Stresses of battle hit female GIs hard

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/chitribts/20050320/ts_chicagotrib/stressesofbattlehitfemalegishard&cid=2027&ncid=1473

<snip>
"This is what is different about this war," Lt. Col. Richard Rael, commander of the 515th Corps Support Battalion, said of the scene at the time. "Women are fighting it. Women under my command have confirmed kills. These little wisps of things are stronger than anyone could ever imagine and taking on more than most Americans could ever know."

But today, two years after the start of an Iraq (news - web sites) war in which traditional front lines were virtually obliterated and women were tasked to fill lethal combat roles more routinely than in any conflict in U.S. history, the nation may be just beginning to see and feel the effects of such service.

Thousands of women, like the male veterans of so many wars before, are returning home emotionally damaged by what they have seen and done. These female troops appear more prone to post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, than their male counterparts.

And studies indicate that many of these women suffer from more pronounced and debilitating forms of PTSD than men, a worrisome finding in a nation that remembers how many traumatized troops got back from Vietnam and turned to drugs and violence, alcohol and suicide.

more

[Media_Lies_Daily]

1. Female medical personnel have also had difficulties dealing...

...with what they've seen and heard during previous US conflicts. You don't have to be in combat itself to suffer from the results of combat, but combat is live action chaos with people dying and being wounded all around you.

I've read many first-hand accounts from female medical personnel that treated the wounded from the Civil War through Desert Storm, and they all tell basically the same story of dealing with the results of combat and reliving those memories for the rest of their lives. Some of these folks also turned to drugs and alcohol to numb the pain.

[Warpy]

4. I've worked with a few nurses who were in Vietnam

and yes, the constant stream of horribly wounded young guys got to them and they are still suffering the effects 35 years later.

Plus, women have the added stress of the threat of rape by their fellow soldiers, something male soldiers don't really have to consider. It all takes a hell of a toll.

War destroys people, even if they get out of with with their bodies intact. We need to be damned sure we've fully explored every single alternative to it before we ask our young people to go and be destroyed.

[scarletlib]

2. An example from Sy Hersch:

He was on AAR and talking about the torture at Abu Graib and how he got some of the pictures that broke the story.

The mother of a female soldier (don't know if guard or reserve) had duty at Abu Graib. When she got home the girl was completely changed in her personality. She broke off her engagement to her boyfriend, packed up and left her home. She broke off contact with her family. She went to live in the city and began going to a tattooist to have black circles tattooed on her body. Every week she would add more black circles to her body.

Her mom, deeply concerned, went through some the possessions that the girl had left at the home after coming back from Iraq. That is how some of the more famous pictures of the torture were found and then Sy Hersch got them. He specifically mentioned the series of shots where the man was naked and chained to the jail bars and the dog was threatening him.

This story sent chills down my spine.

[scarletlib]

8. kick

[gizmo1979]

3. It's hard on the GI's period

A friend of ours son just went back for the second time and he isn't sheduled to come home for 18 months!That's just crazy 6 months should be the longest tour in a war zone!

[oneighty]

5. The girls

women, ladies, females by any other name birth us mother us nurture us teach us about life and love.

Killing must be. It has to be. Exceptionally traumatic for those that by nature are kind, gentle, loving.

It is so sad.

Oh what would I do should my own grand daughters be caught up in these terrible affairs.

Sigh.

180

[TacticalPeek]

6. Kick. n/t

:kick:

[FlemingsGhost]

7. What to the "patridiots" say? ... oh, right: "Freedom isn't free."

Women are perfectly acceptable cannon fodder, too.

[Tesha]

9. Didn't Republicans quash the ERA because...

> "Women are fighting it. Women under my command have confirmed kills.
> These little wisps of things are stronger than anyone could ever
> imagine and taking on more than most Americans could ever know."

Didn't Republicans quash the ERA because (among other things) it
might have meant Women fighting in actual wars, and we couldn't
have any of that, then, could we?

Well, until the Republicans needed more troops, anyway.

Well, at least the toilets are still separated (unlike in that
Godless Yurp!).

Tesha

[scarletlib]

10. You are right.

That was one of their biggest reasons against the ERA--women might be sent to combat. Of course the unisex toilets were a big issue to.

Now we have women in combat and 'family'restrooms too.

We need to put the ERA up for another vote. We still need that amendment.

[Tesha]

11. Forget it. It's "Biblically Incorrect".

> We need to put the ERA up for another vote

Forget it. It's "Biblically Incorrect". It won't pass until Jesusland
secedes from the United States.


> We still need that amendment.

You know, if the Democrats were ever looking for an issue, they
might do worse than to choose the ERA as their rallying point. But
backing equal rights for women that would require a lot more balls
than most male (or female) Democratic politicians seem to possess.

Tesha

[kentuck]

12. It's a crying shame....

sad beyond words.