Take the day pass and read this...

[edgeofentropy]

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/03/07/women_in_military/
It will disturb you(understatement)though it may not surprise you...pass it around enough and maybe we can force a change...

Comments

[kimboosan]

The NYT Magazine had a similar article last week. I hope this means that there is some kind of groundswell of attention to the matter

[urbanknight]

Kimboosan echoes my sentiments exactly, I served 5 years under fairly harsh conditions. and honestly other then banging them the last thing i wanted to deal with in any case was the so called "female soldier" I have no problem with them in a support role, or completely segregated from men, but in a line combat unit uh fucking uh. let me just say from experience, it completely destroyes morale, and all the guys the female soldier isn't fucking are going to hate the one she is.. come on, someone is out in a foreign land, thousands of miles aways from their loved ones while private Joe is fucking the lieutenant.

Sucks.

dont even get me started on the differing standards for males and females in the armed forces, or the fact that female soldiers essentially rule the roost with exceptions and special privileges.

Rape is never excusable,

But they shouldn't be there to begin with. Its just bad buisness and believe you me I have met some motherfucking badass chicks who I wouldnt want to tangle with, but not watching my back in my fucking

[edgeofentropy]

But say in Iraq or the 'stan where there is no clear line, how do you differentiate the "support" from the "line combat". Cause the AK is not...seems to me though, I shouldn't have to worry about what my fellow soldiers would do to me when I've got a bunch of other folk that want to do the same and worse...put on the other shoe, you're the straight in the gay army and command is not sure how or if they will deal with you and what you represent...What would you do?

[urbanknight]

Honestly I have a hard time thinking that way, since I never had to worry about it. Truthfully though, I tend to err on the side of the fact that although stupid, people are inherently "good" and the exceptions to that should be severely punished, but uhm we don't even do that stateside. Hell we just send them to get raped in prison briefly and then let them loose on society again..

[redqueenmeg]

Well, you know, a penis makes someone trustworthy...

[edgeofentropy]

"this is my rifle, this is my gun..."

[urbanknight]

Its not even remotely like that. Most normal men (that I know) have natural protective urges towards women, and that concern is a definate liability in the face of a "mission first" enviroment.

[iskender]

It's amazing how you can train almost every urge out of a person and yet when it comes to protection of women, the soldier just falls apart. A truism widely told and personally relevant doesn't necessarily make a truth.

I don't know. I think if a soldier can be trained or otherwise compelled to kill kids and anyone else who threatens him and his comrades, he can be so trained or compelled to accept vaginas in combat. We've only tried this now, so there's some initial resistance.

I would like to know how that culture of protection has resulted, time and time again, in the violation of both military and civilian women. Sometimes I think that protection of the institution outweighs any such heroic drive, but then I'm a cynic. Or maybe it's benevolent rape, intended to teach a lesson. That would be justified, right, if it ultimately put less people at danger, by making the army masculine and confident again?

[countessa]

Sexual assault is a common problem.

This sadly shouldn't be surprising as the article's information runs along the lines of the sexual assault statistics for the US

[crownvic]

Testosterone

[chartreusefrost]

People are people, and people farking suck.

Sorry, James... *humans* suck.

I gotta say I'm inclined to believe that a lot of this boils down to people wanting the thrill of doing something dangerous and they've been put in circumstances where they can get away with it. The human animal has made repression almost second nature to the point where many of us are appalled when we hear of anyone doing otherwise. But we've been raping and killing and generally being jackasses for so much longer than any of us can probably even comprehend... I think a lot of our stances on right vs. wrong are still very new. And if you've ever tried to implement something new at work you know that it can't really work the way it's supposed to unless *everyone* is on the same page. Therein lies the problem. So while many of us are up here saying "Ew, that's terrible," there's more people down there saying.. well I dunno. Hard to comprehend that way of thinking, much less put words in the mouths of the unfit(Darwin speaks to me at night) people like that

well...

[edgeofentropy]

I would concede that point but for one tiny difference, these are soldiers raping other soldiers while in a combat zone in an unconventional war in a region openly hostile to your sex. The last thing you should have to worry about is getting jumped by your fellow countrymen and soldiers while in the midst of the car bombs, ieds, snipers, plus morality police that will beat or stone you to death cause you are not wear a veil or are wearing pants, or the skirt is "too short". Talk about all hands against you. There's not really an avoid for that situation because those that should be on your side and protecting you are the ones doing the harm. It's like you and a bunch o metal boys go to xtian campout, and the metal boys are the ones trying to fondle you and giving you the "look". Where do you go then? It's a betrayal most foul and to be institutionalized is an atrocity.