Last week a British woman soldier was killed in Iraq when the helicopter she was in command of was shot down. This week a female Special Constable was stabbed outside her home and died on the night of her third wedding anniversary. Reports in today's Guardian suggest she was disarmed and stabbed with her own kitchen knife.
I believe that women should be in the army and police force if they wish to be (I sure don't) and face the same dangers as their male counterparts, but why all the furore when they're killed in the line of duty? Surely as a soldier you are aware that at some point you may be called upon to go fight for your country, and that you may not return? No one wants to die, but again, no one forced you to sign up.
When I was at The Observer newspaper, I had the grim task of researching the deaths of all the British soldiers killed in the Iraq War, all 98 of them at the time. Some of the stories were very painful to read. Soldiers who left behind pregnant wives, or who were coming to the end of their tour of duty. Lots of teenagers who came from depressed towns with high unemployment and had little choice but to join the service, with others following in their parents footsteps. It's great fodder for newspapers ready to create martyrs which grab headlines and shift papers. The comparison is easily drawn between the way our newspapers parade the dead soldiers, and the suicide bombers whose video messages surface following their atrocity. Each revelling in the martyrdom of the slain.
I feel a certain amount of sympathy for them and their families, but also despair at the tone of the coverage. Yes, Iraq is a dodgy war, but like Muhammad Ali, each soldier has the opportunity to be a conscientious objector. Ali spent some years in prison because he refused to fight in the Vietnam war which the US lost. Soldiers are not invincible, or X-Men, they are simply human. And it is highly likely that some of them will die in action. Why do people sign up for army life if they don't expect at some point to be dodging bullets?
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2 comments:
As men, it's hard to watch people we are "wired" to protect in harms way. I know that sounds sexist, and it probably is, but that's the way I was raised. Soldier or officer, they'll be women first IMHO.
KZ
It still amazes me that so many people, especially women are still signing up for the armed forces, despite the fact that we're losing it and people are getting killed to protect Bush's oil stock...
Puhhh-leeee-zzzz don't get me started! I think I'll stop typing now before I post in your comment section.
Very good post, Butterfly.
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