Comments on: A Future Must Read: Women at War: Combat and Conscience in Iraq

By: Kat

Kat — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 22:00:37 +0000

A few years ago, I read a category romance featuring a soldier who came home from Afghanistan. The main emotional plot revolved around him learning how to relate to his wife and deal with their young child. It wasn't a book I'd normally choose (I was subscribed to the series) but it was a good read because the characters felt like very real people dealing with unusual, highly stressful circumstances. After reading the article that Laura cited and link hopping, I found a series of reports by the Denver Post called "Betrayal in the Ranks" (pdf). I'm so horrified by these accounts, I don't think I can read/watch anything military-related for some time.

By: Robin

Robin — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 17:15:57 +0000

What’s interesting is how the military is now citing a change in social attitudes in the proposal to do away with “don’t ask, don’t tell” and allow openly gay individuals into the armed forces. Clearly such attitudes are not shared among soldiers, though, given what’s happening (IMO rather routinely) to women. I’ve basically been traumatized regarding the militarization of masculinity since Full Metal Jacket.

And hard as I try to read them (especially Brockmann), military inspired Romances rarely come across as romantic to me.

By: Laura Vivanco

Laura Vivanco — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 11:08:10 +0000

You don’t need to have premium registration to get to the article on Salon. Sometimes if you don’t have it you do have to watch an advert first, before you can get into Salon, but you can still get in and read the articles eventually.

A while ago I read an article by Robert Jensen, from the University of Texas, on the way that pornography is used by US soldiers. The article’s called ‘Blow bangs and cluster bombs: The cruelty of men and Americans’ (you can find it easily if you Google). Jensen goes on to make various other points about the weapons used during wars, but his critique of the way that pornography is used by the US military seemed to me to be validated by Helen Benedict’s article which gave concrete examples of the effects of the anti-woman attitudes existing in the military. Benedict is more focussed on the effects than the causes of these attitudes, but she does report the comment from one female soldier to the effect that ‘the men imported cases of porn, and talked such filth at the women all the time that she became worn down by it’.

By: Angelle

Angelle — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 02:02:06 +0000

It’s not just confined to the US military. In any militaristic organizations — or even civilian societies — when people turned a blind eye to something bad it will become the norm because there will be those who’ll take advantage of the situation.

By: Kat

Kat — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 22:58:04 +0000

Try this interview. No definitive proof but Benedict explains why she thinks the claims are possible.

By: Jane

Jane — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 18:49:03 +0000

It was pointed out in the comments to my post that there has been no verification of Karpinski’s testimony re: hydration deaths or follow up since Jan/Feb 2006 in the press anywhere.

I did see that but I didn’t see anything to rebut her statements either other than to refer to her connection to the Abu Ghraid scandal. Montoya certainly thought it was believable.

It’s all very disturbing and I didn’t reference the Swift scandal which I thought was even more disturbing because I couldn’t find any recent information regarding that.

By: jmc

jmc — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 18:44:08 +0000

It was pointed out in the comments to my post that there has been no verification of Karpinski’s testimony re: hydration deaths or follow up since Jan/Feb 2006 in the press anywhere. But even if I discount that portion of the interview, the remaining facts and statistics remain horrifying.

Jane, have you read Bujold’s Shards of Honor yet? Women at war are addressed, along with the command attitude that has to back up the treatment of prisoners of war, particularly women. As Aral Vorkosigan puts it (more eloquently, of course), it is a sickness that must be combated; good commanders do not let illness like that take root. Of course, on Barrayar, women do not serve in the military. As off-world character puts it, “She’s wasted here. All the women are wasted here.”

By: Kat

Kat — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 17:22:17 +0000

That was just so harrowing. And it makes you wonder, if they can treat their own women like that, how much respect would they possibly show to civilians and “enemies”? Really, it’s just heartbreaking.