Women's Day - the Private War On Women Soldiers And Thoughts On Iraq

[Bobbieo]

I am listening to a local show spotlighting women’s issues in the military which is very revealing especially the comments made by Eli Painted Crow, who served 22 years in the Army retiring at the rank of sergeant.

In 2004, she served in Iraq and Kuwait. She is member of the Yaqui Nation in Tucson, Arizona. Not only her comments about the sexual abuse and rape that goes on,albeit, not a high number, BUT how it's handled and given that the war zone is a hostile environment in the first place.

What is most revealing is when she talks about her view of the current conflict in Iraq.Eli’s epiphany occurred when she looked at the Iraqi people. She saw they have their own language, even their own clans just like us. The US government was treating the people just like we (US indigenous people) were being treated.

She heard such remarks by others that Iraq "IS INDIAN COUNTRY." Then she thought wow, even though we (Native Americans) are serving in the military, we are still considered the enemy. Eli also says that all the benefits that were supposed to be available weren’t there ie. VA services.

Here is an excerpt from the interview:
AMY GOODMAN: How did you end up becoming a peace activist, Sergeant
Painted Crow?

SGT. ELI PAINTED CROW: Well, this is very important for me, because
being Native, I don't see this as a war, number one. I see this as an
invasion that's committing a genocide to a nation, to a people. I see
that we are over there and we are doing the same thing that we did here
with the indigenous people of this land, calling it democracy, calling
it freedom. Well, it isn't freedom if it's imposed.

And what I learned about the Iraqi people, while I was there, was
they're very much like the indigenous people here. They have clans,
they have circles, they have their ceremonies, they have their drum.
There are so many similarities, and it just really hurt me to realize
that here I'm a survivor of this attempted genocide on my people -- and
I say "attempted," because we're still here, even though they want to
say we're not, we're erased, we're not even in the history books -- and
here I am over there doing the same thing that was done to me, and so I
--

AMY GOODMAN: You said that in the military they refer to Iraq as
"Indian country"?

SGT. ELI PAINTED CROW: Well, they referred to -- what they said in the
briefing, they called enemy territory "Indian country." And I'm
standing there, just listening to this briefing, and I'm just in shock
that after all this time, after so many Natives have served and are
serving and are dying, that we are still the enemy, even if we're
wearing the same uniform. That was very shocking for me to hear.

To see the whole transcript:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/08/1443232#transcript

Christine Yazzie
Los Angeles California, USA
http:www.krystynmedia.blogspot.com

[Cerridwen]

1. K & R and bookmarked to read.

Geez, got a lot of reading to catch up on today.

Thank you!

:hi: