A dirty little secret of women in the US Military.
I was talking about the war with a friend and something popped into focus I'd like to mention for discussion.
I had a lot of friends and a girlfriend who served in the first gulf war and I was told something that I found very distrurbing. I haven't done any investigation of this beyond asking my friends at the time who served if this existed. They confirmed it consistently and it was enough of a sample for me to beleive it.
Many male soldiers would proposition female soldiers offerring them money for sex. Many women would decline. But not all by any stretch of the imagination. Apparently some female soldiers made a killing in the first Gulf War.
I got to thinking about that. I know that isn't supposed to be something the military supports, but how would the military feel about american soldiers having sex with islamic women in the middle east? The thought path made me feel very uneasy. What would anyone dealing with the control of information favor---an american male soldier sleeping with another American soldier or with a foreign woman with questionable motivations?
That this type of situaton existed had to be known to the leaders of the gulf war. It suggests that this kind of thing was expected.
Which leads me to my disturbing conclusion---what is the point of having women serving with men?
Is Uncle Sam a pimp?
There are a lot of ideas that this concept gives rise to if you follow it to it's logical conclusions. In a nutshell, does allowing women to serve in combat areas create a higher incidence of rape and pressure to give (or sell) sexual favors to their male counterparts?
It makes my head hurt and my stomach sick to think about it. I am admittedly old fashioned (especially for my age). I would not be for women serving with men in combat situations in general and especially not after thinking about this.
Please do not take this to be me calling all women in the US Military sluts. But by the same token, I have trust issues with women (my issue born of dating the wrong women) so I probably would not ever again put myself into a situation where I was dating a soldier. (Before you draw the wrong conclusions, I had trust issues with military girl before she even thought of joining the military. I actually trusted her a lot more after she was gub'ment issue.)
I also would try everything possible to direct a female member of my family down a path that does not involve military service. Frankly I believe that a military job is probably one of a handful of jobs that women could have that have a high incidences of prositution.
Join the peace corps instead, i'll tell them. Women are intelligent and educated in my family, so they would probably easily qualify.
Anyway my trust issues (political as well as personal) are not the point of bringing this up. I wonder if women serving in the military with men in a combat situation is workable. I will acknowledge this is a question asked with very little first hand knowledge of the subject (I was never in the military). If you have information you want to share, please educate me/us.
I had a lot of friends and a girlfriend who served in the first gulf war and I was told something that I found very distrurbing. I haven't done any investigation of this beyond asking my friends at the time who served if this existed. They confirmed it consistently and it was enough of a sample for me to beleive it.
Many male soldiers would proposition female soldiers offerring them money for sex. Many women would decline. But not all by any stretch of the imagination. Apparently some female soldiers made a killing in the first Gulf War.
I got to thinking about that. I know that isn't supposed to be something the military supports, but how would the military feel about american soldiers having sex with islamic women in the middle east? The thought path made me feel very uneasy. What would anyone dealing with the control of information favor---an american male soldier sleeping with another American soldier or with a foreign woman with questionable motivations?
That this type of situaton existed had to be known to the leaders of the gulf war. It suggests that this kind of thing was expected.
Which leads me to my disturbing conclusion---what is the point of having women serving with men?
Is Uncle Sam a pimp?
There are a lot of ideas that this concept gives rise to if you follow it to it's logical conclusions. In a nutshell, does allowing women to serve in combat areas create a higher incidence of rape and pressure to give (or sell) sexual favors to their male counterparts?
It makes my head hurt and my stomach sick to think about it. I am admittedly old fashioned (especially for my age). I would not be for women serving with men in combat situations in general and especially not after thinking about this.
Please do not take this to be me calling all women in the US Military sluts. But by the same token, I have trust issues with women (my issue born of dating the wrong women) so I probably would not ever again put myself into a situation where I was dating a soldier. (Before you draw the wrong conclusions, I had trust issues with military girl before she even thought of joining the military. I actually trusted her a lot more after she was gub'ment issue.)
I also would try everything possible to direct a female member of my family down a path that does not involve military service. Frankly I believe that a military job is probably one of a handful of jobs that women could have that have a high incidences of prositution.
Join the peace corps instead, i'll tell them. Women are intelligent and educated in my family, so they would probably easily qualify.
Anyway my trust issues (political as well as personal) are not the point of bringing this up. I wonder if women serving in the military with men in a combat situation is workable. I will acknowledge this is a question asked with very little first hand knowledge of the subject (I was never in the military). If you have information you want to share, please educate me/us.
posted by The Tobidian at 1:46 PM
1 Comments:
Dear Bellis,
Thank you very much for writing in! I am glad to hear someone who was there give a contrary response---the idea is not happy one for me to think about.
I have never suggested or even hinted that female soldier were incapable of doing the same things male soldier do, only that I personally don't know if male and female soldiers should be serving together in combat areas. Frankly, I am still not convinced it is a good idea.
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