Posted on 03/20/2007 7:00:13 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
She told Army investigators that the reason she did not report for deployment was that she had been sexually harassed repeatedly by three of her supervisors throughout her military service: beginning in Kuwait; through much of her time in Iraq; and following her return to Fort Lewis.
Here is another:
''All my stuff was in the car,'' she recalls. ''My keys were in my hand, and then I looked at my mom and said: 'I can't do this. I can't go back there.' It wasn't some rational decision. It was a huge, crazy, heart-pounding thing.''
She was afraid (reasonable, IMO) to go back to a war zone and ran away. Luckily, being female, she had a ready made bomb to throw to excuse herself. I never believe anyone who comes up with their "good excuse" after they are already in trouble.
AWOL in war time? Put her up against a wall and shoot her.
Yep. You wanna play soldier with the boys, you gotta play by the same rules.
I suffered the entire 16 pages of it.
And so goes the grand social experiment that our military has become. Criminality (alleged or real) and victimhood (alleged or real) always sells.
And BTW.....BOHICA.....here comes the troop slandering package from Vietnam; The combination of criminality, victimhood, and now PTSD......The sum of which is the idea of crazed Veterans loose in society - slanderous hollywood movies will soon start being released in Iraq regalia - remember that MASH (the teevee series, not the original movie) was really a hit-piece on Vietnam.
The most poignant sentence in the entire article:
''It's like a record that keeps getting stuck,''
they cry to get into VMI and similar, then cry when they can't desert.
women in combat is fine- just make it ALL women units and subject them to the draft. Then they'll have the "fairness" they whine for.
There are many tools at the disposal of these women to stop harrassment and rape. Every unit is required to brief their soldiers on how to report it and stop it- they should have done that.
These women will be shocked at how fast they're dropped by the liberals when they are no longer useful.
IMHO,the easiest way to judge "gender equity" is the ratio of male to female coffins coming home.
Those of us who have seen the grim horror at the sharp end of infantry combat (as I did in a Mech Infantry outfit in Vietnam) are concerned at the rhetoric of many of those pushing the women in combat agenda. Daily we are regaled by the sight of 110 lb. women routinely beating the stuffing out of 250 lb male behemoths in choreographed entertainment fantasies like Buffy the vampire Slayer, Dark Angel, Tomb Raider, Sin City and the Matrix Reloaded. We all listened breathlessly to the initial (later revealed as inaccurate) reports of brave little Jessica Lynch mowing down hordes of Iraqis.
It is only natural that with this continual barrage of opinion shaping that an attitude will begin to form that women are just as generally capable of participating in infantry combat as men are, with a comensurate erosion of the rationale for excluding them in the first place.
This is not to say that women can not serve in positions that enhance military capability, they are already serving in them, and serving well and honorably. It was Nazi Armament Minister Albert Speer who cited the German failure to mobilize their women in the manner that the Allies did in WWII as a significant factor in the Nazi defeat. In situations involving large scale mobilization, they are essential. (Don't forget that the Soviets only did it because of the hugely staggering quantity of casualties that they suffered, on a scale that we can scarcely concieve of) That is not the case now as most personnel requirements could be met with the available pool of qualified males. Today, the issue is clouded by feminists and their societal influence ranging from lefist cum Marxist to liberal gender equity advocates. All too often combat readinesss, morale and unit cohesion is secondary to remaking the military institution into one which advances a radical social agenda. The decision to incorporate such large numbers of women into today's military is a political decision, not one of military necessity has was the case with the Soviets during World War II.
One of the problems in assesing the impact of this issue vis-a-vis the Iraq war is the fact that we handily defeated them with the forces that were already in place in the invasion phase. Due to a combination of the skill of our superbly trained, equipped, motivated soldiers; and the ineptitude of our enemy (but they are getting better) our casualty rate has been thankfully far lower than we should have been reasonably able to expect given historical precedents. Notwithstanding this the question must be asked as to what would happen should we face an enemy that could inflict the sort of casualties on us has was the case during the fighting in northwest Europe in WWII? The United States Army was forced to comb out military personnel who had been assigned to the Army Specialized Training program as technical personnel (aircrew, radar operators, etc) and convert them to infantry to replace the staggering losses. Since 14% of the Army is not deployable to such duty (women) this does not bode well for such an eventuality. While we can continue to pray that we will never again face an enemy that will be able to attrite us as the German and Japanese Armies did, we MUST not plan as though it will never again happen. The Iraq war as it is presently playing out IS NO TEST OF THIS PROPOSITION. That test will be realized in a dynamic and fluid environment, against an enemy that is capable of inflicting battlefield defeat upon us.
Many commentators are relentless in their determination to ignore the considerable body of factual evidence indicating that the present policy of sexual intergration is inconsistent with certain vital forms of combat readiness. Study after study (reinforced by my 20 yrs of anecdotal observation in the active duty military and NG) highlight the physical unsuitability of most women for the tasks of the combat soldier, and often even the support soldier. My personal observations include the inability to change the tires on military vehicles, clear routine stoppages on M60 medium MG's and .50 cal HMG's, carry heavy loads any appreciable distances at necessary speeds, lift and evacuate casualties, and an inordinate disposition to injury. The reason that the military adopted "dual physical training standards" was to ensure politically acceptable numbers of women, since 40-60% of them would be washed out if they were required to meet male physical training requirements. My son, a reservist in a NG chopper unit, is contemptuous of what he describes as continual coddling of female soldiers. He is planning to transfer to an infantry unit.
In situations of full mobilization, women are essential. I believe that women are a militarily valuable asset, provided that asset is used in a manner that makes the military ready to fight, and subordinates feminist social engineering to that end.
Hundreds of thousands of women have served and are serving their country honorably and well. I honor them for their service and accept them as comrades and fellow veterans. We can only hope that their service will be continued in such a manner as to enhance the ability of the military to fight. The potential consequences for the individual soldier and the military's mission are too serious to subordinate to social engineering.
Great post, brother!
A long time ago, Free Republic used to highlight the best post of the day.
If that was still done, yours would be that post.
Just as well stated and well thought out as possibly can be and I was persuaded by every word of it. Thanks.
Thank you sir. Something else for your perusal, Why doesn't the military accept men who can meet the female physical standards and restrict them to the same duties as women? Answer: The military doesn't want more people with lowered fitness standards than they have to take now. This illustrates the political dimension of this problem.
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