Salon: The private war of women soldiers

[babylonsister]

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/03/07/women_in_military/

The private war of women soldiers

Many female soldiers say they are sexually assaulted by their male comrades and can't trust the military to protect them. "The knife wasn't for the Iraqis," says one woman. "It was for the guys on my own side."
Editor's note: This story has been corrected since it was originally published.

By Helen Benedict


March 7, 2007 | As thousands of burned-out soldiers prepare to return to Iraq to fill President Bush's unwelcome call for at least 20,000 more troops, I can't help wondering what the women among those troops will have to face. And I don't mean only the hardships of war, the killing of civilians, the bombs and mortars, the heat and sleeplessness and fear.

I mean from their own comrades -- the men.

I have talked to more than 20 female veterans of the Iraq war in the past few months, interviewing them for up to 10 hours each for a book I am writing on the topic, and every one of them said the danger of rape by other soldiers is so widely recognized in Iraq that their officers routinely told them not to go to the latrines or showers without another woman for protection.

The female soldiers who were at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, for example, where U.S. troops go to demobilize, told me they were warned not to go out at night alone.

"They call Camp Arifjan 'generator city' because it's so loud with generators that even if a woman screams she can't be heard," said Abbie Pickett, 24, a specialist with the 229th Combat Support Engineering Company who spent 15 months in Iraq from 2004-05. Yet, she points out, this is a base, where soldiers are supposed to be safe.

Spc. Mickiela Montoya, 21, who was in Iraq with the National Guard in 2005, took to carrying a knife with her at all times. "The knife wasn't for the Iraqis," she told me. "It was for the guys on my own side."

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[rodeodance]

1. I hope this hits the headlines (but I assume it will not)

[Monkeyman]

2. Sent this to countdown

[rodeodance]

3. good idea, i will do also.

[Veronica.Franco]

4. The Military's long held dirty little secret ...

Women have been treated as second class citizens, harassed, raped, and given secret abortions by the military going back to WWII, that I know of, probably longer ... glad to hear they are protecting themselves ... I'm sure there was a time when they couldn't even carry a knife ... oh this makes me so angry ... it's their SECRET "Walter Reed" scandal ...