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This young lady is considering enlisting in either the Navy or the Marines. (The Air Force, apparently, has ugly uniforms, and is right out.)

All of us who know her, even me, have done a double-take: “The Marines? The Storming Iwo Jima Marines? Squeem Queen Larz in the Marines?”

We are wrong to have done so. Indeed, to my burning shame, I find myself having fallen for the same stereotype as, gack, the Puppy Trainer of Record, the New York Times. From Subsunk over at Blackfive comes this very reassuring take:

Really???? “Potentially misleading”, “selling war”, “She’s supposed to look like she’s being empowered”, “hard to think of it as empowerment”? What’s misleading about female Marines being in charge? What’s  misleading about female Marines knowing how to pick up a rifle and use it? What’s misleading about portraying female Marines as Leaders. Where is selling the Iraq war mentioned in the ad?

I don’t know about you, but if a female Marine Officer struck a defensive martial arts stance on me, I wouldn’t think of it as anything other than a prelude to getting my ass kicked if I laid a hand on her. If that’s not “empowering” (God, I hate that word…it is too PC and wimpy for me), then I don’t know what is.

He corrects a few other misconceptions which, I’m pleased to say, I don’t share in the least:

It would seem [from the Times article] that our forces are taking a pounding from the enemy. While I am reasonably sure Ms. Thompson [a quoted "expert"] didn’t actually mean it that way, it is the quote the reporter chose to use, and it conveys facts which are not in evidence. The only “pounding” our guys take is the pounding their morale takes due to long deployments away from home, and the MSM characterizing them as murderers of innocents, and uneducated grunts with bad table manners and horrible breath. In the context of actual combat, while I am sure they do not appreciate incoming fire, I am equally certain that “taking a pounding” is not a sentiment that they would choose to use in describing their situations. “Giving a pounding, ass kicking, meting out excessive punishment, “getting some”, or just generally beating the living sh*t out of some assh*les who desperately deserve it” might be a more accurate portrayal of their language.

Anyway, Larz, my anxiety and doubt is relieved. Take the aptitude test, pass your physical, finish high school, sign the contract, take the Oath, get through Basic, and Kick Ass.

Remember the one thing Blackfive says the Times got right:

There are no female Marines. Just Marines.

(And I hope it’s clear that the title of this post is meant to subvert the idea of “girly”, not to denigrate the Marines.)

Update:

Be sure to read the comments at Blackfive. Some note that the Times article can be seen in a very positive light.

Mom (”Hi Mom!”) is growing tomatoes in her backyard garden, right next to the patio. Apparently she’s got a few little green fruit beginning to bud out. We are all awaiting BLT day.

She’s not the only one, although these folks are probably not going to contaminate theirs with bacon:

Three months after US forces dropped tonnes of bombs on Arab Jubur and put Al-Qaeda to flight, farmers are everywhere out in their fields tending their tomatoes.

Homes in the Sunni Arab rural patch about 25 kilometres (15 miles) south of Baghdad, meanwhile, are being rebuilt, schools reopened, roads repaired and irrigation pumps renewed, even as shopkeepers happily dust off their shelves.

“It’s the first time in three years I am able to work in my lands,” said Ammar Wadi, a 30-year-old vegetable farmer who also runs a small dairy herd.

His lands, on the banks of the Tigris, are thriving. Besides tomatoes, he also grows ochre and wheat, while some of his 30 acres is devoted to pastures.

“When Al-Qaeda was here it was impossible to farm,” said the jolly-faced farmer from under an orange cap while taking time out from his labours to visit his cousin’s newly-reopened grocery store on a dusty rural road.

“They cut the power so we couldn’t pump water,” said Wadi. “We couldn’t buy fuel. They would shoot at anyone they saw in the fields. They kidnapped and murdered many people. They destroyed life here.”

If you want some lovely, juicy hope, actually ripening on the vine, read the whole thing.

Via Insty.

By the way, I have to point out that AFP, Agence France-Presse, has been consistently anti-American, and anti-War up till now. If they’re reporting good news like this, it means two things:

First, that the news from Iraq is so very good, and so bountiful, that not even they can ignore it anymore.

Second, that the streets of Iraq are safe enough for AFP reporters to come out of the their hotels and do some actual reporting, rather than depending on stringers of very questionable allegiance.

Finally, is anybody at all surprised that the French identify good news in Iraq as being about…food?