GO TELL THE SPARTANS:

In Foreign Parts: GI Janes flaunt their sports bras as body search arrives in cultural minefield of Afghan frontier (Jan McGirk, 14 December 2002, The Independent uk)

A Western military attache told me how grenades and rockets were often retrieved from beneath the odd burqa. Women must be checked during routine arms inspections and this presents a quandary: how to be culturally sensitive conquerors and not offend the folks you liberated last year and now want to disarm.

Some etiquette is evolving. Now American female soldiers start gun raids in Afghanistan by bounding out of helicopters and stripping down to their sports bras. Only then do they take village women aside to be searched. It is a quick way to prove their femininity to Afghan elders unaccustomed to seeing women in trousers. I reckon it must leave quite a few of the old boys slack-jawed and goggle-eyed.

This is definitely not your grandfather's war. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 14, 2002 5:57 AM