[Mb-civic] The True Cost Of War - Sarah Holewinski - Washington Post Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

The True Cost Of War
<>
By Sarah Holewinski
The Washington Post
Saturday, April 15, 2006; A15

A year ago tomorrow, in Baghdad, a young woman from California was 
killed by a suicide bomb. Marla Ruzicka was working to get aid to Iraqi 
civilians harmed by U.S. military operations when her car and that of 
her colleague Faiz Ali Salim was destroyed on the now-infamous airport road.

Marla's legacy lives on in the countless people continuing her work and 
in the families she tried so hard to assist. Her help to victims of war 
should also be enshrined in our policies if we as a country are to be, 
as Marla put it, "just a little bit better."

To America's credit, we've made some progress on the issue of civilian 
casualties. The Pentagon has a program of condolence payments -- a way 
for the military on the ground to directly compensate a family for the 
death of a loved one. Congress created the Marla Ruzicka Iraqi War 
Victims Fund and a similar fund for Afghanistan, with a total to date of 
$38 million for families and communities of those injured and killed in 
Iraq and Afghanistan. This program, coupled with our larger humanitarian 
aid in Iraq (the community action program) is building a post-Saddam 
Hussein society through small-business loans, education for orphans, new 
homes for displaced families and other projects. What's more, the Iraqi 
people love it. They need the help, and this small amount of money to 
rebuild communities -- by Iraqis and for Iraqis -- is mitigating 
resentment toward Americans.

In October, in a report to Congress on U.S. efforts in Iraq, the 
Pentagon for the first time, and despite previous claims to the 
contrary, admitted to keeping information -- albeit woefully incomplete 
-- on Iraqi casualties. In December, President Bush publicly 
acknowledged Iraqi civilian casualties.

But even these are baby steps at best. The 30,000 casualties cited by 
Bush is the bare minimum estimate, based on media reports that miss a 
significant portion of the violence (reporters cannot be everywhere). 
The president's spokesman was quick to say that this was not an official 
estimate. We know that's true, because the United States does not keep 
adequate records of civilian casualties. And the military's program of 
condolence payments -- while important -- suffers from weaknesses that 
prevent compensation to many families that need it most.

The brutality of the insurgency has also made it much harder for 
humanitarian workers such as Marla to help victims of war in most parts 
of the country. Worse, in some areas insurgents have threatened to kill 
Iraqis who accept help from Americans. Although experienced military 
officers have learned that treating civilians well is critical to their 
mission, the U.S. search for an exit strategy may encourage tactics that 
put civilians at greater risk -- including more reliance on airstrikes 
to target insurgents. In populated areas, this makes it all the more 
likely that civilians will be hit.

Marla believed passionately that all human lives are sacred, whether 
those of our brave men and women serving in Iraq or of the Iraqi 
children, mothers and fathers she tried so hard to make us see. She 
taught us that in addition to our obligations under international law, 
doing everything possible to avoid harm to civilians when we go to war 
and recognizing those who are harmed is critical to winning hearts and 
minds, something our military and administration officials have 
maintained is necessary to succeed in Iraq. Clearly, we have a lot more 
work to do.

In the early days of the conflict, Bush said, "The citizens of Iraq are 
coming to know what kind of people we have sent to liberate them. 
American forces and our allies are treating innocent civilians with 
kindness."

There are concrete ways the United States can live up to that statement 
and show the world what kind of people we are.

First, we should fully fund the community action program in Iraq. This 
humanitarian work on the ground is the success story we need.

Second, the Pentagon should adopt procedures to record civilian 
casualties caused by U.S. forces. War is not an exact science, and the 
Pentagon says it does not keep a record for that reason. But we should 
keep the best count we can. We will never be seen as credibly minimizing 
harm to noncombatants if we do not keep data to back up the claim that 
we are doing so. With increasing airstrikes, U.S. military planners must 
also do more to assess the risk to civilians before launching attacks, 
and should include in post-attack reports any available information on 
civilian casualties. The current lack of data makes the improvement of 
those procedures difficult.

Third, we should create clear guidelines for the Pentagon's condolence 
payments. It would help to increase training for the military officers 
deployed to war zones on how these funds should be used to compensate 
innocent victims.

Only by doing these things will we know the true cost of war. And only 
by knowing the cost will we be able to mitigate it. That is the cause 
for which Marla Ruzicka dedicated her life -- making sure the United 
States is there to help and not hurt, to build and not destroy, and to 
show respect for the worth of every person.

The writer is executive director of CIVIC (Campaign for Innocent Victims 
in Conflict), a Washington-based organization founded by Marla Ruzicka.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/14/AR2006041401089.html
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