Posted on 08/26/2007 9:47:53 AM PDT by T.L.Sink
During a recent Democratic debate, both Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama indicated that all female citizens should register for the Selective Service. Neither candidate was as ridiculous as former Sen. Mike Gravel, who said, when it comes to men and women being drafted, "What's the difference?" The attitude the Democrats have on this issue has already caused harm to the military. Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, has been watching the feminization of military-personnel policy for decades. She explains that "gender-integrated basic training is based on the unrealistic assumption that men and women are interchangeable in all military roles. The concept tries to circumvent or disguise physical differences..." The Navy has male trainees do a minimum of 42 push-ups for a minimum score; women must do 15. Men (age 20-24) must swim 500 yards in 12 minutes; women (same age) get 14 minutes. Women are currently banned from combat. But that's the direction we've been heading in. Under Clinton, a Pentagon "risk rule" was repealed. This rule prevented women from being assigned to units that posed a risk of attack or capture - a rule that would have spared the life of Lori Piestewa a supply clerk and 24-year old single mother of two (now 5 and 6). Piestewa's brother told a reporter that Lori felt that "she wasn't going to be anywhere near any type of dangerous situation." We should be drafting a realistic vision of women's role in the armed forces - one acknowledging real and natural differences.
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
Exactly correct.
Another great read regarding this subject is “The Kinder, Gentler Military”, by Stephanie Gutmann.
Yet another thing that Bush did absolutely nothing about. It makes some conservative call this Bill Clinton's 4th term in office.
My husband has very strong opinions on this issue. I won’t use his language about it LOL. But generally, his biggest beef is this:
A WM can feasibly continue getting pregnant on a certain time line and be completely exempt from a PFT, which a male is required to consistenly improve on in order to get promoted. As a woman, I also think this is unfair, because it happens waaaayyyy more than anyone would like to admit. It is completely wrong, IMO, for a woman to be eligible for promotions under different criteria. That is NOT equality.
Likewise in the real world, Mr. & Mrs Marine. Our medium-sized factory, owned by a multi-global corp, had a laughable 50% female hiring goal some time ago. These days, it’s 20% female hire/train/promote/retain. They pay lower annual bonuses to the bosses who don’t promote “enough” women, and even brag about this in various trade publications and women’s magazines!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.