Posted on 04/05/2003 7:19:47 PM PST by I'mPeach
The daring rescue of American POW Private First Class Jessica Lynch is the feel-good story of the war, not least because of the heroic role played by an Iraqi named Mohammed.
The 32-year-old lawyer risked his life to tell US marines Lynch was being held captive at the hospital in Nasiriyah where his wife worked as a nurse. Motivated by compassion, Mohammed told reporters how "my heart cut" when he saw the bandaged 19-year-old blonde being slapped around by a Fedayeen commander. No wonder Hollywood is vying for such a tale of bravery and human goodness that transcends war and culture.
But there is a dark cloud over this uniquely sunny story, in what we have not been told about Lynch's injuries, which reportedly include broken limbs, spinal injury, head lacerations and whatever experiences necessitated the psychological counselling she is receiving.
News reports were ambiguous about whether the injuries occurred during her capture, said to be a heroic shoot-up, or afterwards, perhaps associated with torture. More ominously, as is inevitably the case with frontline women POWs, the fear on everyone's mind is, was she raped? Armed forces chat sites in America were buzzing with the speculation.
Rape is a hazard for male POWs too but it is less likely, says the International Committee of the Red Cross. Sexual torture, used during interrogation of female POWs, "with its full spectrum of humiliation, can and often does culminate in the rape of the victim".
The special vulnerability of women has always been an argument for shielding them from combat, for their own good and that of male colleagues driven to protect them.
During the first Gulf War a female army doctor, Lieutenant Colonel Rhonda Cornum, was one of two US servicewomen taken prisoner. It was a year before she admitted to having been sexually molested. The other female POW has never spoken publicly about her treatment.
In this war, women are serving alongside men in significant numbers: one in five Australian sailors on board HMAS Kanimbla are female, as are one in seven of the US troops in Iraq. And while gender equality in the armed forces is something for which feminists have fought hard, it is ahead of public opinion.
The parading on Iraqi television of US POW Shoshana Johnson, 30, the single mother of a two-year-old, had an element of shock missing in the parading of her four fellow male POWs. It is not that a female life is more precious than a male's, but that women in civilised societies have always been afforded special protection against violence.
Now, in a twisted form of logic, American feminists have proclaimed Johnson's capture as a victory for women. There is no sign whether Johnson is dead or alive, but in an astonishingly callous editorial last week The New York Times claimed her capture was one of many "gains" made by women in the armed services and "serves as a reminder of how the American military has evolved".
Perhaps as we become accustomed to dead servicewomen and female POWs, the shock will wear off. But the inevitable consequence must surely be a desensitisation to violence against women. You cannot demand women perform the most violent job of all, with its likely outcome they will be subjected to violence, while demanding they be afforded kid-glove treatment in the civilian world.
Why should a battered wife get any more sympathy than a man punched in a bar brawl? Why should a court take into account "battered wife syndrome" in judging a woman accused of murdering an abusive husband? Why should men defend women against violence? Even the special horror reserved for rape in our society may need to be reassessed.
When she finally talked about her sexual assault by an Iraqi soldier, Gulf War I POW Cornum said: "A lot of people make a big deal about getting molested, but in the hierarchy of things that were going wrong, that was pretty low on my list."
Even the premier feminist organisation in the US, the National Organisation for Women, has changed its tune, with executive vice-president Karen Johnson saying last week she didn't know which was worse, "being raped or being hung by your wrists for days".
With so much at stake it is inevitable that Jessica Lynch will be immortalised as the invincible female warrior princess, her heroics exaggerated for feminist propaganda. The ramifications for all women are profound.
Being raped is an attack on your soul.
Worse than that, the mother of children being paraded and hailed as a POW. Disgusting.
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