Nope, it's comfy right where I am.
Posted on 06/09/2005 2:48:06 PM PDT by Drew68
The heroic life and final days of Marla Ruzicka, an American martyr
By JANET REITMAN
On the afternoon of Saturday, April 16th, Marla Ruzicka sat in her unarmored Mercedes, talking on the phone with her friend Colin McMahon, a reporter in the Baghdad bureau of the Chicago Tribune. She'd had a "great" round of meetings in the Green Zone, she told McMahon, and was just leaving the fortified compound in the hopes of squeezing in one last meeting before the end of the day. The Green Zone, which sits on the west bank of the Tigris River, used to be the heart of Saddam's empire, and now houses the U.S. Embassy, the Iraqi Parliament and other offices of the new Iraqi government. Outside of the Green Zone, in Baghdad itself, the security situation changes hourly. A route that was safe at noon could be unsafe at 1 p.m. A neighborhood that was peaceful at dawn could be in flames by lunchtime.
A petite, blond, twenty-eight-year-old humanitarian-aid worker from Northern California, Ruzicka knew the volatility of Baghdad as well as anyone. She was virtually the only American aid worker in the Iraqi capital. She was the founder of a small nongovernmental organization called CIVIC -- the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict -- which assisted families whose lives had been ripped apart in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Passionate and driven, Ruzicka worked seven days a week, eighteen hours a day, driving around the city with her Iraqi colleague Faiz Ali Salim. The two spent most of their days compiling data on the number of civilian casualties in Iraq, which Ruzicka then used to lobby American officials to compensate the victims' families, often arranging for wounded children to be evacuated in order to receive medical treatment in the United States. It was revolutionary work -- virtually no other aid group or worker has negotiated with the U.S. government on behalf of civilians injured in American military actions -- but it was exhausting. Ruzicka, who had begun to demonstrate some of the classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, was preparing to leave Baghdad the next day for a vacation in Thailand and then a long rest back in the United States. Leaving was difficult. "This place continues to break my heart," she wrote to a friend in London earlier in the month. "Need to get out of here -- but hard!"
Now, talking on the phone with McMahon, Ruzicka sounded upbeat. In the past few days, she had obtained a document that was her holy grail: a detailed report showing that the U.S. military keeps its own civilian-casualty records, something the Pentagon has repeatedly denied.
Ruzicka's methodology, on behalf of Iraq's war victims, often involved a lot of cajoling of high-level brass at Camp Victory, the military headquarters near the Baghdad International Airport. To get there, she had to drive on the notorious airport road, one of the most dangerous thoroughfares in the world. It is a frequent site of suicide bombings, ambushes and other insurgent attacks. It's also an efficient route, connecting central Baghdad to points west.
The airport road is banked on both sides by housing complexes, heavily populated by people with military training and access to weapons. Ironically, it was once the most secure road in Iraq, as Saddam's particular brand of paranoia forced him to place guards at every overpass and exit. Today, it is the key military and contractors' supply route, which makes it one of the most high-value targets in Iraq, despite several U.S. military checkpoints. There are rules for driving on the airport road, the most important one being: Never get stuck behind a U.S. convoy, which is a suicide bomber's prime target. But this can be difficult, as security contractors, who drive in convoys of armored SUVs, fly down the highway at 90 mph. McMahon assumed Ruzicka was meeting with some Iraqi victims in Baghdad. But he never asked where she was going, and Ruzicka didn't offer any information. "I think it'll be fine," she told him breezily at the end of their brief phone call. Then she hung up. McMahon went back to work.
(Excerpt) Read more at Rolling Stone ...
That pretty much says it.
I don't have any feelings about her death one way or another, except that she was another stupid kid paying out of her league, where did her money come from?
Yes, you put things in a good perspective. As you said, what we had was a young woman -little more than a girl really, with little money who somehow managed to get herself to Afghanistan and Iraq to help people with an organization she created (because the one she worked for previously was too far left). This is more than many of the "armchair quaterbacks" on the left and right have done.
One can agree or disagree with her motivations but the fact stands that she created and maintained contacts with US military officials who obviously would have kept her at a much farther distance had she been actively conspiring to damage the image of the US military. Certainly high-ranking officials knew who she was (not a lot of young, blonde California surfer-chicks wandering around Baghdad). It doesn't exactly hurt America's image to have people like Ruzicka over there helping injured civilians. The military knows this and would gladly capitalize on it.
Anyways, I can't help but to admire her dedication and what appeared to be sincere altruism. I only hope her family will be able to cope with their loss.
I am a friend of Marla's. I am revolted by how both the left and right have both in almost equal measure claimed and villified her after her death. Marla was a patriot who believed in American soldiers and believed few of them ever wanted to kill an innocent. I can confirm because I have seen the proof that a senior US military official gave her that info. Why is it so amazing to anyone that he would do so? American soldiers are human beings, not just robotic ideologues who want to cover up the bad stuff that has happened. You'd be amazed how many of them hate what's going on right now and hate being a part of it.
Marla Ruzicka is an American heroine and anyone who doesn't think so should get off their keyboard and get out there and do something themselves. How many of you criticS have been to Afghanistan or Iraq? And yes, before you ask, I have been. How many of you have risked your lives to find the truth? Think before you post your bile. Get off your asses and try and change what goes on and then I'll give you some respect.
Nope, it's comfy right where I am.
Friend of the deceased ping.
Lot of propaganda in the article but it sounds like the women was helping people. This is a tragedy for those folks.
You assume too damn much.
Adios.
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