Scandal shows women acting like men

NY Newsday ^ | May 13, 2004 | Marie Cocco (aka "Cukoo")

[presidio9]

She's got it all. The perky grin. The cheerleader's exuberance. The diminutive figure. The Dorothy Hamill hair.

What might have been a picture of America's sweetheart has become instead a portrait of America's sadist.

The world knows Lynndie England, the dark-haired Army private who appears in pictures of sexual humiliation at the Abu Ghraib prison, because she has become the scandal's featured model. The Iraqi prisoner abuse that has shocked the national conscience delivers an unfamiliar jolt: The face of this scandal is female.

Three of the seven members of a military police unit who've been charged in the abuse investigation are women. The brigadier general who was in charge of the jail, Janis Karpinski, is now a familiar face, defending herself for failing to stop the indefensible. The head of intelligence for the U.S. command in Baghdad is a woman whose name has not, thus far, become a household word - Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast.

[familyop]

Yes, she's a poster girl for "women's rights."
...much like Susan B. Anthony [covered up fact about anthony. Read the part about her letters.].

[Boxsford]

presidio9, this entire story needs to posted; it's too incredible.

Scandal shows women acting like men

She's got it all. The perky grin. The cheerleader's exuberance. The diminutive figure. The Dorothy Hamill hair.

What might have been a picture of America's sweetheart has become instead a portrait of America's sadist.

The world knows Lynndie England, the dark-haired Army private who appears in pictures of sexual humiliation at the Abu Ghraib prison, because she has become the scandal's featured model. The Iraqi prisoner abuse that has shocked the national conscience delivers an unfamiliar jolt: The face of this scandal is female.

Three of the seven members of a military police unit who've been charged in the abuse investigation are women. The brigadier general who was in charge of the jail, Janis Karpinski, is now a familiar face, defending herself for failing to stop the indefensible. The head of intelligence for the U.S. command in Baghdad is a woman whose name has not, thus far, become a household word - Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast.

We've heard rancid stories of military sex, humiliation and harassment before. But until now American military women have been victims, not perpetrators. Now we confront a most uncomfortable truth. A woman really can be more like a man.

"It's both a measure of progress and a great disappointment at the same time," said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a member of the Armed Services Committee and a longtime advocate of advancing women in the military. "It's an example of equal opportunity for bad behavior."

In the great sweep of history, these women warriors do not hold a place among the most brutal. Judith is said to have beheaded the Assyrian general Holofernes. Nazi concentration camps used women guards. Yugoslav partisans in World War II, said historian Linda Grant DePauw, used women to strip captured enemies. "They were the ones the Germans feared," said DePauw, president of the Minerva Center, a foundation for research on women in the military.

America much prefers a girl-next-door with the likeness of Jessica Lynch. Or at least a girl who fits the mythic profile the Pentagon created about a plucky young soldier who was said to have gone down fighting before being taken prisoner early in the Iraq war. Much of the initial story was a fairy tale.

Women now constitute about 15 percent of the American armed forces. Studies of their effectiveness have consistently shown military women to perform comparably to military men - "heroically, mediocre-ly and horribly," said Lory Manning, a retired Navy captain and military scholar.

Take young reservists, train them poorly, leave them confused about the rules and about who is in charge. The breakdown at Abu Ghraib did not discriminate on the basis of sex.

Which is not to say that sex played no role.

Sex has a starring role. There are simulated sex acts, reports of rape in some undisclosed pictures, accounts of forced masturbation. Muslim men were set up as porn stars so as to offend their cultural sensitivities about women and sex.

The use of women guards as props seems to have been deliberate, several lawmakers and military experts said - and possibly ordered by higher-ups. England, now stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C., claims in an interview with a Denver television station that her superiors told her to pose.

"In order for it to be humiliating, more humiliating or most humiliating, it was necessary to have women present," said Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee. Women may appear in so many photos because they were to be shown to other prisoners.

If that is the case, then American women were forced into a dual role. They were cast as abusers. And they were themselves abused. They were responsible for their own behavior, and required to follow orders.

A reasonable soldier would refuse an unlawful command. These soldiers - male and female - failed to reason. That women are among them is a perverse confirmation of how far we've come, and how low we can sink.


Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.

[Sacajaweau]

Where's all England's friends? Where's all Graner's friends? Where's all Frederick's friends?

[Gennaro]

Wait a minute. That's no female, that Danny Bonaduce !!

[Aquinasfan]

The Iraqi prisoner abuse that has shocked the national conscience delivers an unfamiliar jolt: The face of this scandal is female.

Shocked? ...oh yeah... I'm shocked, SHOCKED! Who could have predicted this with women entering combat?

[webheart]

Beeaauuuiiicccccckkkkk!

[Republican Red]

I'm listening to Kim Peterson's talk show in Atlanta (wgst 640). The Kimmer just told every one to go to his website under the "seperated at birth" section. He has a picture of Lyndie and Danny Bonaduce.

Your orginality gets around!

Good job!

http://www.kimmershow.com/Links--and--Downloads.html

[Boxsford]

having sex I guess

[Boxsford]

"It's both a measure of progress and a great disappointment at the same time," said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a member of the Armed Services Committee and a longtime advocate of advancing women in the military.

Collins' idea of progress? She is as warped as ever.

[Boxsford]

LOL,
it reminds me of a book my son was required to read in high school. Prostitution was a career option in a required reading career book. When I took issue with the choice of book used, the principle said I was right, the book was awful. Not because the prostitution career option was being offered but because she said the office equipment mentioned in the book was outdated!

[shaggy eel]

Take a look at the photos immediately after the posted article!

,,, you see the photo on the right? The first thing I thought when I saw the technicolour schoolbus was "hey, that looks like the kid who played "Danny Partridge" in "The Partridge Family" on TV years ago.

[shaggy eel]

Can a spread in Playboy be far off? Or maybe Playgirl?

,,, spread? Not in PLAYBOY, not in PLAYGIRL, but if it hit PLAYPERSON maybe we could use the word "feature". On the basis of the pics here, I think we've all seen enough of her.

[Levante]

LOL!

Methinks she got pregnant while a bag was placed over her head. Someone probably taped a picture of Shania Twain's face over the bag, too.

Hideously ugly HE-male.

[cricket]

Anyone. . .ANYone, remember Danny Bonaducci when he was just a kid on 'The Partridge Family'?

She looks just like him at about the same age in her picture with long hair!

[cricket]

Come on. . .everybody; she does not look monkey-like; and she does not look like Clay; she looks more 'elfin' (well, ok; Clay has an elfin quality! but that is good!)

. . .but actually and really is she were a nice person; she might be cute as well. . .maybe/almost

She looked like Danny Bonnaducci when she was younger. . .that might be the first clue; other than the ones we have seen so far, that is.

We had to endure this much of the story; we sure can hear the whole truth of the 'who'/what of all these people involved.

[cricket]

"Anyone. . .ANYone, remember Danny Bonaducci when he was just a kid on 'The Partridge Family'? "

My question; a few posts later; did not see yours! Happy to see that someone else sees 'Danny' looking out from that picture.

As I mention later; this may be the first clue as to who she is; other than those we have already seen.

But hey, maybe she is just screwed up. . .so to speak.

Or; grew up watching Jerry Springer and Sally and Jenny. . .I'll stop; with that; I could start feeling sorry for her.

[Old Professer]

Today's third generation of sub-navel-fixated dysfunctionals should have been born naked.

[presidio9]

Um... nevermind.

[Johnny Gage]

"Beans"

Lyndie

OR:

Lyndie

"Beans"

Separated at birth?

You make the call!