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.
"God rest her"
I hope he does, but one question, do communists believe in God?
We spend money to send our kids to Space Camp so they can pretend to be Astronauts. The liberals spend their money to send themselves on a "Code Pink Holiday" so they can pretend to be Communist Rebels!
Thanks for the nice reply -
I have seen small caliber bullets enter and leave thru a massive hole in the back in someone inches away from me.
One of my cousins was killed with others at the time of Jihad Johnny Walker in Afghanistan.
In previous wars before Vietnam the press was more carefully screened and no baloney was allowed.
Now they run around in Safari jackets eating and living with ununiformed terrorists to get "neutral-unbiased" stories and film (CBS cameraman arrested by US in Iraq).
Federal courts want attorneys and Mirandas in combat zones and civilian trials of spies and terrorists.
This will reduce the % of live prisoners I would venture.
GW and Congress can order these wimpo Judges and SCOTUS to locate in battle zones to more sensitively handle these poor misunderstood sub-humans.
Read what the Brits did to American patriots starting in the mid 1770s - they shot uniformed US prisoners.
The Japanese did the same to our troops in the Pacific.
Now judges want free security devices installed in and around their homes "to protect them from violent people who might hurt or kill them".
Pansy Elitists
There were traitors in the USA before and during WWII but even liberal democrat FDR (a relation by the way....) took strong measures -
A Reckoning is coming -
BONUS: No metal jackets required on civvie bullets
BONUS: I have an extensive "Gun Lobby"
If, as the story says, she was there to help civillian victims of war, then she's miles apart from Rachel Corrie. Corrie yammered and screamed and burnt the U.S. Flag and stood in front of a moving bulldozer that wanted to knock down known terrorist-supporting neighborhoods.
This recent woman, though, sounds like she had the courage of her convictions to help those in need. I'd like to find out more about her, and hope her activities were on the up-and-up.
Nevermind my previous reply. At the very least, her activities in Iraq are colored by her pre-war activities here. Still, any terrorist death of an American ain't a good one.
Their "Country Director" was "detained by rebels" at some point. Wonder if that was her or a local employee?
Her 2004 essay on "How I Spent My Summer Vacation".
Prayers for the dead, sure, respect for "alikn' the walk", hell no.
Stalin walked the walk for what he believed when he murdered millions. I have yet to see here or cruising Google anything that one could take as humanitarian help rather than America bashing.
All that needs to be said.
She was an American in name only. Americans don't want the downfall of their country.
Post 23 has some interesting links. I'm sorry for her family and her loss of life, despite her political agenda. Perhaps it's comforting to be able to talk to a foreignor about war experiences, so she may have been good in that respect for those she surveyed. Otherwise, her counting of Iraqi casualties seems neither useful nor reliable. Not because of her obvious anti-war motives, but because everyone she talked to wasn't necessarily a reliable source.
Let's face it, if she had the choice of saving the life of an American soldier or an insurgent, she would have saved the insurgent. She was nothing less than a TRAITOR.
You know, I don't remember any San Francisco leftists getting hot and bothered by collateral damage in Afghanistan when the U.S.S.R. invaded it.
She might have been a pain in the butt, however, I didn't see America hating in that.
Josef "Steel" did "walk the walk"
100 million worth died
Socialist Partner/Early Ally of Hitler
What a load of garbage that cheap phrase is!
Jeffrey Dahmer "Walk in my mocassins!"
I amazed at the "naive" comments about this enemy of the USA
I have other words - not profane or name-calling - but I will not resort to "ignorant" comments that some are looking to archive here
I don't like to see anyone die, especially an American, but you play with the big dogs, you might get bit. If these lefty wacko's get in front of shrapnel, well, they shoulda thought of that earlier. I try to hold out grace and mercy for people because I wasn't born again till I was 43, so I know people can "see the light" but that doesn't excuse them in the meantime.
Even God can forgive Jane Fonda, but you have to repent first. Till then, these wacko's are just more collateral damage.
I don't remember it either, LN. But it might have existed.
Excellent point
I wish I made it myself
Kudos -
That's Gods territory. For creatures like her, 'Render unto Caesar'. Looks like Caesar blew her *ss to smithereens.
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