, who said that "he intended to reflect the unfortunate and harsh realities of war." From living in Afghanistan and Iraq for much of the last three years, assisting noncombatants harmed in the crossfire, I find that General Mattis's comments do not represent what it is like to lose a loved one or a home. For a parent in the United States who lost a brave young son or daughter, his words are far from comforting.
I have worked with many of our servicemen who have helped me assist innocent civilians injured accidentally by American forces. It is not fair that their acts of kindness and care are misrepresented by General Mattis's undignified remarks.
Marla Ruzicka
New York, Feb. 4, 2005
The writer is founder, Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict.
But in the meantime, I'll dance on the graves of all those who would weaken MY country.
That's not absolutely clear. It sounds like she was compiling a catalogue of grief to use in litany of blame against America. I admire your spirit in giving her the benefit of a doubt, I just don't share it.
Was Marla a Muslim? If not, why is she wearing that rag on her head?
RIP Marla.
She wasn't a musl;ime, but lilke all liberal appeasers, she was eager to lick the boot that kicked her.
I put them on my old website. I then changed ISPs & forgot about them. I can't find any on the internet???
Or the ugly leftist Laurie Berenson from New York who was assisting leftist terrorists in Peru under the guise of humanitarian aid. Now she's sitting in a Peruvian prison serving a 20 year sentence for assisting the terrorists by scouting targets and providing drawings of the Peruvian Congress building and renting them a safehouse.
I'll believe that when a soldier corroborates it and not one moment sooner.
She was a back-stabbing, posturing traitor to her country. Her "heroes" were murdering communists like Guevarra and Castro and this b*tch you call compassionate publicly suggested that conservatives should be targeted by terrorists. You must be out of your mind to suggest she's worthy of a "salute."
LOLOLOL you bad.
An extremely rare case. The rest of the libs must be laughing at her for being so naive. However almost every service-person is an example of a conservative put it on the line.
Most Americans like to bury their enemy. Not toot their horns.
More on the ex-activist:
Benjamin said Ruzicka walked into the Global Exchange office 10 years ago as a "pretty, peppy, vivacious young woman who wanted to learn about the world," and went on to work on AIDS issues in Africa, to protest the U.S. embargo on Cuba and even spent time in Afghanistan after the U.S. war there.
"She had this real thirst to learn and always had a tremendous sense of compassion," Benjamin said. "She was quite remarkable in her ability to absorb different issues, quickly learn about other cultures and become an ally to people all over the world."
Patton could. "That magnificent bastard!" of Rommel. But he was a forthright, honest, enemy soldier, not a slithering snake in the grass, undermining her country and it's soldiers. You're on the wrong side of this.
FMCDH(BITS)
"She *was* an idiot. But she had more guts than most. God rest her."
BS. There are hundreds of thousands of Americans who put their lives on the line. There are millions more, like myself, who did so when they were called in previous wars.
Her courage was nothing special. Her purpose, despicable.
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