Posted on 02/22/2012 9:44:14 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
WASHINGTON D.C. - Calling for an evolution of policy, Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown is asking for changes that would allow women to serve on the front-lines in military combat.
Brown's push comes on the heels of a Department of Defense report calling for changes to the 1994 Direct Ground Combat Definition and Assignment Rule which barred women from certain roles in the military, including front-line ground-combat positions.
The report to Congress concluded that changes were needed so policy doesn't prevent enlisted female military members from rising to their potential. But Brown, in a letter to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, said he believes changes need to go further to level the playing field for women in the military.
"As a 32-year member of the Massachusetts Army National Guard, I believe women should be able to serve in front line positions if they desire. I am mindful of the fact that the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have claimed the lives of 140 women serving as Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Airmen. Their service was honorable and reflective of the day-to-day reality of modern warfare and the contributions made by female service members," Brown wrote in the letter. "Closing these opportunities to women affect their ability to develop a career path in the military and advance to higher ranks. We have an obligation to expand the professional opportunities available to women, especially considering their sacrifices. Doing so in my view would improve military effectiveness, not detract from it."
The DOD report to Congress on women in the military is centered around a new vision statement calling for removal of "all barriers that would prevent Service members from rising to the highest level of responsibility that their talents and capabilities warrant."
Brown's likely Democratic opponent in the U.S. Senate Race in Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, said in October that she believes women should be allowed to serve in front-line combat positions.
"I think women should be in combat positions," Warren said at a UMass Lowell debate on Oct. 4. "Frankly, I think that women are just as tough as men and we can make that work."
The revisions recommended in the DOD report would open up to women 13,139 positions in the U.S. Army, 371 in the U.S. Marine Corps and 60 in the Navy. The Air Force already allows women to serve in 99 percent of all positions and was minimally affected by the report's recommendations.
The report stated that significant time and research would precede any changes, a potential delay Brown aid is unacceptable.
"We should not waste time endlessly studying this issue and getting bogged down in bureaucratic red tape," Brown said in his letter. "Those deployed to Afghanistan serving on Female Engagement Teams in support of special operations forces illustrates that the Department can take a more aggressive approach to offering additional opportunities to our women in uniform."
I’m still kicking myself for sending this RINO money a few years ago so he could beat that crazy liberal woman.
Rush Limbaugh’s “All-American First Cavalry Amazon Battalion” finally becomes a reality?
I continue to be strongly opposed to women on the front line. Renewed feminism, gays and their marriage and troop reductions - what a great presidency this has been.
Ditto. These morons have no idea what is expected of a soldier assigned to a front line combat unit. IOTV’s don’t get lighter because you’re a woman. A 249B doesn’t carry itself etc.
If women are assigned to these units, the remaining men in the units will be carrying her weight literally. Also, if you’re clearing a building and have to take a room. Where do you put the woman in the stack. If she’s the first person in the door, and finds herself wresteling with a 200 pound man in the dark (Giving up 70-100 pounds) what happens then. I’ll tell you what happens, you put her where she’s at least risk and that means forcing the male members of her unit to bear some of her share of the risk.
Yeah, it’s a bad idea.
These unbelievable idiots are living in a Hollywood psychotic fantasy world, IMO.
Unless millions of patriots stand up to the insanity engulfing our elected officials and put a permanent end to it, this country is doomed, IMO.
You are exactly right.
It’s bad, bad, bad.
If I were young, I wouldn’t join the military now.
Really? We’re to our women to the front lines of battle?
Not a matter of their capability, but more a matter of opening a whole new dimension of how ugly war can get...
I would prefer not.
Mis-reply?
Marxist denial of Natural Law Theory! Sorry, Brown. There is a difference between the nature of men and the nature of women.
This denial of Natural Law is egalitarianism—to make men and women interchangeable—so that the State can reshape man and destroy all biological relationships. Marx loathed religion and family.
Women are not equal to men in many areas and should not be fighting against men. How stupid is that Scott Brown to ignore science and our Constitution which affirms the Laws of Nature. (P.S. It means homosexual “marriage” is not legal either—it is unnatural and against the Laws of Nature. And the promotion of sodomy as “good” and “acceptable” is also EVIL and needs to be eliminated from the military! It destroys the freedom of religion>)
OUr government is supposed to promote Virtue—never evil—and never destroy the traditions and mores of society. Communism does that to destroy cultures.
The “field” is really raunchy. I sure wouldn’t want it for a daughter of mine.
American men have become so emasculated and wussified that every single institution in America is now tainted with the evils of brain dead liberalism, feminism, Marxism and identity politics.
Our ancestors would have never tolerated women in combat going back to the dawn of civilization.
Even a few decades ago this would have been a joke.
Maybe he could send his daughters they seem to be about the right age.
Maybe he could send his daughters they seem to be about the right age.
Maybe he could send his daughters they seem to be about the right age.
In general, experience around the world is that women don't hold up well in the infantry/armor/artillery but can serve well in other combat positions as well as partisan/guerrilla roles.
Contacting my daughter on this. She was with the first units into Iraq. Even though it was a support unit, I know that they had daily mortar attacks with loss of life.
This guy is so out to lunch.crazy
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