These women are not politicians, but ordinary Iraqis who are desperate to see an end to the violence and are taking great personal risk to come to the US. It's a rare opportunity to hear from Iraqis themselves, and we hope that US officials will listen.

It's a strange feeling to go from being fringe, ridiculed and called un-American or being ignored to representing the majority view and having these counterprotesters look pretty desperate,

It's appalling that the US military killed these women's families and then the US government rejects their visas on the grounds that they have no family to return to in Iraq. These women have no desire to stay in the United States. We had a very hard time convincing them to come, but we told them how important it would be for their stories to be heard by Americans.

We are somewhat consoled by the fact that Marla died doing what she really wanted to do: help people less fortunate than herself. Many of us believe that character trait to be the most beautiful quality a human being can possess. And Marla had an abundance of it.

These are multibillion-dollar companies that have the ability to bail themselves out without our help.

I can't tell you how many people have called me crying. The feeling of helplessness of the people you're seeing on television translates into this desperate need to help. A lot of people are feeling like, 'These are Americans. These are my people.' They really want to do something concrete to make people's lives better.