RE: Serving in the Military and having served in combat, under fire,
Santorum’s concern is WOMEN IN COMBAT ( hence the title of the thread — FRONTLINE COMBAT), not military service in general. Santorum’s opinions are NOT merely his own. He said that he spoke to a lot of soldiers in combat who hold the same concerns.
Also, I don’t think Santorum is OPPOSED to Women in combat ( I heard him say when he was substituting for Bill Bennett in the radio show — MORNING IN AMERICA -— that if the woman proves that she can do the job as good or better than a man can, LET HER DO IT ).
To express a CONCERN should not be equated to a blanket OPPOSITION.
What you fail to realize is, the new Military and the technology that has expanded with it, allows women to fight along side men. You listed the recent attributes of a special ops, tactical team, which most men cannot qualify for either. There are very few who could carry out the duties described in post #86.
Women make very good pilots, tank drivers, etc, and in many cases, outperform most men in complex duties and tasks.
And Women can also handle tactical weapons to military standards. To say they are inferior in all ways is downright wrong. The modern military has a place for them and they have been proving that theory for decades.