Dozens of Women Guard Troops Heading to Iraq

[Englander]

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=71860

Last Updated: 11/18/2004 7:02:38 PM

Dozens of Minnesota National Guard troops are about to be deployed to Iraq, but this time the send-off is different than the others.

This time nearly half of the 153 members of Company A of the 434th Main Support Battalion from Camp Ripley are women.

Family and friends will say goodbye to the soldiers in a deployment ceremony Friday night at Camp Ripley.

The men, and women, of Company 'A will then report to Fort Benning Georgia before flying to Iraq.

[LosinIt]

1. sigh

and how many children do they leave behind. I can't imagine being a kid trying to carry on a normal life knowing Mom was in that hellhole.

[TexasChick]

2. And, knowing full well that the Chimp and his twin daughters aren't losing

a wink of sleep over it!

[Kolesar]

3. I envisaged women surrounding the guard and keeping them from going

Don't take my man!

[crasmane]

4. And I envisaged mothers baring their teeth,

at those who would take their sons.

[Kolesar]

5. If it happens, you won't see it in the American media

We need more storming of the Bastilles here in this country --Jon Stewart

[BeHereNow]

9. Me TOO!

It was a great fantasy until I read the text...
Actually, it's not a bad idea.
We could chain ourselves to them.
I know that is what I would do if
they tried to send my kid to fight
the cowboy king's illegal war.
bhn

[cubsfan forever]

6. Hmmm, Minnesota

isn't that a "blue state" that doesn't have the death penalty and supports the Equal Rights Amendment? Payback? Just asking.
I feel rage that young men and women are ripped from their families and sent to war by a Coward who never went.
:nuke:

Professor 2

[xultar]

7. A woman with a Gun, those mofos better look out! n/t

[saigon68]

12. The Mofo's are getting even one corpse at a time CAUTION GRAPHIC.

IRAQ-NAM, is a ruthless, vicious place that asks No Quarter and Gives None.

It is ruled by Viceroy Pontius Negroponte appointed by Cheney Caesar, in the year of Our Lord
Two thousand Four A. D.

Death here rides a Pale Horse.

Death claims in no particular order, the Innocent, the Guilty, the Unlucky and the Careless.

[SheilaT]

8. It's not as though

being in the National Guard is a protection against being sent off to war.

Soldiers sent to fight is the real headline here. If women enlist in the Guard it shouldn't be any kind of surprise that they can be sent off to war.

In a country with a volunteer army, if you don't want to be a soldier, don't enlist. It's as simple as that. And spare me the sad tales of those who enlisted some years back assuming they'd never be activated. Back in the first Gulf War lots of reserve and Guard units were activated and sent overseas, so this isn't exactly something new.

[wovenpaint]

10. Remember the ERA movement?

My mind keeps coming back to this lately.

I'm thinking of one of the big arguments against the ERA - by people the likes of Phyllis Shafley.
The gist of it being if women are considered equal to men, they'd be having their babies ripped from their arms and sent off to join the men in war.
Gee, the ERA didn't get ratified(yet), so women DON'T have equal rights...and the babies ARE left behind.

Just thinking......

[Catt03]

13. They may also consider

as they are marching to war, that Republicans who are sending them are trying to outlaw contraception, right of choice, .....well anything that has to do with women and and their bodies.

[Algorem]

11. I guess they need some pointers.

[Greylyn58]

14. Maybe

we should mail a couple of enlistment forms to the twins and let them know that they are recruitment age.

Give them to the Marines...they could certainly straighten them out.

:grr: