Posted on 04/18/2005 6:45:00 AM PDT by minus_273
SAN FRANCISCO - A woman who led an effort to help those ravaged by violence in Iraq fell victim to the war herself when a car bomb killed her and two other people, 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, of Lakeport, founded CIVIC in 2003 and was instrumental in securing millions of dollars in aid money from the federal government for distribution in Iraq.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Amen!!
You nailed it.
Going door to door in Iraq on her anti american mission put her at great risk for capture. Our troops and their chain of command would have to dedicate and great amount of effort on trying to rescue her. At least she went quickly and wasn't subject to raping and having her head sawed off with a buck knife.
I certainly hope not one cent of taxpayer money is spent repatriating her remains.
She is a traitor, dishonoring the 911 victims and the Americans who freed Iraq. Patrick Leahy should also step down for assosciating with this terrorist supporter.
GOOD, I'll be glad when, if ever, all the death loving Saddam supporters are all DEAD.
Cha ching!
"A onetime protégée of one of the world's most visible activists, Global Exchange's Medea Benjamin, "
Ah, that says it all.
American activist dies in Iraq blast. Ironies abound here: "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."
She was an American activist, of the type that was trying to show that American troops were causing terrible harm. In other words, negative PR to highlight the victims of 'war'.
The leftwing site Common Dreams notes of the young activist: "A onetime protégée of one of the world's most visible activists, Global Exchange's Medea Benjamin, Ruzicka was set on this course after 9/11 when she went to Afghanistan on a campaign to help those in the line of fire between U. S. troops and suspected Taliban strongholds. ..."
Her previous activism included disrupting speeches ... "... just two years ago I was dragged out of the World Affairs Council when President Bush was speaking. It was his first trip to California, and I'd bought a ticket to hear him speak. I made my sarong-type skirt into a banner, and when he started his address, I unfurled it and jumped on a table and started shouting, 'Stop the rate caps now!' The cops grabbed me and took me out."
She changes her style but not her mission since then:
It was between her post-war sojourns to Afghanistan and Iraq that Ruzicka split amicably from Global Exchange to start her own organization, CIVIC (www.civicworldwide.org). Though there is the ongoing worry over money, Ruzicka is getting better at finding grants, and she was given a boost when ABC's "Nightline" aired a piece on her work in Iraq.
There is something noble in the American spirit that makes us take risks and do what we think is needed to change things for the better.
But there is also something meddlesome, annoying, and arrogant about getting in the middle of a complex situation like a war zone, and doing freelance agitation and foreign policy; call it "ugly Americanism", call it "Jesse Jacksonism" or even "Jimmy Carterism".
Ruzicka's mission in Iraq was not to tally the victims of terrorism but to tally victims of 'war'. If you listen to the Leftists PR, war is a disembodied evil, disregarding the causes of it, the purposes, perpetrators, and complexities of it. This has been the cry of the 'peace' groups during the Cold War, ("peace" groups that were actually front groups for the Soviet Union). The Soviet Union is dead, the Cold War over, but the plea for 'peace' from the Leftists goes on, every time the U.S. is stirred by events to action.
Did this women ever, ever, prior to her death at the hands of terrorists, attend, organize or participate in a rally against terrorism? Or against Saddam Hussein's brutality?
I heard a radio news report in this today that made her sound like a saint. I nearly drove off the road in apoplexy!
"This story was covered by hundreds of posts yesterday. Yes she was a "bleeding heart liberal", but it seems that her bleeding heart was in the right place."
Uh, not quite. she was in the wrong place in more ways than one. she never should have been in Iraq, not before the war as one of Saddam's 'human shields', and not as an agitator that was trying to highlight the U.S. mistakes afterwords. Her death by terrorism is ironic.
my take on it ...
http://freedomstruth.blogspot.com/
She was an American activist, of the type that was trying to show that American troops were causing terrible harm. In other words, negative PR to highlight the victims of 'war'. The leftwing site Common Dreams notes of the young activist: "A onetime protégée of one of the world's most visible activists, Global Exchange's Medea Benjamin, Ruzicka was set on this course after 9/11 when she went to Afghanistan on a campaign to help those in the line of fire between U. S. troops and suspected Taliban strongholds. ..."
Her previous activism included disrupting speeches ... "... just two years ago I was dragged out of the World Affairs Council when President Bush was speaking. It was his first trip to California, and I'd bought a ticket to hear him speak. I made my sarong-type skirt into a banner, and when he started his address, I unfurled it and jumped on a table and started shouting, 'Stop the rate caps now!' The cops grabbed me and took me out."
She changes her style but not her mission since then:
It was between her post-war sojourns to Afghanistan and Iraq that Ruzicka split amicably from Global Exchange to start her own organization, CIVIC (www.civicworldwide.org). Though there is the ongoing worry over money, Ruzicka is getting better at finding grants, and she was given a boost when ABC's "Nightline" aired a piece on her work in Iraq.
There is something noble in the American spirit that makes us take risks and do what we think is needed to change things for the better. But there is also something meddlesome, annoying, and arrogant about getting in the middle of a complex situation like a war zone, and doing freelance agitation and foreign policy; call it "ugly Americanism", call it "Jesse Jacksonism" or even "Jimmy Carterism".
Ruzicka's mission in Iraq was not to tally the victims of terrorism but to tally victims of 'war'. If you listen to the Leftists PR, war is a disembodied evil, disregarding the causes of it, the purposes, perpetrators, and complexities of it. This has been the cry of the 'peace' groups during the Cold War, ("peace" groups that were actually front groups for the Soviet Union). The Soviet Union is dead, the Cold War over, but the plea for 'peace' from the Leftists goes on, every time the U.S. is stirred by events to action.
Did this women ever, ever, prior to her death at the hands of terrorists, attend, organize or participate in a rally against terrorism? Or against Saddam Hussein's brutality?
But we know the answer. Before getting killed by terrorists, before she decided to go around polling Iraqis to find victims of collateral damage in war, before the invasion of Iraq itself, she was a 'human shield' to stop the overthrow of Saddam:
When the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began in March 2003, Ruzicka was already in Baghdad with Code Pink, said Jodi Evans, co-founder of the women’s anti-war group.
Other activists decided to return to the United States to talk about how the Iraqi people were affected by the invasion, but Ruzicka made a commitment to stay, Evans said. She founded the group CIVIC that year.
“Marla thought she would be more effective staying, because once the bombs started falling, people would be hurt and she needed to help them get their lives back together,” Evans said.
Isn't it ironic? She has been protesting the very military that protects her freedom to do activist activities, and is now killed by the allies of the dictator she agitated to protect.
"Her actions right or wrong did help many needy people. I have respect for her since she was trying to help people in need unlike many who do nothing. She took the risk and paid the ultimate price. God bless her."
You've been misled by media (or should I say "Medea") PR.
She was a human shield that was there to protect Saddam in 2003. Prior to that she verbally accosted President Bush while he was making a speech. She has a 10-year track record of left-wing agitation. She stayed in Iraq after saddam was deposed to highlight the victims of war as a way to demonize the U.S. liberation of Iraq and demoralize our war effort.
She agitated for U.S. taxpayer money, money that ws better spent through CPA, DoD or real organizations, not a leftist front group.
"Maybe we can just not dance on her grave"
Nobody should dance on her grave. This was a tragedy. Terrorism sucks.
And although this ironic event does have a 'Darwin Award' flavor to it, she was a victim of an evil crime and the real perps are the ones to blame.
"we don't have to pretend she was right."
If she was 'right', Saddam should still be in power.
Nope. Not right. Not even close to right.
The point is, we don't believe in the death penalty for being wrong, disagreeing with our politics, or being a bonehead who takes unnecessary risks.
Good question especially since bad people will lie all day long.
Thanks for a needed laugh, "Humor Award" to you Laz, ROTFL
I went to Free Republic with the hunch you all wouldn't be so sadistic as to take pleasure in the death of a woman who succors children rescued from burning cars.
I was disappointed.
I bet you even call yourself a "Christian."
From: Perlstein
Amen to what you said. Some of the posts here are incredibly cold-blooded. I haven't seen any evidence that she was burning flags or actively working against American troops. Maybe she was a liberal but are people here really going to rejoice over an American girl being killed because she was a liberal? Sick It resembles the Palestinians dancing after 9/11.
Well, without being able to read the comment by Little Bill, I don't know what he said. But, without being disrespectful to the person as a human being, we can discuss without rancor whether or not what she was doing over there was helpful or harmful to the Iraqis or to what our government was doing.
It is ironic that she would die in the fashion that she did, but it is my opinion that people who espouse the views that this unfortunate woman held harm the allied effort in Iraq.
As a result, actions and views such as hers ultimately hinder the ability of the Iraqis to install the social structure needed to protect their citizens, and also make these types of attacks (such as the one that killed her) be viewed by the world as the crimes they are, instead of the "insurgency" or "resistance" as they are viewed by many.
I have sympathy for her and her family, but I do feel that she was a "useful idiot" (not in the perjorative sense conveyed by the simple use of the word 'idiot', but in the sense intended by communists the world over since Marx and Lenin) That is, to describe well intentioned people who can be used as tools or weapons against anyone who opposes the communist/terrorist cause.
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