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Austen & Int'l Women's Day
I bounced around via a bunch of links to this BBCNews piece on Jane Austen's continued popular appeal.
And I listened to yesterday's episode of Democracy Now! Which was utterly demoralizing. Goodman focused on women in the American armed forces as part of International Women's Day. She interviewed a researcher and several women who were or still are in the armed forces and served in Iraq. Transcript is here. Or you can use the link on that page to download the podcast or listen/watch online.
Two incredibly disturbing things to me: first, a clip of Col. Janice Karpinsky of Abu Ghraib infamy, the highest ranking officer to be censured in any way over AG (she was a Brigadier General, now is a Colonel), speaking about the deaths of women soldiers in the Middle East. Not because of combat injuries, but because they dehydrated and died in their bunks because were too scared to leave their relative safety at night to get water or go to the latrine (so they stopped drinking early in the afternoon) for fear of being assaulted by their fellow soldiers. And that Gen. Rick Sanchez (I think that was his name) didn't want the cause of death or sex repeated during briefings, so it was just generally listed as "non-combat related". ETA: As![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sarahf points out in the comments, there is no verification of Karpinski's testimony, so this may be an urban legend. There are links in the comments to a Salon article (with comments include questions about the Karpinski's trustworthiness and her source of information) and About.com, which links to audio of the testimony.
Second profoundly disturbing part of the episode: an interview with Spc. Mickiela Montoya, who said that she carried a knife to be safe. Safe from whom? "[S]afe from the other soldiers. I never intended on using the knife for an Iraqi. I had my M-16 for that. But my knife, I always just kept it for another soldier...."
Now, I think that the armed forces have their share of good people and bad people: they are a microcosm of America with all attendant social goods and ills. And I know that there are as many good men in the armed forces who would never dream of assaulting a colleague. But listening to this just made me feel physically ill.
And I listened to yesterday's episode of Democracy Now! Which was utterly demoralizing. Goodman focused on women in the American armed forces as part of International Women's Day. She interviewed a researcher and several women who were or still are in the armed forces and served in Iraq. Transcript is here. Or you can use the link on that page to download the podcast or listen/watch online.
Two incredibly disturbing things to me: first, a clip of Col. Janice Karpinsky of Abu Ghraib infamy, the highest ranking officer to be censured in any way over AG (she was a Brigadier General, now is a Colonel), speaking about the deaths of women soldiers in the Middle East. Not because of combat injuries, but because they dehydrated and died in their bunks because were too scared to leave their relative safety at night to get water or go to the latrine (so they stopped drinking early in the afternoon) for fear of being assaulted by their fellow soldiers. And that Gen. Rick Sanchez (I think that was his name) didn't want the cause of death or sex repeated during briefings, so it was just generally listed as "non-combat related". ETA: As
sarahf points out in the comments, there is no verification of Karpinski's testimony, so this may be an urban legend. There are links in the comments to a Salon article (with comments include questions about the Karpinski's trustworthiness and her source of information) and About.com, which links to audio of the testimony.Second profoundly disturbing part of the episode: an interview with Spc. Mickiela Montoya, who said that she carried a knife to be safe. Safe from whom? "[S]afe from the other soldiers. I never intended on using the knife for an Iraqi. I had my M-16 for that. But my knife, I always just kept it for another soldier...."
Now, I think that the armed forces have their share of good people and bad people: they are a microcosm of America with all attendant social goods and ills. And I know that there are as many good men in the armed forces who would never dream of assaulting a colleague. But listening to this just made me feel physically ill.