Never before has this country seen so many women paralyzed by the psychological scars of combat. As of June 2008, 19,084 female veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan had received diagnoses of mental disorders from the Department of Veterans Affairs, including 8,454 women with a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress — and this number does not include troops still enlisted, or those who have never used the V.A. system.

Their mental anguish, from mortar attacks, the deaths of friends, or traumas that are harder to categorize, is a result of a historic shift. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the military has quietly sidestepped regulations that bar women from jobs in ground combat. With commanders needing resources in wars without front lines, women have found themselves fighting on dusty roads and darkened outposts in ways that were never imagined by their parents or publicly authorized by Congress. And they have distinguished themselves in the field.

Psychologically, it seems, they are emerging as equals. Officials with the Department of Defense said that initial studies of male and female veterans with similar time outside the relative security of bases in Iraq showed that mental health issues arose in roughly the same proportion for members of each sex, though research continues.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Military / Armed Forces • Women • * Economics, Politics • Iraq War • War in Afghanistan

1. evan miller wrote: I think it is a grave mistake to have female soldiers stationed in theater.  If we must have them in combat support and combat service support units, they should not be deployed to active theaters.  It is a pity the armed forces are throwing away common sense and good order and discipline to satisfy the demands of political correctness in this way. November 3, 3:36 pm | [comment link]

2. Dave B wrote: evan, the problem is women are a part of the armed forces and there is no theater any more unless you mean out of anyplace terrorist can reach. This started in Viet Nam.  I read a book called “A Piece of My Heart” about women in Viet Nam.  Unless women are restricted to State side assignments this is going to happen in what the military discribes as LICKS (low intensity conflicts).  No “front” no “theater” etc.  My mother was a nurse during WW II.  She had a ribbon for being with in a mile or so of the front lines. November 4, 4:41 am | [comment link]

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