Article One

COMMITTEE for
COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT

Who We Are

Articles

Articles: Military Service: Women

Female Soldiers Treated 'Lower Than Dirt'

Rose Aguilar, AlterNet

July 14, 2006

The case of Suzanne Swift reveals that women deployed
in the Middle East are facing rape, abuse and sexual
harassment -- from their own comrades-in-arms.

U.S. Army Specialist Suzanne Swift will spend her 22nd
birthday tomorrow confined to the Fort Lewis base in
Washington, where she is awaiting the outcome of an
investigation into allegations that she was sexually
harassed and assaulted by three sergeants in Iraq.

Swift says the sergeants propositioned her for sex
shortly after arriving for her first tour of duty in
February 2004. She remained in Iraq until February
2005. "When you are over there, you are lower than
dirt, you are expendable as a soldier in general, and
as a woman, it's worse," said Swift in a recent
interview with the Guardian.

This archive consists of a topically organized selection of articles culled by members of the Counter-Recruitment List Serve from printed publications and web sites. The archive is not complete. We have chosen material relevant to the work of Eugene, Oregon’s Committee for Countering Military Recruitment that we think may be of use to others individuals and groups with similar goals.

Because our web site is public, personal comments about the articles and (frequent) corrections of reporters’ errors are also not included. If an article interests you, we encourage you to return to the Counter-Recruitment List Serve and put the article’s headline into the search line, which should bring up (often wise and useful) commentary and corrections. If you do not belong to the List Serve, it can be found at counter-recruitment@yahoogroups.com

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the articles on this site are posted without profit to those who have expressed prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposed.