Some statistics, compiled by Helen Benedict, on females in the military:

30% are raped.

71% are sexually assaulted.

90% are sexually harassed.

While I myself am a pro-peace advocate who cringes at giant amounts of money being poured into warfare, I realize that the military has been around since the birth of nations. The two are, unfortunately, disastrously, murderously, combined. But my rant on nationalism is a separate.

This is for the soldiers who volunteer to support an ideal. Their image is a romantic one: they are banded together against an unpredictable array of car bombs and an invisible enemy. Amid endless controversy, particularly over the occupation of Iraq, they live in service of an ideology in which they believe. That they would die for.

And many have.

At the same time, let’s be real.

Aside from all the political mash-ups that have fairly destroyed US foreign relations, the military has been catching a lot of flak recently regarding torture of prisoners. What about torture of their own?

Imagine being raped, being absolutely invaded, by someone on your side. You report the vile incident to your superior officers. They respond that if you make an official accusation, you could likewise be charged with leaving your weapon unattended in a combat zone. The penalty for this could be discharge. Are you sure you want to sacrifice your career for this altercation?

Imagine being told that the only reason you, a female, were summoned to Iraq was because there are ” no prostitutes like in Vietnam”. You’re there essentially to be a human body bag. You are the “bitch, ho, or dyke” onto which your male counterparts can spew aggression, both verbally and physically.

What makes Helen Benedict’s book scarier, is that it is compiled all from females from within our military. This does not include any sexual assaults done towards the countless Iraqi civilians who have even less recourse besides, perhaps, the groups that might be labeled as “extremist”.

The war from within the military rages. What must the soldiers think, as they are being held down and abused, as they are subjected to unwarranted searches into their sexual lives?

They signed up to fight for an ideal. Instead, these marginalized United States soldiers seem to be fighting for air.