The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq

This is one of the saddest books any real veteran could read. Women have been serving in the military, or at least a military capacity, since the beginning. Women have always at least been serving in a support role as nurses, drivers, and office workers. There have always been the exceptions in every war, with women either serving hiding as men, or openly manning positions during crises. I have knowledge of the new role of women in the military as my sister served as a Navy officer, with her daughter currently serving in the Navy. When my sister went in in 1975, women were only one percent of the military, whereas they are now about fifteen percent. But, about the book first. The author, Helen Benedict, interviews a number of women who served in Iraq. What she reveals is really quite sickening. The book is divided into sections, describing their induction and training into the military, their service in Iraq, and their homecoming. The most glaring fact, which has to do with the title, is that women have to deal alone with all their problems and issues. Women can be sexually exploited starting with training. This progresses to outright rape when the women get to Iraq and combat. When they return to the US, they are just as alone. The VA seems to have a problem recognizing that women can suffer from PTSD just the same as the men. The VA is also unable to handle the other health-related issues of women. As a Vietnam veteran I just find it disgusting that a male soldier, who just survived a firefight with insurgents fighting next to a woman, would then only look at her as a piece of meat, to rape and even kill. What the hell is the military thinking? When I was in Vietnam we had racial problems, but those would disappear the further one went out into the field and combat. That's why I preferred the field to the rear. So, in my opinion, what makes the current male soldiers so different than my generation? Due to this problem of rape, women quickly realize that they have to pair up with a male soldier for protection. What this reminds me of is prison, in which a weak male will "sell" his body for sex in exchange for protection from the other inmates. So much for serving the country and patriotism. As I explained to Benedict in one conversation, my sister came close to being raped in the military. She graduated the top of her officer class and had her choice of assignment, choosing Antarctica. Fortunately, she got sick and hospitalized, and her assignment went to the next woman. There were only about twenty-two men at the base, and her. Walking down the hall one night a man threw a blanket over her, beat the crap out of her, and raped her. The Navy did not immediately get her out. While outside, one of the tracked vehicles intentionally ran over her, trying to kill her. She was saved by the fresh snow, as the treads just pushed her into the deep snow. And what did our great Navy do in the 1970s? Nothing. Even though this was easy to investigate,

I read this book because a friend is joining the Army and I am having the same thoughts... it hurts to see that women are treated so badly by everybody, including their female teammates. I know not everybody has the same experience but at least there is a book that will tell you the possibilities of what could happen when your recruiter tries to blind you with promises that may not make it on to your contract. Worse that they try to sell the armed forces so hard to a woman knowing that misogyny and abuse (verbal and physical) run rampant and let them walk into the Army blind. True, it mostly focuses on the hardships that the women faced but I believe that the point of the book is to showcase that even in this day and age they are treated like second class citizens even though they are putting their lives on the line for their country like the men. They are forced to take injections that are proven to cause long lasting illnesses including a birth control shot that deeply affects many soldiers' bodies. I like the fact that it featured women from different backgrounds and while it was a biography it was supported with credited outside facts and figures. It shows the front the administration puts up, the poor treatment of all US soldiers, and Bush's disgusting lack of morals and knowledge. It's an excellent and saddening book.

Women are now accepted into the military, but this doesn't mean they are a majority. "The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq" tells the story of the women in military service during America's contemporary conflict in Iraq. While many men tell stories of brotherhood, author Helen Benedict reveals that many women receive little of that bonding; instead they receive unwanted advances and discrimination. Drawing from five stories of military women, "The Lonely Soldier" is a fascinating read and look into the mind of today's woman soldier.

Benedict writes about several women veterans of the Iraq war, all of whom saw combat, lived in the constant fear of imminent death over which they had no control. These soldiers lacked even minimal protection due to the unspeakable corruption of KBR, a branch of the notorious Halliburton, illegally given lucrative contracts by the Bush administration, whose total lack of concern for the welfare of the troops is demonstrated so disgustingly clearly and repeatedly. Soldiers were supplied with broken down, stripped vehicles, many driven by women, lacking even spare tires (KBR stripped them before sending them to the troops) and did not have tops, doors or armor. Many were sent to battle without even adequate body armor, suffered from lack of food at times because KBR did not deliver food, preferring to allow it to rot, and when they did establish mess halls, refused to consider staggering hours forcing soldiers to wait in line for hours, making them sitting ducks, and leaving troops whose working hours might not coincide with the rigid operating hours set by KBR to starve. Many women soldiers returned with dangerously low weights. KBR also supplied waste water for troops so toxic and contaminated it was worse than the raw sewage-contaminated water from the Euphrates. Women veterans are returning with such serious reproductive and internal systemic problems from probable exposure and ingestion of bacteria and toxins they may never return to a state of health. All through the accounts the lack of organization, complete lack of coherent planning from the top on down, failures of leadership and often outright criminal neglect demonstrate a state of chaos and an incredibly dangerous atmosphere for women soldiers, most of whom were crammed into grossly inadequate filthy tents in overwhelming heat with only one or two women left to fend for themselves with hundreds of men. There was no attempt to establish or maintain order, and the constant, unrelenting sexual harassment and frequent sexual assault was invariably not only not dealt with properly, if the victims were naive enough to report their violations, they usually found themselves blamed for their own attacks. Often, the so-called "leadership" participated in their abuse. The sheer scale and volume of the massive failures to provide decent leadership, establish any sort of organization, or to pursue any attempt to manifest justice at any level is mind-boggling in this book. Perhaps more egregious, victimized women often found they could not get away from their abusers, but had to continue to serve side by side with their attackers. Benedict objectively and steadily chews through the BS of "support the troops" so blithely and sickeningly vomited out by the administration. Public apathy has never abated, and these vets are returning to the same uncaring, bureaucratic snafus vets of other wars have faced, but this time with the double or multiple whammeys of the silent slither of the snakes of w

Being a female in the military myself, I can truely relate to these women and there situations. It's about time someone give the female view of how it is to serve and be under-minded and not looked at as an equal. To civilians that probably have no idea. Please read this book and maybe just maybe this could be addressed. Believe it or not the military will listen and take action faster if the concern comes from a non military personal. And what an owesome! title because at times, that's actually what I felt like.