Posted on 09/24/2006 3:28:12 PM PDT by neverdem
LT. EMILY J. T. PEREZ, 23, a West Point graduate who outran many men, directed a gospel choir and read the Bible every day, was at the head of a weekly convoy as it rolled down roads pocked with bombs and bullets near Najaf. As platoon leader, she insisted on leading her troops from the front.
Two weeks ago, one of those bombs tripped her up, detonating near her Humvee in Kifl, south of Baghdad. She died Sept. 12, the 64th woman from the United States military to be killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Eight died in Vietnam.
Despite longstanding predictions that America would shudder to see its women coming home in coffins, Lieutenant Perez’s death, and those of the other women, the majority of whom died from hostile fire (the 65th died in a Baghdad car bombing a day later), have stirred no less — and no more — reaction at home than the nearly 2,900 male dead. The same can be said of the hundreds of wounded women.
There is no shortage of guesses as to why: Americans are no longer especially shocked by the idea of a woman’s violent death. Most don’t know how many women have fallen, or under what circumstances. Photographs of body bags and coffins are rarely seen. And nobody wants to kick up a fuss and risk insulting grieving families.
“The public doesn’t seem concerned they are dying,” said Charles Moskos, a military sociologist at Northwestern University who has closely studied national service. “They would rather have someone else's daughter die than their son.”
What’s more, no one in the strained military is eager to engage in a debate about women and the risks they are taking in Iraq because, quite simply, the women are sorely needed in this modern-day insurgent conflict. As...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
You can link the other years from the top of each year's list. By my tally, eight were lost in aircraft accidents, fifteen were lost from natural causes or noncombat injuries and five lack specific causes, i.e. nothing is listed, or something such as "struck by vehicle." The latter may have been a real accident or an intentional hit and run. The rest were in combat. FWIW, according to this link, there were 47,359 hostile deaths and 10,797 non-hostile deaths of our forces in Vietnam. May God rest all of their souls.
Some people are just too good for this earth. We don't get to keep them.
Totally sad. Never mind the Times' blatant effort to mine propaganda value from this, it's sad no matter how you put it.
That's a pretty sick blanket accusation to make.
Judging from this garbage, a "military sociologist" must be something you do when the burger job and the pizza delivery job doesn't pan out. It sounds to me like the Lefties figured if they could get women into combat jobs, America would stop participating in wars. Dumb plan.
As usual, they misjudge human nature. It's their way.
"There is no shortage of guesses as to why: Americans are no longer especially shocked by the idea of a woman’s violent death."
Gee, you think it could be the relentless drum beating by the feminist left? Those who are actually happy when any member of the military is wounded or killed have led the way to have ever more women in ever more dangerous positions in the armed forces. Why don't I think they have done this for the good of the women, the service or the country?
I appreciate the service of women in the US military, but I've got a lot of problems with our current deployment of them. Esp. those who are single mothers.
"Esp. those who are single mothers."
Amen to THAT!
I remember Desert Storm when Marie (ashamed I don't remember her last name) flew her CH-47 into a radio antenna. She was thirty two years old. The same age then as my own daughter is now. Just a baby... God rest her soul. She was a WARRIOR!!!
Please don't think I'm being flippant here but this is what happens when we bow to the PC god of the ages. You sure don't hear the feminists raising the banner to honor these fallen women heroes (heroines is the correct term), except to USE them for political exploitation, which is what the Left is all about. That movement is totally screwed up and has done more damage to this country than many other things.
Well, may God bless and gather these women in His loving arms, their trials and tribulations are over for this world and it is up to us to remember their sacrifices in the right manner, with dignity, honor and humbleness.
These days, virtually everything uttered by the NYT is profanley anti-American. This is no less so.
Almost as fulsome as the self-appointed "duty" of Grim Toll Keeper...as if the task is not tended elsewhere with considerably less personal self-agrandisment.
Gruesome and disgusting piety.
"You sure don't hear the feminists raising the banner to honor these fallen women heroes (heroines is the correct term), except to USE them for political exploitation, which is what the Left is all about. That movement is totally screwed up and has done more damage to this country than many other things."
Amen to that! As a retired Army ODS Vet with 20 years of service under her belt, I have NEVER understood the FemiGnatzies and what they stand for, aside from destroying families and emasculating men for their own supposed "gain."
I've always said, "It ain't braggin' if you can do it." Look back through History. There are PLENTY of women who picked up a plow or an axe or a shotgun when their husbands fell and just kept on truckin'. There were plenty of women who raised children on their own in the wilderness while we settled this country. There were plenty of women such as Florence Nightingale and Molly Pitcher who saw a desperate need for society...and filled it. I'll even give Carry Nation credit; though I disagree with her stance on alcohol, LOL!
It p*sses me off that the NOW hags co-oped so much of our History for their own sick, twisted reasons. Modern feminists haven't contributed SQUAT to America, other than to undermine it for political and personal gain.
Bella Abzug? Marlo Thomas? Gloria Steinem? The Code Pink-os? Ppfffft!
Shame on them. For shame!
Of our 58 fallen in Iraq from Wisconsin, three have been women. We have a handful of injured women back from Iraq as well. One lost her hearing, one lost an eye. And while it's not reported, I'm sure more than one lost a marriage in the process.
And I, too, disagree with Mothers of today of any stripe being in combat, no matter how gung-ho or dedicated to the cause. I waited until I was finished with my military career to start a family. It was unfair to me, to my country, to my future kids, and to my husband to drag them all along with me.
Women CAN have it all; we just can't have it all at once. :)
God speed Lieutenant Perez...you were a soldier.
My thoughts too. I'm sure most patriots would rather that women not be put in such positions. Her sacrifice is duly noted.
The problem with the war is not that we're fighting it. The problem is that we're fighting it with the yoke of political correctness around our necks. As long as we worry about PR and world opinion we'll always be hamstrung. Since the world hates us so much, fine. Screw it. Let's do what we need to do and quit pandering to a bunch of leftists, communists, and muslims that will hate us regardless.
Sure makes me wish that the military was still being led by guys like General Patton and Blackjack Pershing, not a bunch of perfumed princes running the war from east coast bunkers lined with TV screens.
Well said.
I don't think you're being flippant at all, sir.
Women fought hard to be treated like this, so fine. They're getting exactly what they asked for. It's like working your whole life to be the president and then saying, "Damn, I don't like wearing this tie."
Guys like me who have the horrible nerve to venture the opinion that women shouldn't be in the military at all get beat down by the PC Brigade, so this is what we have now. As a nation, we reap what we sow.
Very well said!!!
Prayers for Jane and her family.
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