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Female prisoners of Saddam Hussein less than equal
TownHall.com ^ | April 8, 2003 | Phyllis Schlafly

Posted on 04/08/2003 8:58:50 AM PDT by T Lady

The simultaneous news coverage of the war in Iraq and the rape scandal at the U.S. Air Force Academy exposes again the feminist double standards and hyprocisies.

Feminists complain about sexual harassment by American men, but if committed by ruthless enemy men, feminists applaud it as progress made towards a gender-neutral military.

Most Americans were shocked to learn that at least one U.S. servicewoman, Army Spc. Shoshana Johnson, 30, of Fort Bliss, Texas, is a prisoner of Saddam Hussein. One more servicewoman, Army Pfc. Lori Piestewa, 22 of Tuba City, Ariz., is listed as missing in action. Another, Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, 19, of Palestine, W.Va., was held captive for several days before being rescued.

Feminists see this a proof that women are advancing towards equality with men on the battlefield. In point of fact, women under Saddam are not equal, whether they are Iraqi women or U.S. prisoners of war.

Johnson is a single mother of a 2-year-old daughter. She was part of an Army maintenance unit ambushed and captured after the convoy she was traveling with made a wrong turn. Johnson had enlisted to be an Army cook and never dreamed she would be sent into a situation where she could be captured in combat.

This is not only a tragedy for Johnson, it is a humiiation for the United States and a step backward for civilization. No crisis or threat requires our government to send mothers of 2-year-old babies across the seas to fight brutal terrorists.

Army regulations have always exempted women from direct ground combat. But the feminists in the Clinton administration opened up more "career opportunities" for women in 1994 by getting the Pentagon to eliminate the "Risk Rule", a regulation that had exempted women in noncombatant positions from assignment with the "inherent risk of capture."

I wonder if the recruiting officer explained this to Johnson when she enlisted to be a cook, or if the sales pitch was confined to Army job opportunities and day-care benefits.

A New York Times editorial brags that Johnson's capture shows how the U.S. military has "evolved" and "the case for equal footing is gaining ground."

But, the Times bemoans, the military is "a laggard on the topic of women in combat" and still retains "glass ceilings" that bar women from direct combat.

The editorial writer must have been a fan of one of the feminists' favorite fantasy films, "G.I. Jane," in which Demi Moore proves she can take it like a man by getting herself savagely beaten and almost raped. Her fellow servicemen are required to watch this travesty as part of sensitivity training to accustom them to abuse of women by the enemy.

This is the kind of equality the feminist movement has always sought and why the movement remains out of the mainstream, although it does control the Democratic Party. The feminists' legal oracle in the years before U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg emerged, Yale Law School professor Thomas I Emerson, described the goal of gender equality in the Yale Law Journal in 1971: "As between brutalizing our young men and brutalizing our young women, there is little to choose."

This calluos attitude women in the military, contrasted to the warm-and-fuzzy silence about Bill Clinton's treatment of women, proves that the feminists' goal is not to protect women from sexual assault, but to force the United States, including the military, into a gender-neutral society. The feminists' goal is not about achievement for women, or else it would be lauding President Bush's national security advisor, Condoleeza Rice and Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., as role models, which it does not.

Those who seek to understand the peculiar ideology and goals of the feminists would find it instructive to ponder it current favorite award-winning movie, "The Hours." It is a dreary and depressing tale that makes heroines out of three women who cynically put their own self-fulfillment above every other goal. They betray marital promises, flout moral standards, walk out on the duties of motherhood and trample on everyone unfortunate enough to come into contact with them.

It is amazing how feminists fail to learn the lessons of their own choices and fail to see how their propaganda movies actually prove the reverse of what was intended. The movie "G.I. Jane" proves that Jane is ridiculous in trying to be a Navy SEAL. "The Hours" proves that the narcissistic pursuit of personal happiness by author Virginia Woolf and by the movie's two main female characters, Laura and Clarissa, can produce only loneliness and suicide.

The tragic capture of Johnson shows U.S. citizens that the feminist agenda is an attack on the family, marriage, motherhood and common sense. Where are the male politicians and military commanders who will stand up and say out loud that feminist ideology, like G.I. Jane standing naked in the shower, is an empress who has no clothes.

Copyright 2003 Copley News Service


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; US: West Virginia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: femalepows; feminists; pentagon; saddamhussein; usefulidiots; womeninmilitary
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1 posted on 04/08/2003 8:58:51 AM PDT by T Lady
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To: T Lady
This author needs to pay attention. Lori Piestewa is not listed as MIA, she is KIA. Lori was one of the 11 bodies removed from the hospital site where Jessica Lynch was being held. I wonder what else in the story she messed up.
2 posted on 04/08/2003 9:06:43 AM PDT by Tatze (Give Pizza Chants!)
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To: Tatze
Dammit! Don't let facts get in the way of symbolism!
3 posted on 04/08/2003 9:11:49 AM PDT by theDentist (So..... This is Virginia..... where are all the virgins?)
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Comment #4 Removed by Moderator

To: jbind
Valid point.

-Regards, T.
5 posted on 04/08/2003 9:15:34 AM PDT by T Lady (.Freed From the Dimocratic Shackles since 1992)
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To: jbind
It's so convenient to blame Pres. Clinton for everything

That's because he usually IS to blame ... but that being said ... it IS time to change the barbaric practice of putting women into combat zones. They DON'T belong there

6 posted on 04/08/2003 9:17:02 AM PDT by clamper1797 (Credo Quia Absurdum)
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To: Tatze
agreed.
7 posted on 04/08/2003 9:20:14 AM PDT by Jalapeno
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To: clamper1797
That would involve ridding the Pentagon of all the careerist desk jockeys who are afraid to stand up to the feminists' bullying.

-Regards, T.
8 posted on 04/08/2003 9:22:47 AM PDT by T Lady (.Freed From the Dimocratic Shackles since 1992)
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To: T Lady
female prisoners
9 posted on 04/08/2003 9:24:11 AM PDT by SMEDLEYBUTLER
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To: T Lady
It does NOT have to be done all at once nor does it have to happen with a lot of "noise" ... just start quietly gradually ... "conveniently" stationing women farther and farther away from harms way
10 posted on 04/08/2003 9:26:23 AM PDT by clamper1797 (Credo Quia Absurdum)
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To: Tatze
Schlafly probably wrote the column last week before Piestewa was confirmed as KIA. The editor should have done his/her job or had Schlafly rewrite the piece before publishing it.
11 posted on 04/08/2003 9:29:46 AM PDT by SMEDLEYBUTLER
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To: T Lady
Good article...Although it did not mention that Lori was actually KIA.She had 2 children ages 3 and 4,a boy and girl.I think she was a single Mom,but she may have just been a divorcee.Extremely sad situation.
Feminists are fanatics.They are out to achieve a personal agenda only.I had a talk(argument) with one who told me that because I was a conservative married female,i was allowing my self to be a "brainless sexual slave to men".She also said a bunch of other really awful things that I won't repeat here.
She was a real looney tune...Makes me wonder what happened to these people to make them so twisted.
Maybe they were dropped on their heads as babies, or possibly ignored at the Prom???


12 posted on 04/08/2003 9:51:12 AM PDT by TracyLynn
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To: TracyLynn
And just what does your feminist friend call people like Julianne Moore, Jessica Lange, or Susan Sarandon, who have all had children by their live-in-lovers?

Oh, I know. They're strong, independent women.

-Regards, T.
13 posted on 04/08/2003 10:08:13 AM PDT by T Lady (.Freed From the Dimocratic Shackles since 1992)
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To: T Lady
http://whywelostthewarblog.blogspot.com/
14 posted on 04/08/2003 10:24:53 AM PDT by cowboyfred
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To: T Lady
"Oh, I know. They're strong, independent women"

LOL!! Actually yes.Somehow women like those are not included with the rest of us.Such a double standard with these types.She also thinks that stay at home mothers are "lazy prostitutes."
She told me that stay at home mothers pay their way by "performing" for the husband whenever he wants so she won't have to work.She's really insane.

P.S. she is by NO means a friend of mine.
15 posted on 04/08/2003 10:27:39 AM PDT by TracyLynn
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To: TracyLynn; T Lady
because I was a conservative married female,i was allowing my self to be a "brainless sexual slave to men".

This kind of thought just baffles me. Why do these women think ALL women should be like them, compete with men, take over company, get captured in combat, have an abortion once a year. They see stay-at-home moms who adore their husbands as wallflowers and subjugated. They just can't comprehend that this is a choice many women make. I have no problem with what the competitive Penis Envy crowd want to do with themselves, but I also have a right to my choices as well. So Tracy, just tell your feminazi friend we said "shut up." :-)(And you stick to your guns!)

16 posted on 04/08/2003 11:19:30 AM PDT by PistolPaknMama
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To: Tatze
What about Shoshana Johnson? Was she among the dead, or still MIA?
17 posted on 04/08/2003 12:26:11 PM PDT by illumini (AMERICA. Love her or leave her!)
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To: illumini
She is still and was always listed as POW. She showed up on Iraqi TV with the other 6 confirmed POW's. Their current status is unknown, especially considering this thread: Marines find bloodstained U.S. uniforms.
18 posted on 04/08/2003 12:40:40 PM PDT by Tatze (Give Pizza Chants!)
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To: T Lady
This is not only a tragedy for Johnson, it is a humiiation for the United States and a step backward for civilization. No crisis or threat requires our government to send mothers of 2-year-old babies across the seas to fight brutal terrorists.

Mothers, daughters, sisters. Bottom line.

19 posted on 04/08/2003 12:43:54 PM PDT by skeeter (Fac ut vivas)
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To: TracyLynn
Duly noted; just a mere figure of speech ;-)

...This woman DOES sound like a candidate for the men in the Good Humor suits.

-Regards, T.
20 posted on 04/09/2003 12:31:06 PM PDT by T Lady (.Freed From the Dimocratic Shackles since 1992)
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