Posted on 07/31/2002 6:23:39 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo
Title: "U.S. Military Study: Keep Female Soldiers Away from Arab Gulf
A recent medical study has revealed that female American Air Force soldiers deployed to the Middle East region over the past decade for operations against Iraq faced unique health and emotional challenges and threats, and that many of the women suffered severe health problems as a result. The findings of this research, conducted for the United States Air Force, call into question the policy of sending female soldiers to the Arab countries.
The study was authored by Air Force Reserve Colonel Penny Pierce, a flight nurse who served in Saudi Arabia during the 1991 Gulf war. Pierce studied over five hundred Air Force women who served in the Arab Gulf during U.S. military operations against Iraq from 1991 to 1998.
The medical study showed women who served in the Gulf over the past ten years suffered from a host of health and mental problems. These were caused mainly from a lack of proper “women only” facilities, from restrictions placed on the women’s dress and appearance in public out of respect for local culture, and from poor medical care.
A lack of segregated toilet facilities meant American women soldiers had to share their bathrooms with male colleagues. Moreover, female aviators and other aircrew members were forced to pull down their flight suits while using latrines, the study added. This required them to get fully undressed in front of their male colleagues.
Many women were too embarrassed to use the latrines and to expose themselves in this way before the men. In order to avoid trips to the bathroom the women did not drink enough water. As a result, many of the women suffered from dehydration, and several eventually ended up with urinary tract infections, the study said.
The study also showed that female American soldiers suffered from the dress restrictions placed out of respect for local culture. Researcher Pierce said that American service women sustained skin infections caused by continual wearing of full field uniform in the blazing desert heat.
Women soldiers were forced to remain fully clothed while outside, in order to comply with Islamic tradition and local cultural concerns. "In Saudi (Arabia), women couldn't take their shirts off, like men, to get cool," Pierce told a conference on military health issues. "We had to keep the long sleeves down because of the culture."
In addition to these problems, women also suffered from a lack of adequate health care. The study indicated that many women did not seek proper medical care because they had no woman physicians to talk to. The female soldiers told researchers that health care was provided by male nurses, not physicians. As a result, many women said they simply put off addressing health issues until they could see a doctor - preferably a woman.
U.S. military officials said the study would be used in efforts to improve the health of women soldiers stationed in the Gulf region. However, Lieutenant Colonel Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, the program director for women's health issues within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, warned that the conditions faced by women in the Arab Gulf may damage the United States military. The difficult conditions may cause women soldiers to leave the services, and the American military, which is dependant on both male and female volunteers, will suffer. "Women usually will not complain," Ritchie said. "But they may vote with their feet and get out."
Contrary to this claim, American women soldiers have actually been speaking out, complaining in public of the inappropriateness of their conditions of service in the Arab Gulf. Most noteworthy was the recent case of the female Air Force pilot who went to court to demand the dress restrictions placed on female soldiers in Saudi Arabia be removed.
The inability of the American military to adapt to local culture and morality has been a major issue of contention between the U.S. troops and their Arab hosts in the Gulf. The recent study adds another factor to consider in the ongoing debate. (www.albawaba.com)
A clothesline and a sheet will solve this problem in 30 secs.
The study indicated that many women did not seek proper medical care because they had no woman physicians to talk to
That's just stupidity.
Didn't these "soldiers" have a choice of requesting a different assignment? They are not conscripts. All this demonstrates is that mixed-gender units are inefficient and a poor use of resources.
I have never heard of female IDF soldiers having these kind of problems. Is it because they don't complain or because the IDF uses its female soldiers more productively?
Another point not addressed here, and conveniently neglected by most freepers:
Is it the job of the American military to 'adapt to local culture and morality', especially when that culture is a barbaric throwback to the middle ages? Is it not the job of our military to win wars? Did our military 'adapt' to Japanese culture when we took Iwo Jima and Okinawa?
Having said that, since these Islamic ingrates expect the assistance of U.S. military forces - and based on recent mouthings from the ingrates in Kuwait and the oil rich Gulf states they do - it should be on OUR terms, not THEIRS, and that means treating OUR women like human beings, not like female cattle as is the practise in Islamic society.
A few years ago they reduced the size of hand grenades so that female soldiers could more easily throw them. In 1976 when there was violent confrontation at DMZ in korea where 2 american male soldiers were killed there were 2 american female soldiers who immediately fled the scene and left their male counterparts behind to defend the post. Having too many females mixed in has created morale problems. Female soldiers have said in polls that they simply don't want to serve in combat units much more so than male soldiers. So, in an organization dedicated to combat why have females mixed in more so than the leaders of that organization desire?
1. It should not be the US military's responsibility to "conform to local cultural standards". As far as I know, we do not require soldiers to remove their boots when entering a billet in Okinawa, so why is one custom observed and another not?
2. The armed forces need not cater to the individual tastes or concerns of its members. If SOP has an adverse effect on a particular population within the service, be it ethnic or gender-based, it is the responsibility of the individuals in that population to adapt or quit.
The Red Soviet Army never had this rapport with their conquered subjugants; in fact, if a lone Soviet soldier was at a Polish train station, he would most likely have the crap beat out of him by local Polish youths.
There is a certain wisdom in incorporating elements of good PR when you are an attacking army; the enemy after all in most of the cases are the oppressive governments we seek to topple; not the poor non-combatants we are going in to free.
Pardon me. Is there a problem here? If so I can't detect it. Many males will no longer volunteer to serve in the feminized services of today. Heavy recruiting efforts in area of traditional pro-military attitudes and limited economic opportunities (eastern Kentucky, Penn steel belt, rural Texas for three) aimed at males would make up any deficits. The fewer females in most CSS and all CS areaa the better.
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