By: E&P Staff When humanitarian activist Marla Ruzicka, 28, was killed in a car bomb on Saturday in Baghdad, she had just submitted an opinion piece to USA Today. The newspaper paid tribute to the California woman in an editorial on Tuesday and published her piece on its Op-Ed page.
The editorial noted that her activities had helped win approval from Congress for millions of dollars of civilian aid and that her focus on civilian casualties in Iraq produced unofficial probes, some by the media, hoping to fill the gap left by the Pentagon and Iraqi refusal to offer a count. Still, she believed, the media should do more.
Her death, the editorial said, ?spotlights the damage done by callousness in war. Perhaps the attention her extraordinary life is now getting may prompt a change of policy.?
In her Op-Ed, Ruzicka, who founded the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, recounted ways that show the U.S. unofficially admits its role in killing civilians -- ranging from private numbers the military disclosed to her to U.S. payoffs to families in Fallujah and Najaf. She argued that providing an accurate account is in the interest of America, since many in Iraq fear the worst and rumors prompt greater anti-Americanism.
?A number is important not only to quantify the cost of war,? she wrote, ?but as a reminder of those whose dreams will never be realized in a free and democratic Iraq.?
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