Women in Combat: GI Jane Goes to Iraq and Afghanistan

Given the ever-shifting measures of success regarding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it's heartening to know that one major battle is being won, decisively. Monday's New York Times reports that the fight to integrate female soldiers into combat zones -- in this case, the front lines of battle in the Mideast – has been won. Handily. The combat in Iraq and Afghanistan marks the first time that "tens of thousands of American military women have lived, worked and fought with men for prolonged periods . . . They have changed the way the United States military goes to war. They have reshaped life on bases across Iraq and Afghanistan. They have cultivated a new generation of women with a warrior's ethos -- and combat experience -- that for millennia was almost exclusively the preserve of men."
Yes, there are ladies rooms, ultrasound machines and birth control pills (and condoms) now on bases where there were none before. There is also sexual harassment and sexual assault. Said one sergeant: "You're a bitch, a slut or a dyke -- or you're married, but even if you're married, you're still probably one of the three." Then she added, "I think being a staff sergeant -- and a bitch -- helps."

But the great Boogeyman (or Boogeywoman, for that matter) of having ladies on the warfront -- and the potential problems they would create in the dynamics on base and the realities in battle -- has shown itself to be primarily an issue of logistics (including, but not limited to, how to pee in a bottle in the back of a truck). Pregnancies, once thought to be a great concern among hormonal young soldiers, have proven far less common than feared: at Warhorse, a base in Northern Iraq, the First Stryker Brigade, which has thousands of soldiers, has sent only three women home because of pregnancies in 10 months. In the meantime, female soldiers have become fully engaged in operations, including intelligence and psychological operations -- divisions of the Special Forces that had previously been off limits. Women soldiers go on patrols, run security checkpoints, serve as gunners and even train Iraqi military units -- just like their male counterparts.

Col. Burt K.Thompson, the commanding officer at Warhorse, asserted that women have ended the debate over their role by their performance. "I've relieved males from command," he said. "I've never relieved a female commander in two and a half years as commander."

But perhaps the greatest testament to the success of women's integration into the armed services is the fact that we're not even really talking about it: a sign of not just progress but of acceptance. "There was a lot of debate over where women should be," said Brig. Gen. Heidi V. Brown, one of the two highest ranking women in Iraq, recalling the start of the war. "Here we are six years later, and you don't hear about it. You shouldn't hear about it."