Genders unequal in combat

SunSpotNet ^ | November 16, 2001 | Kathleen Parker

[LiveFree2000]

NO AMERICAN war is complete without the Gender Equality Question: Should women be drafted? I feel like filling my remaining column space with "blah blah blah" and taking the rest of the day off. Haven't we figured this one out yet?

Apparently not. Angry men weary of being feminized want women, specifically members of NOW (National Organization for Women), to be on the front lines. And feminist-equality advocates, such as columnist Anna Quindlen, think their daughters, not just their sons, should have to register with the Selective Service for a possible draft.

[LiveFree2000]

 

[Diddle E. Squat]

I don't have a problem with women being drafted. Plenty of work to do such as peeling potatoes, secretarial, nursing, and intelligence(since they have more brain cells). But no combat, no crossing enemy lines, no chance of capture.

[brbethke]

I dunno. Personally, I would drop my gun and run like Hell if I learned that a battalion of armed women with PMS was coming at me. Talk about throwing the Geneva Convention idea of "humane" warfare right out the window.

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

But there's a difference between dropping bombs from an airplane, where quick reflexes and mental dexterity are the soldier's tools, and navigating rugged terrain carrying heavy packs, guns and ammo.

In Starship Troopers, written in the mid 50's, Heinlein actually invisioned the pilots being all women and the groundtroops being all male.

By the way, the book is a much different beast than the movie, and I highly recommend it.

[Clock King]

It was a good book. I've heard that it was a parody (of society in the 1950's?), what do you think? I thought the society mentioned was actually worth living in. Few laws, virtually no crime, and the trains run on time. Women ARE equal to men in Henlein's Citizen Federation. They serve are better pilots than men and that is the area they serve humanity well in. The men do the dirty ground and ABC work.

[GeekDejure]

Genders unequal in combat

Thanks for that supurbly truthful and all encompassing title . . . now I don't even need to read the article !!! :-))

[Cicero]

Well, yes. There may be some good women pilots, although there have also been some terrible incidents of women pilots who were promoted past their competence and crashed their planes. Unfortunately in today's climate you can't trust anybody to tell the truth about something like this--neither the military brass in charge of PR nor the media.

[LiveFree2000]

It is in the DUH prize competition.

[Fiddlstix]

Bump

[Destructor]

Finally- A columnist that has good sense! Maybe now some of the other feminist b*****s will shut up about equality, and women in combat! Men and Women are not equal!! We are different. That is inescapable. If you can't go into combat how can we be equal? If I can't have a baby how can we be equal? These differences should be acknowledged. The emphasis should be on job performance in determining a person's pay- not political correctness!

[patent]

Were Congress to enact a female draft, the post-World War II baby boom would look like a puddle next to the ensuing obstetrical tsunami. America suddenly would be awash in single, 18-year-old mothers.

How to lose an argument 101. She just got every single 18 year old male in favor of drafting 18 year old women. ;-)

patent

[serinde]

There may be some good women pilots, although there have also been some terrible incidents of women pilots who were promoted past their competence and crashed their planes.

And what about all the other crashes that have happened? Yes, some women pilots crash, but so do many men. Were they also promoted past their competence? Ability in this area should not be based on "male" or "female" only.

(This argument reminds me of the comments of women dropping out of military schools: "they can't cut it." Of course the fact that a lot of guys dropped out at the same time never got mentioned.)

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

(This argument reminds me of the comments of women dropping out of military schools: "they can't cut it." Of course the fact that a lot of guys dropped out at the same time never got mentioned.)

Come on. Are you really wallowing in this kind of ignorance. They had to lower the standards precisely to keep women from dropping out at astronomically higher rates than men.

[Gordian Blade]

Of course women can make it through military school ...

... once the PT requirements have been dropped low enough for them.

[HIDEK6]

This is a question of mandatory service. Determine what each citizen is capable of doing, and assign him or her to that role.

Unless women step up and say, "Yes, we should, as a sex, be available to the call of our country, in whatever capacity she deems necessary," they should not be granted the privelege of equal consideration in civilian areas.

The male sex accepts this responsibility. The female sex insits on obfuscating the issue by changing the question to one of who would make the better infantryman.

And speaking of fairness, in a competitive civilian economy, it is unfair that the sex that accepts its responsibility to its country is penalized in favor of the sex that accepts no service responsibility.

[petuniasevan]

But no combat, no crossing enemy lines, no chance of capture

Precisely. One of the biggest problems with women in combat, BESIDES strength/stamina issues, is the issue of capture.
It was bad enough 30 years ago, seeing our male POWs, beaten and starved, reading "confessions" on camera.
Men, what would your reactions be to seeing captured women, certainly tortured and gang-raped, forced to read "confessions" on live satellite feed? It would destroy morale in the military, and tear the country apart emotionally.

I shudder to think of the resulting chaos.

[mlmr]

I am uncomfortable about sending my girls to basic training to train and live with men. I would consider it if there were women's corps again, but not this unisex stuff.

[JoeSchem]

I dunno. Personally, I would drop my gun and run like Hell if I learned that a battalion of armed women with PMS was coming at me. Talk about throwing the Geneva Convention idea of "humane" warfare right out the window.

With the long-distance and rapid-fire lethality of modern weaponry, the most effective soldiers on the battlefield today are the ones who keep their cool and exercise prudence. Conan the Barbarian would last three seconds. The PMS Brigade would last about two.