It's Not About Being a Woman...Except When It Is

Army medic Pfc. Monica Brown pulled a fellow solider to safety, shielded him with her body, treated his wounds, carried him to an ambulance, and got him airlifted to safety--all under enemy gunfire in Afghanistan. For these heroic acts, Pfc. Brown received the Silver Star, only the second woman in history to do so. You can read her story in the Washington Post here.

What fascinates me about this story is more than just the same old question about whether women "should be" in combat. Dude, women ARE in combat. Of course, Pfc. Brown was taken out of the unit where she was serving as a medic and sent back to the big Army, because she wasn't supposed to be in combat. But there are two things about the contemporary situation that have got to be addressed.

One is that the ancient combat rules of 1992 (and in our era of technology, 16 years might as well be a century), define "combat" as being "forward," as in "toward the front lines." But in this war, there are no front lines. There are no lines at all. There are just people shooting at our soldiers, and people acting with breathtaking courage and generosity. Stories like Pfc. Brown's represent the best of our military and our nation, and heck, the best of our claims as human beings. She didn't go to "the front lines," whatever they are--she is a medic and went where soldiers needed care. That is her job and she does it incredibly well. Can we get the bureaucrats out of the way and just let her do it?

The other thing that the article points out, and which deserves some more attention, is the fact that far from a "gender-blind" military being the ideal, the US now finds itself in a position where it needs to send women into dangerous places...not only because they are fine soldiers, but specifically because they are women. We are dealing with conservative Muslim countries, and in these cultures, only women can interact publicly with women. When it comes to something as sensitive as giving medical care, it is absolutely out of the question for Muslim women to be treated or touched by foreign men. If we are going to stick to our moral claim that we are in these places to make the lives of the people better, we simply must respect these cultural boundaries--and that means sending women into any place where there might be women. And that's almost everywhere in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The US Army needs brave women soldiers like Monica Brown--because they are brave, because they are soldiers, and because they are women. If these rules don't change immediately, and if soldiers like Pfc. Brown aren't put back in action, we'll find ourselves back where we started this whole undertaking--one war behind.

Kathy