Harpy:a foul malign creature in Greek mythology that is part woman
and part bird, a predatory person, a shrewish woman.
WATCH OUT - THE ANTI-MILITARY WOMEN HARPIES ARE LOOSE!!
Now that military women have demonstrated that they are more than capable of serving in wartime the harpy foes of women in combat are uncoiling their talons and retching their rhetoric in the rightist rags .
Crawling out from under their conservative rocks they've started their specious campaigning against equal opportunity for military women - beating the dead mare that represents their muddled cause.
Using as foils the stories of Pfc Lynch, Pfc Piestewa, and Spec Johnson these termagants have begun spewing fabrications, misrepresentations, and taradiddle in the guise of concern for military women. Hiding behind banner headlines asking "what kind of nation sends women - or "mommies' to war?", these civilian carpers rant and rail against those of us who are serving or have served.
For decades, - no, for centuries - women have served this nation in war and peace, have died in service, been injured, have been prisoners, - and have served proudly and voluntarily. They joined the armed forces, not a women's club. They trained as troops in the military, not a dance troupe.
Many of us sought to serve as a way of living a better life than in a ghetto - where drive-by shootings far exceed combat fire.
Many chose to serve as a way of living a better life than becoming a victim of domestic combat.
Many chose to serve as a way of living a better life than becoming one of the 3,000 a year female homicides in "this nation that sends women to war".
Why aren't these issues being addressed by these do-gooders? Do-gooders whose premises are distorted beyond belief - don't they realize that in war the highest numbers of civilian casualties are women and children? What's their plan be to keep those mothers out of war? Or is it easier to peck away at military women?
Because with their ludicrous logic, mothers should not be teachers because there are school shootings. With their arguments, mothers should not pump gas because snipers shoot at gas stations, mothers should not drive cars because of road rage, and mothers should not fly on planes because of terrorists.
To ride the coat-tails of heroic military women, using them as a "cause celebre", even using their first names, is the most egregious example of charlatanism out there.
This subversion of women in the U.S. Armed Services is an insult to the the almost two million of us who have served, to the memory of the thousands who have given their lives, and to the young women of America who now wear the uniform of our country - voluntarily - and with pride and dignity.
