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"Although women are prohibited from serving in combat mission brigades, of the 100 women who have died so far in the Iraq war, 64 were killed by hostile fire-a high rate for troops supposedly not on the &amp;quot;front-lines&amp;quot; of war. This is because insurgents don&amp;#x27;t play by the rules of conventional warfare and will attack soldiers in support roles, previously considered &amp;quot;safe&amp;quot; for women. Improvised explosive devices and suicide bombers don&amp;#x27;t make the same kinds of distinctions our military policy does. In fact, one in every seven troops in Iraq is a woman and she may have not be have had the training she needs to survive. A recent Rand Corporation report found that while women and support personnel were routinely sent into combat-like situations which would call for &amp;quot;repelling the enemy&amp;#x27;s assault by fire, close combat, or counterattack&amp;quot; they are only given Level 1 self-defense training, which is often inadequate under the actual conditions in which they find themselves (page xvi). The Rand Report goes on to quote a female soldier recounting a training session about kicking in doors: &amp;quot;Once I walked in that class they were like, &amp;#x27;Oh boy, we&amp;#x27;ll train you but you&amp;#x27;ll probably never use this,? just based on my gender.&amp;quot; (page 34). I&amp;#x27;m against putting women in formal combat duty, but women should certainly be prepared to protect themselves with the same levels of force that may be used against them. Whether we like it or not, they are under fire. Democrats generally support women in combat roles, but there&amp;#x27;s less agreement within the Republican Party. John McCain would lift no-combat restrictions, while Mike Huckabee would tighten the rules. Regardless of where the candidates are on the issue, there should be a general consensus that women (and all troops) must be prepared to defend themselves with every means possible. Of course, this is just one of many issues surrounding the war we&amp;#x27;ll probably debate on Glamocracy in the coming months. Today I hope we can all take a moment to thank our hard-working, courageous soldiers and pray for their safe return. Merry Christmas! &amp;amp;#8212;Amanda Tomorrow on Glamocracy: Asma Hasan on why the candidates should go see The Kite Runner this holiday"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/glamocracy/2007/12/unconventional-gender-warfare>