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Violence to women in the armed forces is not only sexual in nature; the question must be opened up to include physical and moral violence done toward women because of their gender difference. It is also important to look again at the criticisms contained in La Guerre Invisible, the polemical book published this year. While its revelations have the merit of having an effect similar to an electric shock and opening up debate on this tricky issue, we should not forget the efforts made by all those who have worked, also in the shadows, to ensure that women have a place, on an equal footing with men, in the armed forces. At the heart of the issue of violence to women in the armed forces there lies a confusion between legitimate violence and illegitimate violence. Violence toward women is always illegitimate and has no place in either the armed forces or in society.