I'm not at all suggesting a spokesperson for VoteVets in a Limbaugh attack ad, Brian McGough, isn't entitled to his fustration at the American military following an injury. I don't know the details of that case and they may well warrant serious concern. But it's at least worth noting that his spouse, a former soldier and now an author, seems to support staying the course in Iraq.
'Sex is key to a woman's experience in the US military'
Her prose is uncompromising. "Sex is the key to any woman soldier's experiences in the American military," the first line reads. "No one likes to acknowledge it, but there's a strange sexual allure to being a woman and a soldier." Elsewhere she writes: "I love my M4 [light machine gun], the smell of it, of cleaning fluid, of gunpowder: the smell of strength. Gun in your hands, and you're in a special place. I've come to look forward to that."
She does not believe that the US military should withdraw from Iraq. "That would be pointless and all the lives that have been lost would be wasted. In the long-run, I hope Iraq will be a better place and the region will be a more stable one." She did not re-enlist, partly chafing at the restrictions of military life and partly because of the "shabby" treatment of her husband, Brian McGough.
They met when she was assigned to his unit but started going out only after she returned to America in February 2004. He had already been sent home for treatment and is recovering but still suffers debilitating headaches.
"Brian is lucky to be alive, but we've got no idea what the prognosis is for the rest of his life," she says. The army's attitude to him "has been the deepest disillusionment for me", she writes. Still, she feels guilty that she will not be with her unit when it redeploys to Iraq. As a reservist, she could yet be called back up.
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