Writing in the NY Times, Steven Myers examines the rising tide of sexual harassment and rape complaints made by female soldiers serving in combat zones. Evidently, many of the problems occur when women choose to break up with their boyfriends. One such woman, Captain Margaret White, was engaged in a tryst with a married man at Taji, a base in Iraq, and then decided he had become “creepy.” When he attempted to win her back, she became “afraid” and later complained that he had forced her to have sex, and sometimes waited for her for a long time at various spots around the base.
Ms. White eventually obtained the military version of a no-contact order, but expressed frustration about the fact that she might face recrimination. According to the military, only 10% of sexual harassment incidents are reported. However, if sexual harassment is as loosely defined as it is in the civilian world, that is not saying much. For example, the article reports one female soldier, Specialist Erica Beck, based in Diyala, as claiming that a soldier harassed her by expressing, apparently on one occasion, interest in her. In all likelihood, the proposition came from a beta male soldier.
In another incident, a female soldier reported sexual harassment, only to find herself drummed out of the army for adultery:
When Sgt. Tracey R. Phillips told a superior about an unwanted sexual advance from a private the night their unit arrived in Iraq in May, the accusations unleashed a flurry of charges and countercharges, an initial investigation of her on charges of adultery, a crime in the military justice system, and, according to her account, violations by her commanders of the new procedures meant to ease reporting of abuse.
In the end, she was kicked out of Iraq and the Army itself, while the private remained on duty here.
The military disputed her account but declined to state the reasons for sending her out of Iraq. Her paperwork showed that she received an honorable discharge, though with “serious misconduct” cited as the reason. The so-called misconduct, she said, stemmed from the Army’s allegation that she had had an inappropriate relationship with the private she accused. She denied that.
These kinds of “injustices,” where females soldiers do not always have their sexual preferences and behavioral choices enforced the the military, have led some politicians to bring up the issue of our poor, beleagured ladies in uniform.
According to California Representative Jane Harman, “A woman in the military is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq.” This statement has been trumpeted by feminist media outlets as proof that the US Military has a crisis on its hands, but it actually reflects the tiny proportion of combat deaths suffered by women.
If the problem is that men simply can’t be trusted to behave themselves around women in a combat zone, perhaps women really do not belong in combat. Or, on the other hand, men do not belong in combat. To settle the matter, all men should be withdrawn from combat zones, and the women should be left on their own to handle war.
Just like Jane Harman, I’m sure the enemy will be much nicer to them than our nasty boys in uniform.
