Humanitarian aid is a casualty in Iraq _I'm in here

From The Christian Science Moniter http://csmonitor.com/2004/1123/p07s02-coop.html
By Rick McDowell and Mary Trotochaud PHILADELPHIA – Within hours, the kidnapping of CARE administrator Margaret Hassan made headlines around the world. What doesn't make headlines is that hundreds, if not thousands, of Iraqi citizens have been kidnapped in the past year. The goal of kidnappings may be to extort money or to instill fear and foment chaos.
Either way, life in Iraq has been turned upside down by the disappearance and ransoming or murder of countless people.
Word of Margaret's apparent execution last week cut us to the quick. She was a cherished friend and colleague in the international humanitarian aid community.
We remember her as a gracious hostess, a ferocious reader, an admirer of art, and a tireless fighter for justice. While we mourn for Margaret, we also fear for many men and women who have disappeared in Iraq whose names you'll never hear.
In our work as Iraq country representatives for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), we've witnessed the deterioration of Iraqi society since the US-led invasion in 2003.
An already crippled society has spiraled into chaos. Basic security, fundamental infrastructure, and rudimentary medical care have deteriorated under coalition control - a complete contradiction of the obligations of an occupying force as specified by the Geneva Conventions.
Immediately after the coalition invasion, members of the international aid community came together in Iraq to consider how we could protect humanitarian work.

We define humanitarian aid as completely nonpartisan. Humanitarian aid workers do not carry guns, do not have armed guards, and do not associate with anyone carrying weapons. "Aid" or "reconstruction" carried out at gunpoint automatically has a political agenda.
US efforts at reconstruction and relief - limited though they have been - are virtually indistinguishable from military and political actions. A contractor in an armored Humvee, surrounded by armed guards, does not look like someone who has come to help.