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Sex Runs Wild in U.S. Military
Despite Pentagon restrictions, sex is rampant among the men and women in uniform serving in Iraq, a potentially explosive new report reveals. With limited exceptions in other conflicts, there has never been a time in which American men and women have served, side by side and in such numbers, in units engaged in combat, according to the report in the Salt Lake Tribune. And sexual conduct "has become the cost of doing business in the gender-integrated military,” Elaine Donnelly, president of The Center for Military Readiness, told NewsMax. "I think it is the policy makers who should be held to account. I don’t blame individual men or women. The policy makers believe that men and women are interchangeable.”
Story Continues Below She called the assignment of women troops to units designated as "all male” a "national security issue.” Male and female soldiers in Iraq were willing to speak to the Tribune about sex in the combat zone, but most asked for confidentiality. It is only natural, they said, for the teens and 20-somethings who make up the majority of U.S. forces in Iraq to do what civilians of their age back home are doing. "They can try to keep us apart as much as they want, but they miss the point," said one female soldier. Sex, she said is "what people this age do."
Capt. Eryth Zecher, an officer with the 146th Transportation Company, said the Defense Department has not issued a blanket ban on sex in Iraq, although in most commands male and female soldiers are not allowed to be in the same room with the door closed or be "out of uniform" anyplace. But commanders seem to acknowledge that sex happens in the forward operating bases: Base exchanges sell trashy lingerie, medics hand out condoms and, in some places, have a supply of pregnancy test kits available. "We don't really have any other choice than to go to each other," said a male soldier in the 872nd Maintenance Company headquartered in Mosul. "In past wars, they could go into town and there would be girls there or boys or whatever you want. Here, you can't really leave the base because you'll get killed." Most male soldiers are not regularly having sex, despite some bragging to the contrary, the Tribune reports. But they estimate that anywhere from a quarter to three-quarters of female soldiers are engaging in sex while on deployment. Some female soldiers say that estimate is probably low. "If you include all the girls who are having sex with girls, it’s much closer to every one of us,” said a female soldier in the 146th. Even anonymously, female soldiers are reluctant to speak about sexual harassment. "They won't demote you” if a woman complains "because that would be too obvious, but you can forget about being promoted, or even treated like a human being, if you make those kinds of waves," a female soldier in Mosul told the Tribune. A female Marine officer stationed in Ramadi said: "You have two choices: You can keep your pants on and be miserable and be harassed or you can take your pants off and you'll still get harassed, but you'll be a little less miserable." Military activist Donnelly told NewsMax: "The problem with sexual relations is that those people who are involved in sexual relationships will trust one another to the exclusion of everyone else. You end up with a lot of people with weapons, not an effective fighting force.” There are also "pregnancy issues,” said Donnelly. "Sexual conduct occurs and that results in pregnancies and soldiers sent home.” As for what should be done, Donnelly added: "Army troops must comply with the law. If the Pentagon wants to change the regulation regarding the assigning of women, they must notify Congress in advance. They are not doing that. They are assigning women to troops that had been designated as ‘all male.’ "This causes problems and it becomes a national security issue. When trust among troops is compromised, lives will be lost.” Editor's note:
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