repression. people were actually dying. part of what i write about is the health programs, the way in which the health programs respond to the fact that members of the party were dying, with conflicts with the authorities and those sorts of things -- those were decimating the ranks of the party in a fatal and material way was partly why the party disbanded. i think politics just change. things change. the party ends in the early 1980s, and the world changes between 1960 and 1980. you know, activists, it's easier, i think, we know in the social movement and literature and sociology, you often are an activist when you're young you don't have a mortgage. the lysates can often be a lot lower for being an activist at that age. i think part of aging in the

natural cycle of organization can have a lot to do with it as well. >> host: coming up on the 50th anniversary of the black panther party, is there another book from you? >> host: is there a new book for you? >> guest: not at this time. i continue to research and read about it. >> host: this is alondra nelson, her book is "body and soul: the black panther party and the fight against medical discrimination", published by the university of minnesota. >> more from our visit to columbia university. tv talks with helen benedict and her book "the lonely soldier." this is about 15 minutes. >> host: our conversations with professors at columbia university continues on booktv on c-span2. now we are joined by helen benedict, who is the author of "the lonely soldier." professor benedict, you start

your book out a quote by martha gilford. war happens to people one by one. what does that mean? >> guest: i was struck by that vote. i was following the war home to the heart of every individual fighter. i am quoting from dh lawrence. it does affect every single individual involved in it, whether they be soldiers or civilians. it is a monster that reaches deep inside every single person. it turns our lives upside down, and i thought it was a very apt quote. >> host: how many women served in the iraq war? >> guest: about 200,000, actually over two hundred thousand. >> host: is that unusual? >> guest: yes, the iraq war, in particular, set a precedent. more women served and have been

wounded and killed in the iraq war. by around 2005, two years into the war, then all the american wars put together since world war ii, including afghanistan. so it was a huge difference. one in every 10 troops in iraq was a woman. >> host: did they serve in different capacities than they served in the past? >> guest: yes, because of the nation of the war. which was basically a guerrilla war. there isn't any frontline in the old-fashioned sense. drawing the line in the sand or having an area where soldiers are on any sides, they meet up and fight. that just doesn't happen anymore. battles take place in roads and also hospitals. you could be driving a truck full of toilet paper, you could be attacked. because there is no front line, even if you are combat support for you and you are an engineer,

you can get drawn into battle. many women are also being used to work alongside with the infantry, doing exactly the same jobs as the infantry. >> host: women aren't supposed to serve in combat, are they? >> guest: that's right. on the ground in reality, women have been fighting in combat in iraq and afghanistan for 10 years. >> host: was there a typical experience for women in iraq and afghanistan for american soldiers? >> guest: tardis atypical because it really does vary depending on the year they were serving, where they were serving, and who they were serving life. but the stories i did hear were the most common surgeries --

common stories, one of isolation. many women served -- there were a very small number of other women. i have talked to women who are the only ones serving with 60 men. the isolation of serving like that can be a lot of problems, from harassment and loneliness to sexual assault and rape. and i did hear a great deal one of those tories than i expected when i started my research. >> host: that seems to be a common theme in "the lonely soldier." who is this person on the cover? >> guest: she is a career sergeant. she has been in the military 22 years by the time she was deployed in iraq. she was a sergeant and had been a drill sergeant as well. she had also served in honduras and that home. she really had a long career behind her. she was very enthusiastic.

we were enthusiastic about her. she got sent to the country of iraq. that country was a whole different experience for her. partly because of the racism she experienced. partly because of the scrim nation both racially and sexually that you experienced. also because of the nature of the war itself. there was a great criticism about the war. >> host: professor benedict, how did you find the five women they focus on the book. >> guest: there were over 40 women who served in iraq over about three years. i found veterans groups, and one would lead me to another.

they would lead me to others. partly it was a network. networking process, partly it was people hearing that there was somebody out there writing about women in the military, and they wanted to be included. a lot of the women came to me. they felt invisible, they were risking their lives and limbs like men, but they were not being recognized as real soldiers and taken seriously. a lot of them felt they were missing that. they wanted their service to be recognized. i always wanted to be a whistleblower about the segregation experienced. some came to me, others i found. i picked five out of the 40 in hopes of finding a representation of, you know, socio- economical range and also socio- geographical range, age, experience, attitude. trying to get a range so that there was a fabric.

>> host: so the outliers would be those who continue to support the war and were not harassed? >> guest: i would say, some surveys show that some 99% are harassed while serving. the outliers are the ones who are not harassed. when it comes to a sexual assault and rape, it is somewhere between one in five or one and three. there was a survey conducted by the military itself, by the way. but there are still fewer than the ones who are not raped. i give these statistics in the book. the numbers are so horrific and epidemic, but i felt that it was really important to focus on this. other perks were not. other books were not. people were not aware to the degree that we are persecuting her own soldiers.

>> host: you are a professor of journalism. is this a typical book for a professor like you to write? >> guest: a lot of us do investigative reporting. we also have the academics among us. we are working journalists who teach. that has always been the profile of the school, ever since pulitzer founded at. >> host: have policies changed because of the experience of women in iraq and afghanistan? >> guest: yes, they have. there have been many congressional hearings about issues of harassment. i have testified twice to congress myself. they have changed the rules and policies and approaches. they have introduced more prevention, sexual assault counseling, it has been made available for women and men. sexual assault is a huge problem for men as well in the military. there have been reforms, but we still have a long way to go. the sexual assault does not seem

to be dropping. the prosecution rates are part of the justice system. they are scandalously though. they have a long way to go. congress has been prodding the military to do something about this for many years now. the military has been extremely slow to respond in a really productive way. there is a lot of denial going on. >> host: should women be allowed to serve in combat. >> guest: yes, we are human beings. we have a right to have whatever jobs we want. not always what we choose that job, or would we want to be in combat, but not all men want to be in combat either. it is very much determined. you can't deny women the chance for jobs because of their gender. there is a suit going on right now, "the new york times" wrote about this very morning. it is on behalf of two women officers who are suing and claiming it is unconstitutional

to bar women from combat. because it denies them equal protection under the law. >> host: helen bennett, you also wrote another book? >> guest: yes, i did. it is a story of a woman soldier at the very beginning of the war. she got into the biggest war camp. it goes back and forth between her story and experience as a woman soldier in the story of an iraqi civilian woman. they need at a checkpoint and they begin to interact. this is based on something my soldiers have experienced. you get to see the war from both the iraqi and american point of view, but told through the eyes of women, which is a rare way to

tell stories. >> host: when you look back at the media coverage of the iraq war and the afghanistan war, do you feel that it has been fair and conference of? >> guest: it depends which nation you are asking about. i think we did a very bad job at the beginning of the war, as the university acknowledged. we were too blinded by the actions of 9/11, and we did not face -- we did not question the reasons for going into iraq. we accepted it at face value what we were told. we did not dig deep enough, and we have persisted in ignoring the iraqi side to quite shocking degrees. to find out what was really going on in iraq during the war, i had to do some journalism. people have been speaking out.

we have a lot of people like that. we had a few, but not enough. of course, we also have to deal with censorship and then not being allowed to share the bodies of people coming home or the coffins, rather. not respecting and getting an idea of the numbers on both sides, the chaos were gone. i would be quite critical, actually. i am generalizing and there have been original reports by reporters who covered that war. i would like to pay tribute to [inaudible name]. may he rest in peace. he was a well respected reporter in the region. >> host: helen benedict, have you written about were previously or was it this war that grabbed you?

>> guest: i have never written about combat. an actual war on the ground the way i had here. this is a new subject for me, which is why there has to be a lot of research and it took me many interviews to really absorb what it's like. and i wanted to know what is going to be a woman soldier in combat, and why'd you do it? that was my original question. then i found out a whole lot more. >> host: helen benedict is the author of this book "the lonely soldier: the private war of women serving in iraq." she is also the author of this novel "sand queen." helen benedict has joined us at columbia university. >> booktv's college series continues with columbia university's jona