Va. Candidate Webb: 'Women Can't Fight'

Newsmax.com ^

[Gopher Broke]

Va. Candidate Webb: 'Women Can't Fight'

Five female Naval Academy graduates criticized Democratic Senate candidate Jim Webb, a decorated veteran and former secretary of the Navy, for a 1979 magazine article in which he objected to women serving in combat.

The women, who attended the academy in the late 1970s and early '80s, said Wednesday that the column in Washingtonian magazine emboldened male midshipmen to humiliate them. Some of the men even wore "Jim Webb Fan Club" T-shirts.

"I was devastated to be told by a war hero that the academy should be shut down rather than accept me and that my very presence was responsible for the degradation of the military," said Jennifer Brooks, a 1982 graduate now retired after 20 years in the Navy.

The women spoke at a news conference organized and paid for by Webb's Republican opponent, Sen. George Allen, in a race that polls show is about even.

The women said Webb's article, "Women Can't Fight," made almost intolerable the already edgy relationship between male midshipmen and female midshipmen, first admitted to military service academies in 1976.

Excerpts from the article, in large bold print, hung against a black drape behind a podium theatrically lit for a camera crew of the Republican media firm producing Allen's campaign ads.

In the article, Webb describes the horror of combat in Vietnam for the Marine infantry company he commanded and explains why he believes it was no place for a woman. He wrote that he had never met a woman, including those at the academy who would become Navy officers, "whom I would trust to provide those men with combat leadership."

The article also described an academy residence hall that housed 4,000 men and 300 women as "a horny woman's dream."

"There was no way, ... no method to getting away from the intense, almost palpable resentment," Brooks said. "It was unbelievably demoralizing to be painted as a pampered slut who was just taking up classroom space and predestined to endanger the lives of the brave young men around me."

In a statement released by Webb's campaign, he said he did not anticipate the widespread reaction to his article, "and to the extent that my writing subjected women at the Academy or the active Armed Forces to undue hardship, I remain profoundly sorry."

Webb said in the statement he wrote the article "during a time of great emotional debate over a wide array of social issues in this country, and the tone of this article was no exception." He said he is "completely comfortable" with women's roles in today's military.

One of the women, 1982 graduate Linda Postenreider, said she spoke to Webb by phone on Tuesday night.

"He seemed willing to consider an apology or at least an acknowledgment to the brigade, especially those who served in the classes of '80 through '89, for his article that caused such grief and destruction," said Postenreider, who now lives in California and is a registered Democrat.

[Colonel Kangaroo]

Webb needs to stick to his guns on this issue. An all-out war is not a fit environment for men, much less women. There's a reason that in thousands of years of records, men have been the fighters. The nature of war had changed, but in an all-out conflict, there will be no real rear areas as each side will try to knock out the command and supply areas in the rear.

There are many areas of national service that women can serve effectively. but the fighting services are not among them.

[edcoil]

The "women's movement" told us that if women ran the world instead of men, we would never even have wars -

Now they are saying they want to fight.

Ironic isn't it.

[thulldud]

When young men are told that there is nothing they can do that women can't do at least as well, they give up trying to be men. The "humiliation" visited upon the female middies was likely powered by the mens' sense of being degraded by their presence.

Just another part of this complete breakfast called "Total War Against Manhood."

[Tribune7]

This isn't going to hurt Webb or help Allen. (Unless Webb wimps out)

[bmwcyle]

Postenreider, who now lives in California and is a registered Democrat.

I keep questioning the right for women to vote. It started November 1992.

[Senator_Blutarski]

This thread should draw some interesting pictures....

[TimesDomain]

I am so happy to see the RNC pick up the INFANTILE progressive socialist dnc tactics of sliming.

This is the sort of crap that comes out when politicians have no issues, no truth, no guts to come out and say THIS IS WHAT I BELIEVE!

The conservative republicans, led by Newt Gingrich, won the House and Senate by being honest and straightforward telling America - THIS IS WHAT WE BELIEVE AND WILL DO.

But then the cowardice of the current RNC crept back in and the so-called conservatives turned against the true conservatives and change our Constitutional Republic back into the socialist state of the progressive democrats.

You want to win an election over liars and criminals? Try HONESTY and INTEGRITY for a change!

For lawyers, and politicians -- there are English Language Dictionaries where you can look up the true meaning of these words.

[Condor51]

Holy Cow, a 'democrat' who is right -- of course when he was right - he was well... 'right'.

Woman can't 'fight'. Facts is facts and the human body is the human body. They are not physically capable of being in Combat Arms - period.

And all push button warfare aside, look back at Jessica Lynch. Geez what a cluster f*ck she created in her capture (plus all the BS about her 'fighting'). If she was a he there's no way a Special Ops team would have been organized and mission executed to get one POW back.

And I think her Bronze Star should be taken back. She did nothing heroic to earn it. She got captured - period.

Hell she couldn't even fire her weapon as it jammed because she didn't clean the dam thing.

[7thson]

I am not disagreeing with you but you should know that Webb will never stick to this gun. Are you kidding? He is a Dem and you think he is going to stick to a point the Dems have been fighting against for years? And turn off the female vote for him? In fact, he already apologized for the piece. Now, here's hoping he goes crazy with the apologies like Allen did a couple weeks ago and keep it in the news cycle.

[Condor51]

Did you post to the wrong thread?

[kalee]

ping

[Corin Stormhands]

I am so happy to see the RNC pick up the INFANTILE progressive socialist dnc tactics of sliming.

Some of y'all are missing the point. Webb's comments go beyond just saying "women shouldn't be in combat." His comments beyond the speech were insulting and demeaning, even so far as to imply that the only reason women wanted to join the Academy was for the sex.

However, not only does Webb no longer believe what he said in 1979, his campaign has attacked Senator (then Governor) Allen for opposing the entrance of women into VMI. Allen, on behalf of the Commonwealth, opposed that action, as did his predecessor, Doug Wilder and (for a time) Attorney General Mary Sue Terry (she later squished on this issue).

Somehow the Webbsters think that Allen saying "women shouldn't be treated like brother rats" is demeaning.

After the court decision, Allen accepted it. Webb continued to rail against it and continued to demean women.

The story here is not just what Webb said in 1979.

The story here is that he's being two-faced about it.

[paudio]

I'd like to hear comments from the feminists about Webb's statement.

[lovecraft]

Someone should take up the charge and use Heinlein's image of a military where "Everybody fights". I don't know what the ratio is today but the military has FAR to many support personnel. Heinlein gave an example of today's military where it takes something like 30 support personnel for every 1 fighting man. I wonder what the true ratio is. In Heinleins vision - Everybody fights, from the CO all the way down to the cook. No more REMF's. I think it's a good start by hiring civilian outfits like Halliburton to take care of alot of support like food and such, but there is a long way to go.

I think that is more of a problem than whether or not women are in the military. But if they are there, they need to be slugging it out with along with everyone else. /end rant

[airborne]

There are some MOS's in the military that women are not permitted to hold.

So, to that extent, he is correct.

[BallyBill]

Girls have cooties, too!

[mbynack]

When I saw this thread I thought I was going to jump into a hornet's nest with my opinion, but it turns out that I'm in the majority.

There are jobs in the military that a woman can do, but there are a lot of jobs that they've been forced into that they are not suited to. In a lot of cases, the men had to meet stringent physical standards in order to get into a job. When they wanted to integrate women into the same job, they had to lower the standards in order to get them qualified. One example is fighter pilots. The pilots used to be required to bench press twice their weight. Most women can't do it, so they lowered the standard.

I was a heavy equipment mechanic when I first joined the AF. We were required to lift 40 pounds over our heads to get into the career field. In reality we were frequently required to lift parts that weighed three or four times that. Many of the women couldn't even lift the 40 lbs to their waste, but received waivers in order to fill quotas. Once they were in the field they had to limit the women to light duties.

Women tended to lack the stamina of men and spent more time on sick call. We would deploy to a forward area and the women would give out after a day or two of 12 hour shifts.

We also had to carry around a lot of extra gear. Instead of peeing in a trench when we were deployed, we had to carry around a women's latrine tent and additional shower tents. They had to be bunked separately even if there were only one or two of them.

[maica]

...and keep it in the news cycle.

%%%%

Items that 'break" in Newsmax usually are ignored by the establishment media. This will go nowhere.

This part of Webb's history is well documented in the book The Nightingales Song by Robert Timberg (USNA '64), about 5 Academy grads who were involved, one way or another from the Vietnam years through the Reagan Administration.

McCain '58
Poindexter '58
McFarlane '59
North '68
Webb '68

Cautionary note: Although the author is an Academy grad, he writes from a decidedly liberal perspective. Webb seems to be a hero to him. North a goat.

[ExpatGator]

Well, if his comment "caused such grief and destruction," maybe he was right. The thin-skinned and vain make crappy combat leaders.