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Women Soldiers Dying in Iraq |
Posted:
12.18.06
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As the number of American service members killed in Iraq approaches
3,000, Americans are coming to terms with the increased role of
women in combat which has resulted in more deaths of women in
combat.
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More than 155,000 women have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan
since 2002, according to the Pentagon.
Of the 2,940 U.S. service members to die in Iraq since the March
2003 invasion, 64 were women. Four military women have been killed
in Afghanistan.
 And
while this is a small percentage of the total, these deaths exceed
the number of military women killed in Korea, Vietnam and the
Persian Gulf war combined, the Associated Press reported.
"The American public is beginning to realize that women
are playing an equal part in this war and that they are facing
the same risks," Tammy Duckworth, a Black Hawk helicopter
pilot who lost both legs in a 2004 attack, told the AP.
"This is the first time in our nation's history … when
it's normal to see female names as part of the war wounded or
those killed in action."
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Changing
roles for women soldiers in Iraq |
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Women have participated in every military conflict in U.S. history
but the changing nature of the conflict in Iraq means that more
of them are facing dangerous and life-threatening situations.
 Even
though women are still not part of direct combat in Iraq, front
lines don't exist and bombs can strike anywhere.
Checkpoints, where women are essential to search Iraqi women
due to cultural traditions, can be especially dangerous. And women
can serve in the military police, where they face combat situations.
"You get up in the morning, you say your prayers and you
hope to God that you come back that night," Spc. Ashley Pullen,
a 22-year-old member of the Kentucky National Guard's 617th Military
Police Company in Iraq who earned a Bronze Star for valor, told
the AP.
Historians believe these new circumstances will change Americans'
viewpoints on women in the military.
"My guess is that one of the results of this conflict is
that there will be a redefinition of women's roles," David
Segal, director of the Center for Research on Military Organizations
at the University of Maryland, told the Christian Science Monitor.
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Women are
perceived differently |
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For some women veterans
these changes cannot come soon enough. They still believe that when
Americans think of veterans they think of men.
 "People
tell me, 'You're not a veteran. You're young, you're a girl,"
Spc. Jennet Posey, who served in Iraq for nine months as a mechanic,
told the Christian Science Monitor.
"We're out there too, and we're risking our lives, but people
don't see it. Women veterans do not get the recognition they deserve."
Women also feel like they have to work harder because they are
representing all womankind, not just their own actions.
"When it's 100 guys and you're the only girl, it's like
proving yourself every day," Marine policewoman Aneta Urban
told the AP. "When you're doing rifle training, close combat
training, they're looking at you a lot more closely. They're wondering:
Can she do it? Can she handle it? You don't want to be laughed
at."
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Critics |
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But there are still critics who believe these changes are not
good for society.
"Engaging the enemy in this uncivilized thing we call war
is a job for men, not women," Kate O'Beirne, a conservative
opinion writer and editor, said in a radio interview last spring.
 The
president of the Center for Military Readiness, Elaine Donnelly,
contends forcing men and woman to live together in combat situations
creates the potential for romantic involvement, sexual harassment
and morale problems.
And others think the media is exaggerating the importance of
female fighters in Iraq.
"They're not occupying any particularly important positions
or fighting in the front. … If there were not a single woman
(deployed), the war would be the same," Martin van Creveld,
a military historian and Iraq war critic, told the AP.
But that might not be the opinion of the men who are returning
from Iraq after fighting side-by-side with women. Capt. Tara Stiles
who lead a platoon of military police backing up the First Marine
Expeditionary Force said that at first the male Marines were "kind
of leery" of a woman commander, but after a few weeks, "they'd
rather have my platoon vs. one of the others led by males. …
They needed their backs covered and we were there."
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Compiled by Annie Schleicher for NewsHour Extra
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