A soldier in Iraq writes about Marla Ruzica

Marla Ruzica was an aid worker who was killed by a car bomb in Iraq on Sunday. Here's who she was:

For more than two years, Marla Ruzicka worked to get help for innocent civilians caught in cross-fires here. A 28-year-old Californian with blond hair and an electric smile, she ran a one-woman aid group.

On Saturday afternoon, Ms. Ruzicka became a casualty herself. A suicide bomber attacked a convoy of security contractors that was passing near her car on the airport road in Baghdad, killing her and her Iraqi driver, United States Embassy officials in Baghdad said.

Ms. Ruzicka had worked in Afghanistan as well as Iraq. She took great risks, often traveling to talk to Iraqis without the guards and armored cars that reporters here tend to rely on. She also had an extraordinary gift for promoting her cause, whether in Iraq or Washington.

She worked with Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, to get $2.5 million for civilian victims in Afghanistan, and later, $10 million for victims in Iraq. Last week another $10 million was authorized for the Iraq program.

The hatemongers on the right are reacting with the degree of sensitivity one might expect from such people:

"But when commie symp spreading agitprop happens to get herself killed by the terrorists she supports, the media goes into tearjerk mode. Makes me wanna vomit. And make no mistake (I'm talking to you moonbats--and you know who you are), she stood with the enemy."

"Have you ever noticed the terrorists aren't in uniform? Thus, they're considered "civilians" when we turn them into roadkill."

"Q: Where did Marla Ruzicka spend her spring vacation?
A: All over Iraq.

Q: What color were Marla Ruzicka's eyes?
A: Blue.
One blew one way, one blew the other. "

"As the son of a late WWII vet and the brother of a late Vietnam vet, nothing frosts me more than these people who badmouth and question our men over there. No, I didn't serve myself, and I had my reasons, but my heart is with them and my country. And I despise these little pissants who stick their nose where it doesn't belong."

Well, here's what one of our men over there had to say about Maria Ruzicka (click link, then scroll down):

Route Irish takes another

Name: Maj. Bob Bateman
Hometown: Baghdad, Iraq

Today I do not much feel like writing. Yesterday was my birthday. It was also the day one family found out about the death of their daughter here. The latter is more important, so this will be only a short note. Nobody much wants to hear from ‘the military guy’ today.

On Saturday, a six or seven kilometers from here, Marla Ruzicka died. By all accounts she was a courageous young woman. I did not know her, but I believe the world is lessened by her death. She was killed by a suicide car bomber.

She died on Route Irish.

I am getting tired of writing variations of that sentence.

Ms. Ruzicka might be considered my anti-thesis by some. I would disagree. I would suggest that we occupy flip sides of the same coin. That is just my opinion, however, and has little worth. I do think she was probably braver than I. This is what I know of her:

Marla Ruzicka was 28. She was from California. Her parents are Republicans. She was not, and though I would not presume to know what her personal politics were, I am assuming they were considerably left of that point. She has a twin brother. She was dedicated to people, to improving life and saving life. She felt a deep and abiding need to do everything she could towards that end. In the course of her life she worked for one NGO, then founded another. The latter, Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC), had as its mission, the cataloging of civilian deaths in this war. That is a task which the military does not pursue (nor, for what it is worth, has any military ever done so), and Ms. Ruzicka thought it important that these numbers should be counted. But more significantly, from where I sit, is the fact that she did not catalog numbers from the safety of a desk in some London office. She did not just compile news clippings and then post them on the alternet. She came here, lived here, and attached a human face to those casualties. Then she worked to relieve their suffering. She learned the systems, first agitating in Washington, DC, and eventually here. She did so even to the degree of working with the military to help distribute funds for the victims which the military has for that purpose, all of this in order to help innocent people. In the end, it seems, she left politics aside in favor of practical reality and set her shoulder to work for humans, not just ideals. Nobody I know opposes an objective such as that.

There is no need for me to go into the details right now. There will doubtless be a thousand articles about her in the next few days.

In the past several weeks, in your gifts of creamer and magazines and the like, and by e-mails and letters, many of you have asked me, “What else can we do?” For the most part I’ve side-stepped your generosity. Today I have an answer.

Go to CIVICWorldwide.org. Go there and donate ‘til it hurts.

Bateman is a good guy whose letters appear at Altercation frequently. Eric Alterman has published his e-mail address, so I'll do the same by setting up a link. You know what to do to make the e-mail address work; this is done to block spammers. Drop him a line and let him know how much you appreciate his efforts.

Then think about the wingnuts who still can't decide whether Iraqi civilians are people we liberated or people we should annihilate. They seem to get confused.