Women at War

Lauren Auton, 10/23/09, 1:23 PM

The Marine Corps has been successfully using women in Iraq and Afghanistan in Female Engagement Teams, or F.E.T.’s. These teams were first used in Afghanistan this past February and have since been able to help with establishing bonds with the female side of the Afghan population. Female marines make up these teams and have numerous jobs, which include things such as sitting and talking with the native women or conducting searches of women at checkpoints, or even running medical clinics. These women who are part of the F.E.T.'s are able to gain trust by establishing relationships and relating to the locals, rather than just trying to gain intelligence.

I thought that it was a relief to finally hear about something good coming from the war that the United States is going though. The media usually tries to only mention the things that go wrong with the world, so it is nice to know that there is still good going on. I think that a tactic like this is a whole lot better used than others and it would be nice to see teams like the F.E.T.'s used more often in the future. The article mentioned though that there is only about 6 percent of the U.S. Marine Corps that is female, so not much can be done until there are more women available for the Marine Corps to use.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/opinion/21iht-edbroadwell.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1256317222-LFH7hFqpgwA7VtXfrGNK7g