Posted on 03/25/2003 5:39:00 PM PST by Dajjal
Fleischer: Rape of POWs 'not worth mentioning'
Spokesman fails to address issue of U.S. women held by enemy
Editor's note: Each week, WorldNetDaily White House correspondent Les Kinsolving asks the tough questions no one else will ask. And each week, WorldNetDaily brings you the transcripts of those dialogues with the president and his spokesman. If you'd like to suggest a question for the White House, submit it to WorldNetDaily's exclusive interactive forum MR. PRESIDENT!
By Les Kinsolving
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
At today's White House news briefing, WND asked presidential press secretary Ari Fleischer about the Iraqis' holding of a female United States soldier as a prisoner of war and how it relates to the issue of women in combat.
WND: Ari, one of the U.S. POWs in Iraq is Shoshana Johnson of Texas, while The New York Times this morning reports that Pfc. Jessica Lynch of West Virginia is missing or captured. And during Desert Storm, Maj. Rhonda Cornum was captured and gang-raped, while the other U.S. female prisoner of war would neither confirm or deny that she, too, was gang-raped. And my question, does the president think that the Iraqi army has somehow changed to avoid the raping of female prisoners?
FLEISCHER: Lester –
WND: Or does he believe that it would be wise –
FLEISCHER: Lester –
WND: – to keep the women out of combat areas?
FLEISCHER: The history of our military is that men and women have served this nation honorably and with distinction. The treatment of prisoners by Saddam Hussein is the only point worth mentioning here. It's a given that men and women serve our country with dignity, that Saddam Hussein's regime had better not harm our prisoners. The president has made that clear. … Lester, no follow-up.
The Washington Times reported yesterday that Johnson was the first U.S. female held as a POW since the Clinton administration's military leaders repealed a rule barring servicewomen from positions with a high risk of encountering enemy fire or capture.
"It's bad when a man is captured. But if a woman is captured, she doesn't have the same chance [to defend herself] that a man does," Elaine Donnelly, president of the Military Readiness Center, told the paper.
Said retired Army Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis, "You must consider that women in every society are preyed upon if they are overtaken. ... Now that women are closer to the front lines, they are more subject to becoming captives and being manipulated."
Submit a question to the MR. PRESIDENT! forum.
Les Kinsolving is WorldNetDaily’s White House correspondent and a talk-show host for WCBM in Baltimore.
On this one, you are correct.
Idiotic, stupid, moronic, illogical, ill-conceived.
Forgive me for being harsh, but it's this type of thinking that costs lives, degrades moral and takes away from the mission.
You know where we went to the bathroom when I was in the Gulf? In front of the whole damn company (there's no trees or hills), with everyone watching. You want that for your mom? That's just one tiny example of the many of why combat IS NO PLACE FOR A WOMAN. Never mind the disfigured and dismembered bodies, the sexual torture and the depletion of unit cohesion by bringing sexual tension into a situation where it doesn't belong. Never mind the lack of upperbody strength when someone might need it most.
I don't want to even argue this. IMO if something so common sense can't instinctively penetrate someone's frontal lobe there's no use arguing it.
Please do not trade your male instincts and decency for newthink cowflop. What's happening to those girls are because of people who think that way, absurd pollyanna idealism. Going to war and being thrust into a killing machine is not some sort of right to be enjoyed.
I honestly can not believe a halfway bright person could come to such a ridiculous, insane conclusion. God bless your mom but if anyone needs a pummeling it's you sir.
No you don't have a right to your opinion when it comes costing lives. Also, I don't think that just because there's a war on that we should unquestionably support every politician behind it, all the way down to the press secretary. We should question much, even more than ever. This notion of not second guessing or quesitoning stupidity while there's a war on is bankrupt thinking.
That said, I will say that the guy did kind of phrase the question very stupidly and I've overreacted a bit.
They are not needed there, and they cause special problems. The possibility of sexual assault is too high for the women (I don't agree with the previous poster who claimed that ALL POWs in GW I were raped). Maybe you could cite a source.
The military is not a jobs program. Let the women serve stateside and in-theater at the rear.
The reason is, nearly every death or POW I've seen thus far in this war is due to stupidity, ignorance or lack of due care.
I can't stand to watch it. I honestly believe much of the bloodshed is on some of our own hands. Politicians, some military lifers, all the way down to us citizens.
To me, there are some mistakes we're just not allowed to make, especially when this much is at stake. This is for keeps, and it's for real. Real people die, many many of them. We're not entitled to our opinions or our stupidity right now.
Lester Kinsolving is a conservative Helen Thomas: old, doddering, and foolish.
The point is that if this is issue is raised often enough, we can prevent another woman from becoming a POW. Sadly, it's too late for Johnson. That much is obvious.
I agree with AAABEST, but wouldn't argue the issue with the same...vigor. Not right now. And Les Kinsolving is a crackpot, but by raising this issue early and often, he is doing the right thing.
In fact, the more I think of this, the more it pisses me off. We need to freep Les Kinsolving for this. His Email. ( link provided)
Hey shadowman!
I just wrote a rather eloquent freep telling this idiot off and when I punted it, it bounced.
Recheck the addy on this moron? Thanks in advance!
Tia
You have no facts. Anybody that can pass the physical tests and wants to be in combat should be.
I gave you facts and you come back with a drunken slobbering rage. I hope there are no women in the room, you hate them enough to have them dismembered, I'd hate to see what would happen to one that might cross your path while you're on this rage.
You should learn to control your alchohol. You PC, half left neocons/canadian-cons are scary enough when you're straight. This is why you people will eventually lose the argument, you're as weak in your mind as you are in your vision.
I think we're in one of those love/hate things. How's your doggy BTW?
:)
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