http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski178.html
Getting Screwed
by Karen Kwiatkowski
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If serving in a forward combat role in Iraq (and also Afghanistan), you are likely to be male. You are also lacking one or more of the following: a clear mission, quality leadership, the proper equipment, armor, and training, a functional and wise set of standard operating procedures for suppressing a hostile local populace that does not speak your language nor share your customs. When you make a mistake or crack under pressure, you will be thrown to the legal wolves. Unless, of course, you are a senior officer, in which case you have an excellent chance of being quickly promoted out of harm’s way.
If you are injured in combat, you will be rushed into the vast system of hospitals, where you will vie for the attention of an overworked, very frustrated, and yet anonymous and unaccountable set of health care professionals who are increasingly overburdened.
If you are female in uniform, and deployed to Iraq, you face all of the above plus a few more. Sexual harassment, pressure for sex from peers and superiors, abuse, rape and even the chance of dying because you cannot safely hydrate yourself for fear of being raped in the night on your way to the latrine – these additive challenges face our female volunteers.
And that’s all before they come home to Walter Reed or Smallville, USA.
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I think that Americans should be universally ashamed. The treatment of their soldiers is inexcusable. I don’t think our soldiers should ever be deployed outside of the country. But, for the politicians, who profess to “support” our troops, this shows them for the liars that they are.
If I was congress critter, then I’d call every one of “my” wounded every week. Too many for me to personally call, now I’ll understand the problem. Just as I would insist on my attendance at every funeral. Too many, now I understand the problem.
Argh!
Reinke Faces Life 