Aid worker's words — just a week before she was killed

[riverwalker]

(Note: please visit the website of CIVIC Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict www.civicworldwide.org the organisation founded by Marla.)

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-04-18-ruzicka-edit_x.htm

Aid worker's words — just a week before she was killed

By Marla Ruzicka
BAGHDAD —
In my two years in Iraq, the one question I am asked the most is: "How many Iraqi civilians have been killed by American forces?" The American public has a right to know how many Iraqis have lost their lives since the start of the war and as hostilities continue.

In a news conference at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan in March 2002, Gen. Tommy Franks said, "We don't do body counts." His words outraged the Arab world and damaged the U.S. claim that its forces go to great lengths to minimize civilian casualties.

During the Iraq war, as U.S. troops pushed toward Baghdad, counting civilian casualties was not a priority for the military. However, since May 1, 2003, when President Bush declared major combat operations over and the U.S. military moved into a phase referred to as "stability operations," most units began to keep track of Iraqi civilians killed at checkpoints or during foot patrols by U.S. soldiers.

Here in Baghdad, a brigadier general commander explained to me that it is standard operating procedure for U.S. troops to file a spot report when they shoot a non-combatant. It is in the military's interest to release these statistics. <more>

[zalinda]

1. You have to wonder............

who really was responsible for the bomb that killed her?

zalinda

[burn the bush]

2. it's so sad that it's so easy to believe the worst in our govt.

With all the shit we've seen, we don't doubt their hand in every under handed action taken anywhere. That just makes me sick that they have brought us to this.

I am not saying that her death was planned, however, it's too obvious that she could have been just another target too.

May God help America