Afghanistan Provides The Reason On Why The U.S. Military Needs Combat Women On The Front Lines

Photo: Army 1st Lt. Ashley White, killed by a homemade bomb in Afghanistan, was part of an elite cultural support team specially trained for encounters with Afghan women. (North Carolina National Guard / October 24, 2011)

A Counterinsurgency Behind The Burka -- L.A. Times

Ashley White was the first female soldier to die in combat as part of an elite cultural support team sent to Afghanistan to engage women and gather information unavailable to male troops.

Reporting from Ft. Bragg, N.C. — After a U.S. special operations force secured a compound outside Kandahar recently, Army 1st Lt. Ashley White was sent in to search and interview Afghan women. Just after she arrived, a homemade bomb exploded, killing her and two Army Rangers.

White, 24, was the first female soldier to die in combat while performing a unique new role for the Army. She was part of an elite cultural support team, first sent to Afghanistan in January in an attempt to overcome daunting cultural barriers in the deeply conservative Islamic country.

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My Comment: The type of work that soldiers like Army 1st Lt. Ashley White did is .... without a doubt .... extremely dangerous. It has been known for a long time that enemy insurgents use the burka to disguise their movements, thereby unveiling them could make a dangerous situation even more lethal. But while I am sympathetic to cultural traditions and respect .... one has to question how far does this respect can go if the enemy themselves do not respect these traditions and cultural norms.