Australia explores new roles for female soldiers

AP via Yahoo ^ | 09/09/09 | TANALEE SMITH

[Abathar]

ADELAIDE, Australia – Australia may allow female soldiers to serve in front-line combat roles under proposed equal-opportunity guidelines that stoked debate Wednesday on whether women can meet the physical demands.

Defence Personnel Minister Greg Combet told Parliament Tuesday that new physical employment standards were being developed for the Australian Defence Force that remove gender and age criteria and would hopefully help recruit more women to the military.

"My own view is that all categories should be open to women," Combet said. "The only exceptions should be where the physical demands cannot be met according to criteria that are determined on the basis of scientific analysis rather than assumptions about gender."

[kingattax]

.."let the sheilas have a go"

[Abathar]

I’ve heard that there are studies showing men have a much harder time fighting when there are dead and wounded women in combat.

I would rather it be policy only in extreme situations.

[Bulldawg Fan]

Amazing. More heavy lifting for the male soldiers because no amount of political correctness can make females good infantry soldiers. You see it in police and fire work, the military, everywhere radicals have pushed women to be physically equal to men. The women hang back when the fight begins, the men have to cover more ground that another male would cover right there beside them. And everyone suffers. But the radicals feel good about the diversity while men get killed.

[bert]

Long ago Rush proposed the solution, You create an Amazon PMS brigade. It would be especially effective on the days when the synchronized menstrual cycles produce extraordinary zeal to go kill somebody.

[Little Pig]

I don’t really have a problem with this from a capacity standpoint, IF they stick to the idea of not letting women do jobs they physically can’t do. Not many women can repair a thrown track on a tank (and not even some guys), or carry artillery rounds. But, women can drive a LAV, or operate a MLRS just as easily as a man. Further, women take up less room in notoriously cramped armored vehicles, which can be a benefit. If, however, they succumb to PC, and try to let women do nearly everything, and give them the crutch of letting some other soldier do most of the heavy lifting, then this will fail.

[Buckeye McFrog]

letting the PC crowd take over their military....they may has well just put up a banner in Sydney Harbour saying “Welcome to our new Chinese Overlords”

[ZULU]

Once upon a time, Aussies were real men. But then so were Brits and Americans.

This use of females in combat situations is ridiculous, emascualting and indefensible. It is political correctness gone madder than normal.

[The Great RJ]

While I do not like the PC motives for allowing females into military combat roles, I have been impressed by recent accounts of the valor of some of these female soldiers. For example the Norwegian female soldier who took out 75 Taliban fighters in Afghanistan and the UK female medic who despite being wounded heroically saved the lives of several soldiers. I agree that in many combat roles the female soldier lacks the physical strength of her male counterpart and may cause some morale issues, but in some roles she may be quite capable.

[Mr Rogers]

The problem is that you don’t know in advance what role combat will require. One day, it is shooting folks with a machine gun on a Humvee - not physically demanding, although it requires courage.

The next, it may be lifting a wounded person up above you and out of a hatch before a fire kills him - very demanding physically. And a man who isn’t in shape has a much better chance of getting there than a woman.

BTW - my daughter was in the US Marine Corps, and she agrees.

[monday]

Do Australian females want to serve as front line combat soldiers? I guess some do, but why?

[Abathar]

I don’t know, I swear the ones who do must have a huge chip on their shoulder and just want to prove they can do it if a man can, or are disillusioned by the fems into thinking they can be G.I. Jane and look good doing it.

I think it’s a bad idea unless there is a huge war that stretches the resources of the entire nation. Infantry is no place for a woman, period.

Even if they physically handle it as well as a man it’s a well known fact men react completely different when a female unit member is wounded or killed.

Same thing with gays in the unit, anything that distracts camaraderie and interferes with unit cohesion eventually means higher casualties and loss of willingness to fight for the guy next to you.

This is just another point of how rational facts and studies are completely ignored for PC bullsh*t.

[JillValentine]

I don’t know, I swear the ones who do must have a huge chip on their shoulder and just want to prove they can do it if a man can, or are disillusioned by the fems into thinking they can be G.I. Jane and look good doing it.

Or maybe...they're just patriots and want to fight for their country.

That one ever cross your mind?

Sheesh.