Some combat roles are better suited to women than men  Modern warfare involves many L.I.C.s, where the battleground is as much “hearts and minds” as it is physical combat. In a conflict where hearts and minds are important delicate handling of local people is required in order gain their support. In L.I.C.s, women are often better suited to intelligence gathering, medical assistance, policing and mediation than men. They are often perceived as less threatening and more understanding. [1] In addition, they would be better placed to deal with women in the local population.  For example, the job of many of the female U.S. marines killed and injured in June 2005 in Iraq was to search women for explosives at checkpoints to avoid the near-universal sense of humiliation engendered by a member of the opposite sex conducting an intimate bodily search. [2]  [1] DeGroot, Gerard J., ‘Women as Peacekeepers’, Toronto Star, 25 July 1999.  [2] Reuters, ‘The Female Fallen’, PTSD Support, Accessed June 2nd, 2011.