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."
Or at least require them to register for the draft
It’s also a matter of their capability. Only in Hollywood can a 120 pound Angelina Jolie go toe to toe with a 200+ pound bad guy and survive the encounter.
Chill. As long as Brown votes to repeal Obamacare he’s served his purpose. He can vote for putting women in the front lines all he wants, because if it comes to a vote, it will never pass.
You and me both. rereading the article, it appears he only wants them in front line positions “so they can realize their full promotional potential.”
To paraphrase the movie 300:”this is madness!” “madness? This. Is. America!”
FU scott brown you colossal rino.
In 1977 I saw three telephone company trucks parked in front of a small fast food joint that was under construction. Three employees were installing phone lines. One was a woman. The two men were there to help her carry her ladder. That’s a fact.
My son in law has just been deployed. My daughter sees the women that are in his unit and says some of them look/act very much like bimbos. I was suprised because I thought that the majority of women who’d be attracted to the military would be tom boy types. On top of the fact that it’s wrong imo to put the weaker sex on the front lines,for one because it blurs the lines of what God intended for our roles to be, I also have the notion that were I an army wife I don’t think I’d care to have my husband thousands of miles away for a year or more, working that closely with the opposite sex. Am I weird for thinking that way?
“commander zero” has exceeded our enemies’ wildest expectations. He has surrendered Iraq after we won the war. He has surrendered Afcrapistan while we are winning. Gutted the budget, homos having sex in the showers and now this crap. Morale is at an all time low,we are ripe for an attack and it’s no longer “the few, the proud, the Marines” or “Army of one” but “ , the day will be saved by “Captain Fabulous”.
As a veteran and as someone who deals often with current active duty combat troops I will say this. When you are hit and down, you don’t give a rats ass if it is a man or a women that runs out and drags your sorry butt to cover. Some women will fail in combat. Some men do. In the new wars, were is a combat zone? How do you keep any segment of your forces out of harms way?
So youre suggesting a woman could drag a 220 lb man off the field of battle hunh? Ok
I think it’s a great idea, that way if we lose a war, we can just say to our conquerers: ‘oh aren’t you tough, you beat a bunch of girls’. =Bill Murray
At which point we'd hear IDIOT Senator Brown say, "I was against before I was for it"
Thank you Senator "BOX of ROCKS" Brown.
In combat or a house fire, ya want a woman trying to pick you up and carry you or up or down stairs, or a male who is more than capable?
How about trying to pull a 200 pound man up and out through a turret of an armored vehicle?
Don't know about you, but this is a *real* easy choice for me.
What’s next, Scott?
Gonna have the other drops wear fake boobs and fake preggo bellies so they can better understand how women feel in combat?
Stupid idiot.
Pox: “These unbelievable idiots are living in a Hollywood psychotic fantasy world, IMO.”
Look here, Pox. The well known documentary, Starship Troopers, proves women carry equal weight in front line combat!
“When you are hit and down, you don’t give a rats ass if it is a man or a women that runs out and drags your sorry butt to cover.”
If you are a 200 lb guy with 100 lbs of gear on, it will NOT be a woman who pulls you to cover. Same if you are a 150 lb guy with 100 lbs of gear.
Unless it is a movie. Then a 100 lb gal will carry you back over her shoulder while kickboxing the enemy. While cracking jokes.
I’m sure plenty of women exist that can perform just as well as an average man. Women who can do this should not be denied the opportunity if this is what they wish. However, you and I both know, that they will not decide this based on ability. It will become a political thing. The ones who can truly do this will most likely have no problem becoming a fairly cohesive person in the group, but the more girly-girl troops who think they can do it until the s*** hits the fan will most definitely cause major problems as male human nature to protect women asserts itself.
This guy is a complete waste!
So, I guess this means that women will now have to register for the draft as well?
Haven't heard the feminists clamoring for that.
I remember when this bozo got elected. Many Freepers wanted him to run for President for the GOP. Many of them were female Freepers and several men. MA elected just another DEM.
“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.”
All of our institutions have been destroyed; we are living in Bizarro World, and nothing will revert to the “before times”.
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