Women on the Front Line have Unique Advantages in Afghanistan
Women on the Front Line have Unique Advantages in Afghanistan
This New York Times Op Ed is written by Paula Broadwell who is a former U.S. Army officer, a research associate at The Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University and a board member of Women in International Security.
She describes the unique effectiveness of the Marine Corps’ Female Engagement Teams (F.E.T’s).
The F.E.T. units are comprised of female marines with various operational specialties who conduct liaison work with Afghan women in remote villages. Their assignments range from searching women at checkpoints to distributing aid to running medical clinics to their core mission of engaging rural Pashtun women, often in their homes.
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The presence of F.E.T.’s sends a strong signal of peaceful engagement to local villages. As one village elder put it, “Your men come to fight, but we know the women are here to help.”
She argues that it is time to rethink the ban on women in combat positions, and remove an impediment to the Marine’s ability to fully utilize F.E.T.s.
KIT
October 20th, 2009 at 10:53 am
Interesting post. One of the problems I see in lifting the ban on women in combat would be defining what their roles should be. Just as this article points out, it’s the fact that the women are not there for combat that makes them effective. The biggest reason that it will be awhile before we allow women in combat is the effect their casualties would have on the public. We already lack the tolerance for casualties and having women killed would only create more disdain, imho. Plus they will just sleep with all the soldiers and prisoners and post pictures of it on the net. J/K
October 20th, 2009 at 11:03 am
It’s hard enough getting sex from a woman I share a bed with. I can’t imagine being in combat puts them more in the mood.