Israel and the Gaza Flotilla

When a trap is being visibly prepared for you, which the “Peace Flotilla” was, it is inadvisable to stick your head into it.  Which Israel did when it boarded one of those ships and Israeli commandos were attacked.  Let me be clear about this.  Israel did two things wrong.  The first was boarding these ships [...]

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

For the military’s institutional leadership to continue to refuse to urgently petition Congress to immediately end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and allow openly homosexual and bisexual troops to serve with all the rights and benefits—including for their spouses—of heterosexual troops is to forsake the troops under their command. It is also to engage in conduct unbecoming of officers and gentlemen. Like their refusal to petition Congress to end all restrictions upon servicewomen, the leadership’s refusal to petition to end DADT is to engage in behavior of enormous personal and institutional dishonor and cowardice that violates one of the core reasons the US military exists.

Full participation for ‘Sisters-in-Arms’ (WaPo)

Full participation for our ‘sisters-in-arms’ By Donna McAleer and Erin Solaro Saturday, December 12, 2009 By this time next year, U.S. troops will have been in Afghanistan longer than the Soviets were. The United States has been engaged in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq longer than in any previous war. Not factoring in the increase [...]

Women and the US Draft

A correspondent, whose name I have withheld pending permission to use it, has asked me to consider whether or not women’s exemption from registration for Selective Service contributes to the glass ceiling in this country, and whether or not I think women should have to register for Selective Service. In good, ambiguous fashion, my answer [...]

Women’s Interests and the Military Draft

I’m taking a break from writing a novel to actually more or less blog, and write about what it means to be a woman-or a man-and a citizen today.  As a start, I’m linking to this piece about the Israeli Defense Forces targeting female draft dodgers.  Israel, which has slowly begun to reopen the combat arms [...]