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This whole topic of women wearing combat boots raises another one for me, and I would guess several million other men, that has caused me no small amount of angst over the years...during Vietnam I was a college student, and as such deferred from the draft. In 1970 a draft lottery was established for men born in the year 1949 and my birthdate drew number 344 out of 365. Upon graduation in 1971, my draft board first notified me of the end of my deferral, then some time later, told me my classification had been changed to 1H, I believe, which was not immediately draftable but available in case of emergency; plainly speaking, my board's quota had already been filled. As I was never called, I never served. Ever since, I've always felt this limited my options to speak out on wartime issues, particularly in favor of sending people off to die, and I am reduced in all practicality to fervently hoping war doesn't break out anywhere and that nobody has to die. In retrospect, I regret that college deferment, regret benefitting from another of society's 'indulgences'...I am the moral equivalent of the 98 pound weakling in crucial matters critically effecting the future of the world.

Look....none of us have the same right to opinion that a Normandy, Pacific Island hopping, Chosin Resevoir, A Shau valley snake eater vet would have and we should defer to them.

But we can still voice our opinion. Like Illbay said the other day, we (men) have never been pregnant or given birth but we can still opine on the topic of abortion.

By all means, respect and defer to the real combat vets (it's hard to tell around here honestly).

Nearly all Warriors I have seen opine on this forum share my view and that only reinforces my belief that my visceral reaction to women purposedly placed in combat is simply wrong from about any angle or perseptive from which one chooses to view it. There is a reason that historically nearly every army in history has chosen not to. And that reason ain't chauvanism or neanderthal thinking....it's pure common sense.