Since the beginning of this war, Kelly has been enthusiastically received by over 200 audiences, addressing a delegation of Congresswomen in the Capitol, religious congregations, state women's conferences, high school and middle school classes, community clubs, large peace rallies and small neighborhood meetings. She has compelling photos and vivid stories that humanize our opposition to this war.

 Iraq Reports

03/06/03, BABYLON - Tower of Babel: I got married today. Before the Gulf War, Iraqi soldiers were encouraged to marry and impregnate their new wives. Consequently, there are a lot of widowed mothers struggling in post-war Iraq.

03/07/03, BAGHDAD - Backgammon in Baghdad: A Voices in the Wilderness volunteer from Kansas held a fundraiser for a children's center. Bowling for Baghdad featured bootleg rum and a bowling match between activists and reporters (reporters won). I was much more popular as a bartender than as a bowler: I have not the slightest clue about the proportion of rum to coke and apparently erred on the rum side. On the other hand, I guttered twice. Games are big in Iraq. Every afternoon, young men gather across the street from our hotel for their football (soccer) matches. Every evening, older men gather in coffee houses for their domino and backgammon matches.

03/22/03, SANTA MONICA - Re-Entry: The Columbia explosion occurred right after I'd arrived in Baghdad. I felt guilty: one is supposed to be home to share tragedies. I was half a world away and helpless. I can't shake the faces and the voices of the people who touched me during my 10 days in Iraq. There's a national tragedy occurring there, and I'm half a world away and helpless.

04/03/03, BAGHDAD - Iraqi Children Are War's Greatest Casualties: I met Sura, a 12-year-old Iraqi girl, at Baghdad's Amariyah bomb shelter, where over 400 men, women, boys and girls like her went to escape a night of bombing during the '91 Gulf War. A U.S. bomb pierced the ceiling, curling the 1/2" steel like shaved chocolate, and incinerated the cowering families.

06/22/03, AMMAN, JORDAN - The Road to Baghdad: I'm convinced there is no way to fully prepare for this trip over the road to Baghdad. I haven't slept more than 5 hours in the last three weeks, and the last few days have been no exception. Nerves, heat, jet lag, anticipation pop me awake at 3:00, 4:00, 5:00 am.

08/12/03, BAGHDAD - Sura: Soura in Arabic means photo - that exaggerated, frozen moment trusted to accurately reflect an experience. Over time, a photograph can become its own story, sharpening events that may never have existed while its actual images dim. So I feared it might be with Sura, the vivacious brown-eyed beauty with whom I spent ten minutes in February in Baghdad. My brief encounter with this 12-year-old - and the portrait photo I took of her innocent optimism - came to represent my country's attempts to shape her country's future.

08/19/03, BAGHDAD - America's Rebuilding Shuts Out Iraqis: While in Baghdad in July, I sneaked into a Bechtel meeting. I had heard that the American company held regular, public briefings for Iraqis interested in bidding for rebuilding contracts. As I found my way to room 202 of the Sheraton Hotel, however, I was in fact entering a private, non-descript suite with the only "no smoking" sign I saw in Iraq. I slipped in as if I were an invited VIP guest, smiling confidently to the burly Iraqi who sat bouncer-like behind an imposing desk. From my seat on the couch, I had a clear view of Randy Jackson, of Dallas, Texas, whose represented Bechtel in choosing which Iraqis received contracts to rebuild the damage at the airport, such as fences that American tanks had demolished.

08/26/03, BAGHDAD, FALLOUJA, BASRA - Sanctions and Bombings Take Toll on Iraq's Children: "I can't wait to get back to LA and clean out my lungs," I joked sarcastically while in Baghdad in July. Three wars, twelve years of sanctions and two decades of rule by a cruel, uncaring tyrant have left Iraqis - especially children - with high rates of respiratory diseases, typhoid, chronic dysentery and leukemia.

09/09/03, BAGHDAD - Child Beggars Are the Hardest Hit During War: The one I wanted to wrap in my arms and bring home was Nebras. I didn't even know her name when I went to Iraq in July; I was armed only with a photo of a beggar touching her nose with her tongue.

09/26/03, BAGHDAD - War Hits Home for an Iraqi Family: "I told my children, if we are going to die, we should die together in the house," the solemn man said through an interpreter, describing early morning bombing in his neighborhood during the recent US "shock and awe" assault in Iraq.

04/17/05, SANTA MONICA - In Memory of Marla Ruzicka: I just learned someone I knew died in Iraq.  I have no right mourning her death because I barely knew her, yet I cannot stop aching.  Marla Ruzicka  was 28 years old, and was the third person I met in Iraq to die since the U.S. invasion and bombings.