Posted on 10/10/2009 3:21:34 PM PDT by JoeProBono
There is no mistaking that the dusty, gravel-strewn camp Warhorse near Baghdad is anything other than a combat outpost in a still-hostile land. And there is no mistaking that women in uniform have had a transformative effect on it. They have their own quarters, boxy trailers called CHUs (containerized housing units, pronounced "chews").
There are women's bathrooms and showers, alongside the men's. Married couples live together. The base's clinic treats gynecological problems and has, alongside the equipment needed to treat the trauma of modern warfare, an ultrasound machine.
Opponents of integrating women in combat zones long feared that sex would mean end of US military prowess. But now birth control is available - the PX at Warhorse even sold out of condoms one day - reflecting a widely accepted reality that soldiers have sex at outposts across Iraq.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the first in which tens of thousands of American military women have lived, worked and fought with men for prolonged periods. Wars without front lines, they have done more than just muddle the rules meant to keep women out of direct enemy contact.
They have changed the way the American military goes to war. They have reshaped life on bases across Iraq and Afghanistan. They have cultivated a new generation of women with a warrior's ethos - and combat experience - that for millennia was almost exclusively the preserve of men.
And they have done so without the disruption of discipline and unit cohesion that some feared would unfold at places like Warhorse......
Put on an 80 lb ruck and 60lbs worth of armor, weapons and ammo and follow me...
Women more likely to be expelled under military's 'don't ask, don't tell' policy
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Pentagon officials won't speculate why women in uniform are more likely to be discharged from the armed services under "don't ask, don't tell," but critics of the policy say that new figures reflect deep-seated sexism in the armed forces.
Government statistics show that more than 619 men and women were discharged last year because of their sexual orientation. Of those, one-third were women — even though they account for 15 percent of all active-duty and reserve members... Reno Gazette Journal
I followed behind a young female driver from the Arkansas National Guard on more than one convoy. She drove with guts and courage and did a lot to ensure my safety.
And that is all I have say about that.
PVT Smith is just PVT Smith. I don’t care if Smith is brown red black or white. If Smith is laying fire downrange and has a 30 round clip to spare, Smith is my buddy.
This trivial crap is just not interesting to me.
Kudos to your female driver, and all troops who perform well. My opposition to women in the ranks isn’t personal. I think it’s not the real role of women, and further degrades right and proper gender roles in our society. Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be grateful to a woman soldier who did her duty.
Agreed. While individual woman serve with great distinction it still is a sign of a degraded civilization that allows its woman to fight in its military.
I don’t want women fighting. Plain and simple. It’s wrong. Sorry. thanks for your service and all, but it’s still wrong. Leftists were the ones that instituted this. It just makes me feel uneasy. I would not want my female family members to do this.
Although it gives me great satisfaction to have our chicks smoking sand gobblins. I’d rather not have them there. I think our military would be far more effective if they weren’t f***ing in the combat zone.
Spankentruppen alert
You know, Jack, I’m retired Army...and I miss it every d@mn day.
But I couldn’t agree with you more! I’m glad I had the opportunity to serve, and it’s given me life skills that are simply amazing and have served me well.
But, I, too, would like to see men in general step up to the plate a lot more often than they do.
The ‘chickification’ of our society has been very alarming.
agreed
All societies are based on rules to protect pregnant women and young children. All else is surplusage, excrescence, adornment, luxury, or folly, which can — and must — be dumped in emergency to preserve this prime function. As racial survival is the only universal morality, no other basic is possible. Attempts to formulate a "perfect society" on any foundation other than "Women and children first!" is not only witless, it is automatically genocidal. Nevertheless, starry-eyed idealists (all of them male) have tried endlessly — and no doubt will keep on trying. - Robert Heinlein aka Lazarus LongEquality in combat is a sophisticated rational notion - not a concept which one can expect to maintain when in the base animal instincts inspired by mortal combat. With advanced social constructs out the window, many (maybe not all, but not a trivial number) men will act on instinct to protect & procreate available women, which on the front lines of modern combat cannot be beneficial. Much as I like the notion of "carry your load and serve the team" as a gender-free notion, fact is that she is a she will skew the behavior of some to the detriment of the team and the nation.
Anything wrong with women in combat?
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