Sarah at Past is Prologue explains why American soldiers might be* dying of dehydration rather than risk being raped by their comrades.

*2/9/06 UPDATE: There's some speculation that this story isn't all it's cracked up to be. Here, and Here . Which would be great - i would like nothing more than to rest assured that this kind of shit IS extremely rare in our military. I'm still not convinced of that. Even if Karpinski is exaggerating, this part still bugs me: "For example, Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski, Sanchez's top deputy in Iraq, saw "dehydration" listed as the cause of death on the death certificate of a female master sergeant in September 2003. Under orders from Sanchez, he directed that the cause of death no longer be listed, Karpinski stated. The official explanation for this was to protect the women's privacy rights."

If, as the naysayers allege - the reports of these attacks are greatly exaggerated, and if, as they say dehydration doesn't kill that quickly (though they speculate heat stroke could), that still does not address WHAT WAS SO ODD/SENSITIVE about the manner of these women's deaths that anyone would feel the need to protect their "privacy rights" to begin with? If they died of legitimate causes then there'd be no need to cover up, would they? Why would a women's cause of death need to be hidden and not her male comrades?