Archive for the ‘Iraq’ Category

Nearly 300,000 women served during the Iraq War. Two decades later, they remain the invisible veterans. – The 19th*

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2023-03-20 13:20

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March 20, 2023

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Christina Schauer deployed to Baghdad in March 2003 during her sophomore year in college. At age 20, Schauer was part of an 800-member reserve battalion that consisted mainly of engineers, truck drivers, mechanics and a handful of medics like herself, tasked with building up the military bases that are there now. About 10 percent were women, she said.

I joined the military knowing that this was a possibility, but it was surreal, said Schauer, who had enlisted during peacetime in 1999 to help pay for college and nursing school.

For the first couple of weeks, Schauer said, they didnt have tents. They slept outside their trucks and held up curtains when people needed to shower. It took months to set up tents, flooring, electricity and eventually air-conditioning. During her year in Iraq, Schauer said she faced gunfire, exploding mortars and the constant threat of violence. Whether they were gunners or truck drivers, men and women alike engaged in combat roles something that became far more commonplace in the conflict.

I dont think people think of women serving those types of roles in the military, said Schauer, who now leads a military and veteran health care program at a community hospital in Dubuque, Iowa.

In the 20 years since the United States invaded Iraq, over a quarter of a million women have served there, the largest-scale and most visible deployment of women in U.S. history. More than 1,000 women had been injured in combat and 166 killed as of 2017, according to the Service Womens Action Network. The capture and rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch made headlines early in the war, and women were among the service members named in the 2004 Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal. The United States formally withdrew its combat forces in 2011, but maintains a military presence.

The increase in women soldiers, and the visibility of their service, was integral to the militarys mission and ultimately led to major policy changes like the removal of ground combat restrictions for women. Still, according to experts, many women veterans of the Iraq War remain invisible and unrecognized among the larger American public.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a New Jersey Democrat, graduated from the Naval Academy in 1994 as part of the first class of women eligible for combat on ships. Congress repealed the law banning women from combat aviation and on ships in 1991 and 1993, respectively. The Navy wouldnt reverse the policy barring women from submarines until 2010.

Sherrill served for nearly a decade, including a stint in London when she worked for a Navy fleet commander, overseeing the deployment of troops to Iraq and the logistics involved in creating large tent cities.

The culture for women was not great, Sherrill said. She said she sensed the difference as early in her career as her time at the U.S. Naval Academy. I graduated from a large public high school where girls were treated more fairly, but then youd get to the Academy and slowly there would be an almost inculcation of misogyny. There was this sense that somehow women were lowering standards and that it wasnt fair.

When she was still a naval cadet, Sherrill said she and other cadets including several other women were deployed on a ship that only had enlisted men on it. After some weird interactions, Sherrill learned that the enlisted men had been told not to talk to the women because it would be nothing but trouble.

In Iraq, however, Sherrill said that women service members took on some of the more dangerous roles, gathering intelligence and clearing homes of suspected militants. It became clear as the conflict dragged on that the U.S. military needed to engage with Iraqi women, a job only possible with women specialty combat squads called Lioness Teams. These women Marines and soldiers were encouraged to emphasize their femininity, instructed to take off their helmets, let their hair down and talk about their families or relate to Iraqi women on a more personal level in a way that would have been culturally objectionable if a man had been sent to interview them.

The front lines are no longer as cleanly delineated in war as they had been in the past, Sherrill said. The changes put women in places with more responsibility and risk, but often in a way that wasnt reflected in record-keeping, housing and careers. So you often had women being deployed to places that technically were combat positions or were deployed on submarines where they werent included in the official ships company of submarines. Women were serving in all kinds of combat roles; however, they werent given the billets, the credit or the promotions that often came with those roles. It was always done in this sort of jerry-rigged way.

In 2013, Congress announced the repeal of the combat exclusion policy, though it wasnt implemented until 2015.

After years of fighting in Iraq, you finally saw an acknowledgment that these restrictions were sort of in name only and really punitive to women service members, Sherrill said.

In addition to the repeal of the women in combat exclusion, several other major policy changes have been enacted in recent years, influenced in part by the growing visibility of women in the military and by women veterans who pursued government service in the civilian world. Congress mandated in 2020 that the Marine Corps Recruit Training be gender integrated; the pink tax on military uniforms was eliminated in 2021; and womens military uniforms continue to evolve. And as part of the latest National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, the military authorized increased funding to support military families and reformed how sexual assault and harassment cases were handled in the military justice system.

As a Navy veteran, I love our military and our service members and our veterans, but sometimes it is difficult to make changes, Sherrill said, noting that it took years to get military sexual assault and harassment cases prosecuted outside of the chain of command. I think having women veterans in Congress is a part of that solution. . . . [Former Rep.] Elaine Luria and I had both gone to the Naval Academy, served in the House Armed Services Committee and are in group texts with people whove been assaulted in the military so we understand the issues.

Theresa Schroeder Hageman, a political science instructor at Ohio Northern University who served as a nurse in the Air Force from 2005 to 2010, said that shes noticed that veterans like herself who served during the post-9/11 conflict years dont always claim the veteran status. Schroeder Hageman said she cared for active-duty and veteran patients at one of the countrys largest Air Force hospitals, but she was never deployed overseas.

Sometimes I dont claim the status because I didnt deploy, so I feel less than, which is silly, Schroeder Hageman said. You think, Im not a real vet. Some women who were deployed but didnt serve outside the wire will say theyre not a real vet.

The 19th reached out to more than a dozen women veterans who served in the Iraq War, but the vast majority declined an interview, saying they did not feel comfortable or qualified enough to speak about the veteran experience.

Its this kind of mentality, Schroeder Hageman said, that is fed by and perpetuates broader stereotypes about who a veteran is and what one looks like. Schroeder Hageman described women having to work hard to prove they deserve veterans discounts and services. Some opt to forget about it and blend back into civilian life.

Women are the most visible service members we stick out, everyone talks about us, she said. But we are also the invisible veterans because no one sees you as a veteran or they dont assume youre a veteran.

Lisa Leitz, an associate professor of peace studies at Chapman University, said that although the cultural connection between violence and masculinity is still so strong, theres also a growing awareness that combat in modern warfare is more nuanced. Part of that, she said, means mechanics and cooks are often necessary in combat zones, at the mercy of bombings and violence.

Schnauer recalls that feeling of vulnerability. I remember thinking, Will the other students notice if I dont come back? My first night sleeping outside my truck, I distinctly remember just looking up at the stars and thinking about my family. I thought I was going to die the next day.

Leitz has noticed that the increased visibility of women soldiers has shifted stereotypes both within and outside the military community.

Culturally, I do think that the U.S. is becoming more used to seeing women as veterans or as military members, said Leitz, whose husband served for more than 20 years in the Navy, flying missions over both Iraq and Afghanistan. Its still not uncommon, though, to hear from women that theyve parked in a veteran-designated parking spot and been yelled at.

Schauer, now 40, said she is intentionally trying to be better about claiming her accomplishments and experiences, and encourages her friends to do the same.

I feel like when I got out, I didnt talk about my military service because I felt like I didnt really do anything, she said. I said I just sat around in Iraq for a year and came home, like no big deal. All these other people that did cool things. They deserve recognition, not me.

Its not about seeking praise and glory, Schauer said, but about helping other women veterans feel less alone or raising public awareness to get resources to those that are struggling.

Women veterans in general need to be better about saying, I served too and, My experience matters too. Schauer said. And not just downplaying it because were women or happy to be wallflowers.

According to a 2012 report from Yale University, veterans account for more than 20 percent of the overall homeless population. Of the women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, 77 percent had post-traumatic stress disorder or a mood disorder. The typical homeless woman veteran was an unmarried Black woman in her 30s who had never been incarcerated, the study found.

We have to stand up and talk about our experiences so we can help those other women be seen because as long as people are still picturing a veteran as a man that is in his 60s or 70s, then these women that are struggling with homelessness and brain health issues arent going to get the help that they need, Schauer said.

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Nearly 300,000 women served during the Iraq War. Two decades later, they remain the invisible veterans. - The 19th*

History may yet be kind to Blair over the Iraq war – The Guardian

Iraq war: 20 years on

Yes, mistakes were made, but the invasion is what an ethical foreign policy looks like, argues Nick Martin-Clark. Plus letters from Dave Headey, Dr Jonathan Punt, Paul Tyler and Gregory Stock

Wed 22 Mar 2023 14.32 EDT

Jonathan Freedlands analysis is simplistic (The real lesson of the Iraq invasion? Beware spies and allies who would drag you to war, 17 March). Saddam Hussein had a mothballed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programme that he fully intended to reactivate once sanctions were lifted.

Sanctions were themselves responsible for great suffering and Saddam himself maintained the illusion that he did possess WMDs because he mistakenly thought this would protect him. Yes, Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell overegged the pudding, but lets not let presentational mistakes get in the way of a true appreciation of the bigger picture. The Iraq intervention set off a wave of hope within the Arab world that was betrayed by the refusal to follow through in Syria.

The Ukraine war shows we need more US engagement, not less, in a dangerous world. Yes, mistakes were made, but the Iraq war is what an ethical foreign policy looks like. History may be kinder to Blair than Freedland allows.Nick Martin-Clark Gex, France

Jonathan Freedland tells us he supported Tony Blairs intervention in Kosovo, but its arguable that without the rapturous welcome he received in Pristina, Blair might not have developed the messianic fervour that gripped him when it came to Iraq. It wouldnt have stopped George W Bushs invasion, but if Blair hadnt been blooded by all that adulation, he might have become the wise counsel that Bush so obviously needed.Dave HeadeyFaringdon, Oxfordshire

Armando Iannucci (The Thick of It was fuelled by my anger at the Iraq war and the way it left truth for dead, 18 March) quotes Tony Blairs speech to the Labour party conference on 28 September 2004, in which Blair addressed issues arising from the Iraq war in words that included the assertion I only know what I believe.

I recall the observation of one professor at my medical school: When someone commences a statement with the words I believe, I know that he is about to say something for which he has absolutely no evidence. Blairs frankly equivocal statement is effectively an acknowledgment that he did not have evidence that Saddam Hussein had WMDs.Dr Jonathan PuntLondon

It was a happy coincidence that the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq (Editorial, 17 March) took place as the Liberal Democrat conference reasserted the partys internationalist commitments and determination to unscramble the worst features of the Brexit deal. Those of us who followed Charles Kennedys lead in voting against the US/UK military action have no regrets, but the real heroes were Robin Cook and Ken Clarke. They defied those who put party unity before principle. In the context of Brexit, where are their successors? Paul TylerLiberal Democrat, House of Lords

One of my proudest moments as a Canadian was when my then prime minister, Jean Chrtien, rose in the House of Commons and declared: We will not participate.

False claims started a war that killed hundreds of thousands of innocents, conducted in the name of human rights. The belated soul-searching is a bit rich. It was not only an obvious catastrophic fools errand from the get-go, it was an abject lesson in how easy it is to manufacture the consent of idiots.Gregory Stock Toronto, Canada

Have an opinion on anything youve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

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History may yet be kind to Blair over the Iraq war - The Guardian

20 years on, most Americans say Iraq invasion was the wrong decision – Axios

George W. Bush informs Americans in televised remarks on March 19, 2003 that the U.S.-led military intervention in Iraq had begun. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Two decades after the U.S. invaded Iraq, 61% of Americans do not believe the U.S. made the right decision according to a new Axios/Ipsos poll.

Why it matters: The chaos and destruction that followed the invasion have made a generation of Americans and their leaders more skeptical of the use of military force overseas, in particular in the Middle East. The invasion toppled a brutal dictator but sparked 20 years of instability in Iraq, and damaged America's standing in the world.

Flashback: On March 17, 2003, George W. Bush issued an ultimatum that the U.S. would take military action if Saddam Hussein did not leave Iraq within 48 hours. On March 19, bombs began to fall on Baghdad. On March 20, the ground invasion commenced.

Timeline: U.S. forces took Baghdad in early April. Bush's now-infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech came on May 1, 2003, just five weeks into the war.

The legacy of the war had significant effects on the foreign policies of both administrations.

State of play: Just 31% of Americans think the Iraq War made America safer, while 36% think the U.S. was right to invade, according to the Axios/Ipsos poll published this week.

Methodology: The Axios/Ipsos Poll was conducted March 10-13, 2023, by Ipsos on their online survey panels in English. The poll is based on a sample of 1,018 general population adults age 18 or older, weighted on age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, and location to be nationally representative.

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20 years on, most Americans say Iraq invasion was the wrong decision - Axios

Iraq and Iran sign deal to tighten border security – Reuters

BAGHDAD, March 19 (Reuters) - Iraq and Iran signed a border security agreement on Sunday, a move Iraqi officials said aimed primarily at tightening the frontier with Iraq's Kurdish region, where Tehran says armed Kurdish dissidents pose a threat to its security.

The joint security agreement includes coordination in "protecting the common borders between the two countries and consolidating cooperation in several security fields", a statement from the Iraqi prime minister's office said.

Iran's Supreme National Security Council secretary Ali Shamkhani signed the deal with Iraq's National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji, in the presence of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani, the prime minister office said.

"Under the signed security deal, Iraq pledges it would not allow armed groups to use its territory in the Iraqi Kurdish region to launch any border-crossing attacks on neighbour Iran," said an Iraqi security official who attended the signing.

The frontier came into renewed focus last year when Iran's Revolutionary Guards launched missile and drone attacks against Iranian Kurdish groups based in northern Iraq, accusing them of fomenting protests that were sparked by the death of a Iranian Kurdish woman while she was being held in police custody.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, speaking in Tehran, said "Shamkhani's current trip to Iraq has been planned since four months and is focused on issues related to the armed groups in northern Iraq". The Islamic republic of Iran will in no way accept threats from Iraqi territories, he added.

Iran has also accused Kurdish militants of working with its arch-enemy Israel and has often voices concern over the alleged presence of the Israeli spy agency Mossad in the autonomous Iraqi Kurdish region.

Last year, Iran's Intelligence Ministry said a sabotage team detained by its security forces were Kurdish militants working for Israel who planned to blow up a "sensitive" defence industry centre in the city of Isfahan.

Reporting By Ahmed Rasheed and Dubai newsroom; Writing by Ahmed Rasheed, Ahmed Tolba; Editing by Tom Perry, David Goodman and Raissa Kasolowsky

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Iraq and Iran sign deal to tighten border security - Reuters

Among the first casualties of Iraq War, a Lehigh Valley natives memory lives on 20 years later – lehighvalleylive.com

THEN

News of [U.S. Army Capt. Christopher Seiferts] death spread quickly throughout the Wilson Area School District where he ran cross country in high school and played saxophone in the jazz band and Bethlehem, where he majored in history at Moravian College.

All I remember about Chris Seifert is he was just a fantastic kid, said Bill Curnow who directed the Wilson Area High School Band while Seifert was a member. He was an outstanding student, a really, really great kid. He was band president and well-liked by all his peers. The Express-Times, March 24, 2003

The memory of Christopher Seifert lives on.

Twenty years ago, news of the 27-year-olds death one of the first U.S. casualties of the Iraq War stunned the Lehigh Valley.

The army captain with the 101st Airborne Division was killed not by opposing forces but in an ambush by a troubled comrade who shot him in the back after tossing a grenade into a tent at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait, injuring 14 and killing two. (The perpetrator, Hasan K. Akbar, faced a court martial. His death sentence is pending.)

Seifert grew up in Williams Township. He attended Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem. He married a classmate from Moravian. He still has family here. And he is immortalized by scholarships and awards that reflect his interests, including the locally iconic Freddys.

Wilson Area High School Principal John Martuscelli said the mood at the high school was somber and quieter than usual .

The wars been going on for a few days. Now the war hit home, he said.

Newspapers with stories of Seiferts fate were strewn on a table outside the high schools main office . In addition to lowering the flag to half staff, the high school community observed a moment of silence in his memory.

He was very, very well-liked by students and faculty alike, Martuscelli said. The Express-Times, March 25, 2003

I still have the announcement I made over the intercom the day after his passing, said Martuscelli, who is still the Wilson principal. I can tell you that it was a sad time for everyone at Wilson and we flew our flag at half-mast that day in his honor.

While Seifert graduated in 1993, before Martsucelli started, he knows well the impact of the alumnus, who was very involved. Seiferts activities included jazz and marching bands, cross country and track, student council, National Honor Society, ski club, ecology club, the student newspaper and the drama club.

Ever since his passing, his family has presented scholarships to graduating seniors in his honor.

[Moravian College professor Rosalind Remer], who taught Seifert in three history classes, said she knew Seifert and his wife, Theresa Flowers-Seifert, when they were dating.

They were the kind of people that when you heard they were together, you thought, Thats a perfect couple, Remer said.

Although Seifert was determined to serve his country, Remer said, he was a gentle soul.

He was really human and open-minded; he wasnt dogmatic, she said. And he was very interested in learning.

As the United States prepared for war against Iraq, Remer said, she read in Moravians alumni magazine that the couple had a baby. The Express-Times, March 25, 2003

I just cant believe its been 20 years since Christopher was killed, said Remer, now a vice provost at Drexel University and on the board at the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, the non-profit that owns the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Christopher was a joy to have in class, Remer recently told lehighvalleylive.com. He was one of the students whom you sort of teach to. That is, in a class of 30 or 35 students, I could always count on his smiling and interested face, his willingness to ask questions and thoughtfully consider whatever topic wed be covering.

I taught other ROTC students at Moravian, but he struck me as unique in the sense that he was eager to really understand how our past informs our present, something every history professor hopes for among her students! We didnt use the term back then, but he was the student who I could count on to lean in, wanting to get as much out of his class experience as he could.

Remer said she has lost track of Seiferts family, though a Lehigh Valley News report indicates Terry Flowers-Seifert and son Benjamin eventually moved locally. Benjamin was four months old when his father died. He is now 20 and in college.

He and Terry were a lovely couple with such a promising future ahead of them, Remer said.

More than 1,000 mourners gathered at Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem to honor U.S. Army Capt. Christopher Scott Seifert .

Seifert was a lifelong member of the church to which his family belonged for more than 30 years.

Led by a police motorcycle escort, the funeral procession arrived behind Central Moravian Church shortly before 1 p.m. A contingent of 11 firefighters from the New York City Fire Department stood at attention as the procession drove down Heckwelder Place.

While the eight-piece Herald Trumpets from the Valley Forge Military Academy played the hymn Abide with Me, six military pallbearers from the 1079th Support Battalion out of Fort Dix, N.J., moved with quiet precision as they carried Seiferts flag-draped casket into the church.

During the service the Rev. Carol A. Reifinger recalled that Seifert loved pranks and was always smiling, said Howard Cooper, a former Marine from Allentown who attended the funeral.

They said he could find the rainbow in any situation, Cooper said. He just seemed to live a really full life in just 27 short years. The Express-Times, April 6, 2003

Reifinger, now a former senior pastor and active retiree at Central Moravian Church, recalls the challenge of planning the funeral for Seifert, who had become a national figure.

We walked kind of a respectful line between what we knew the family wanted and what the public expected to hear and to see, said Reifinger. The church had to be flexible on some of its traditions, allowing Seiferts flag-draped casket to be displayed and patriotic music to be played.

Central Moravian Church still finds ways to honor Seiferts memory. The churchs seasonal Christmas shop, the Star & Candle Shoppe which Reifinger runs and Seiferts mother helps benefits various causes including the Christopher Scott Seifert Fund for Christian Education. His photo and background are displayed every year.

Reifinger knew Christopher through the confirmation program and saw him grow from a fun-loving teenager into a husband and father. She officiated his wedding and shared in service for his funeral.

You remember the last time you were together with him. I remember him in his dress blues getting married, Reifinger said.

I prefer to remember Chris on the day of his wedding.

In an emotional moment during the inaugural Freddy Awards, the widow of slain U.S. Army Capt. Christopher Scott Seifert presented Saucon Valley High School with the award for Outstanding Stage Crew.

Upon her introduction, the audience greeted Theresa Seifert with a long standing ovation.

Please know that by welcoming me, you are welcoming those who lost their lives for our country, she said.

As a member of Wilson Areas stage crew, Christopher Seifert learned technical skills and know-how and also learned life lessons such as teamwork and responsibility, Theresa Seifert said.

It contributed to the character of the fine man he became, she said. The Express-Times, May 23, 2003

The Freddy Awards have become an institution, and the Outstanding Stage Crew award is still offered every year in his honor. Wilson, his alma mater, won it in 2007.

This years Freddys will be Thursday, May 25.

This story is part of Lehigh Valley Then, a periodic series that recalls historical headlines from lehighvalleylive.com, The Express-Times and their predecessors from 10, 20, 25, 50 and 100 years ago. Stories are pulled from microfilm at the Easton and Bethlehem area public libraries.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com.

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Among the first casualties of Iraq War, a Lehigh Valley natives memory lives on 20 years later - lehighvalleylive.com