Posted on 04/18/2009 8:16:48 AM PDT by Zakeet
Female U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have more to fear than roadside bombs or enemy ambushes. They also are at risk of being raped or sexually assaulted by fellow soldiers.
"The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq," a book based on 40 in-depth interviews, recounts the stories of female veterans who served in combat zones and tells of rape, sexual assault and harassment by male counterparts.
Some were warned by officers not to go to the latrine by themselves. One began carrying a knife in case she was attacked by comrades. Others said they felt discouraged to report assaults.
"The horror of it is that it is their own side that is doing this to them," said the book's author, Helen Benedict, a journalism professor at Columbia University in New York. The book was released in the United States on Wednesday.
One in 10 U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are female, and more women have fought and died in the Iraq war than any since World War Two, according to U.S. Department of Defense statistics cited in the book.
Benedict said the book's title comes from the isolation female U.S. soldiers experience when combining the trauma of their combat duties with sexual harassment by fellow soldiers.
"Because women are under so much more danger now and actually in the battle, it's a particularly tragic situation because all soldiers are supposed to be able to rely on one another to watch their backs," Benedict said.
"And how can you feel that way if your fellow soldiers are harassing you all day or trying to rape you or actually even raping you?"
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
A 2003 survey of more than 550 female veterans who served in wars from Vietnam to the first Gulf war found that 30 percent said they suffered from rape or attempted rape and 79 percent reported being sexually harassed, according to the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.
The author of this book is a journalism prof at Columbia University.
And this is why you don’t have female soldiers.
another winter soldier hack
Helen Benedict is a race baiter and man-hater.
Go to her website and read some of her essays:
http://www.helenbenedict.com/index.htm
I concur with your opinion
Sorry. I find this very hard to believe.
You said, Crazieman — And this is why you don’t have female soldiers.
—
Or, at least *shouldn’t* have female soldiers. I think it’s probably okay for “other than combat” situations, but in combat situations, it seems that because of the intense associated danger that sexual assaults increase in that kind of environment.
..and the stats for rape at Columbia University?..amongst your brainwashed students?
Exactly - and a decent man is going to be spending more time helping the females or protecting them and not doing his job effectively.
Rape is never to be defended, but I think the term harassment is too broad and is being abused in this situation. Do we count in the females flirting to get what they want? Did they harass the male soldier?
That’s ok, bill maher just made a joke about our soldiers and rape so it’s no big deal, what’s the left going to do about it.
and this is why you SHOULDN’T have female soldiers.
What woman in her right mind would put herself into a situtaion where there is 9 guys for every girl?
Women: Think of ANY 9 random guys you know- what percentage of them would you trust yourself to be alone with for a year or so?
I teach in a prominent journalism school and recently I committed heresy: I published a novel. It was about a Dominican-American teenage mother and was written in the voice of the girl herself.
Immediately, my students wanted to know why I had treated this subject as fiction. Why didn't I just go out and write about a real teenage mother, the way they would? Why did I have to let them down, the suggestion seemed to be, by making things up?
Then I shocked them even further. I told them that I had chosen fiction because I believed it could get me nearer to the truth.
Would’nt “combat” by nature mean you are too busy fighting for sexual issues?
You said — Sorry. I find this very hard to believe.
—
You should. When you break down primal societal inhibitions, in order to make good soldiers and to survive in high danger areas where your life is at stake every second of the day, other primal societal inhibitions go by the wayside, too, in *those particular environments*...
*******************
You accept that our military men would behave as the author claims?
I don't.
A “Reuters” byline is just about as believable as those from the NY Time and LA Times.
Quite simply, I do not believe them.
Period.
You said — Would’nt “combat” by nature mean you are too busy fighting for sexual issues?
—
I take it that you’re joking, of course... if you don’t know or realize how it can be, I guess I don’t want to try and educate you... sorry... LOL...
Daughter of a friend served on a Navy ship when 911 attack was made. She made similar claims of harassment, complained all the time, and somehow managed to get out of the Navy before her assignment was up.
Now she admits she made a huge mistake, wishes she were back in that wonderful Navy again. Guess her claims of harassment were exaggerated.
Some young women consider it harassment if a fellow says, “Hi Honey.”
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