[Orion78]

Your trying to change the direction of this to the draft, and its not going to work. If a woman wants to fight. She should be able to fight. Your suggesting it would be unfair to draft men and not women. I'm saying its unfair to say a woman is equal but forbid her from fight if she chose to do so.

[IceGirl2]

No she shouldn't--because no soldier fights alone. It is a team effort and every team member has to be ready to not just take care of HIMSELF, but of his buddies. Men have been known to carry their pals for miles to get them to safety. My own father in WWII saved the lives of a half dozen men by his ability to LIFT a heavy piece of metal before he grabbed and threw a grenade thrown at his troops. He got a silver star. No woman could have done it. I wouldn't want my sons to have to depend on the power of a woman to get them out of a fix. Like firefighters, no combat soldier should be a woman. No woman carried anyone down ten flights of stairs--and no woman should be in combat.

Get real!!! Thank God for the adults who took over from the ninnies. Thank God for George W.

[A. Pole]

If a woman wants to fight. She should be able to fight.

The questions are:
Do they want really to fight or they are camp followers who want to be close to the male soldiers while having the uniform and official status or are they rabid feminists who are neurotic and have no clue what army is about or they just hope that real war will not happen and they want to get some chance for social advancement?

I guess that those are the usual cases - the true woman warriors are as rare as they were rare over the human history. But seems modern man(/woman) is supposed to go beyond the limits of nature (including those of sex) as factually revealed through the millenia.

This hubris/hutzpa will end as it always ended though and warnings will not help. With the rare cases like Biblical Niniveh warned by Jonah, societies must fall before they get the point. So let us fasten the belts and at least try to enjoy the tragicomedy of human folly.

[browardchad]

No offense, but it's not a very comforting notion, for those of us above fighting age, to think of our daughters defending us in hand to hand combat with the Taliban...

[rundy]

Should men be allowed to have babies if they want to?

[Unbeliever]

Your trying to change the direction of this to the draft, and its not going to work. If a woman wants to fight. She should be able to fight. Your suggesting it would be unfair to draft men and not women. I'm saying its unfair to say a woman is equal but forbid her from fight if she chose to do so.

Ok, so men should be able to opt out if they wish, right?

[Diva]

>If a woman wants to fight. She should be able to fight. Your suggesting it would be unfair to draft men and not women.<

Just because someone wants to do something it does not follow that they should do it. This is true in any field or situation. Desire does not equal ability, it never has it never will.

[7thson]

If a woman wants to fight she should be REQUIRED to do the same physical requirements as a man. Can the average woman do the same physical requirements as a man? Can she carry that 200 lb plus wounded/near dead soldier/sailor/marine? Can she do the same PRT as a man? And yes, this is also about the draft. Have them register. Shave their heads. Make them do the same PT in boot as a man. Those that pass can fight. Most will fail.

[Amelia]

If a woman wants to fight. She should be able to fight...I'm saying its unfair to say a woman is equal but forbid her from fight if she chose to do so.

I could WANT to be a professional singer, athlete, or model, but if I don't have the talent or ability, I WON'T be. Should the government subsidize my attempts to become any of those things, just because I WANT to?

Right now, the women in the military do not have to meet the same physical or training standards as men do. Until that is changed, (and NOT by lowering male standards), I don't think they ought to even CONSIDER putting women on the front lines.

Even then, the women probably should be in all-female units, for the reasons of unit cohesion, sexual tension, and privacy/modesty considerations (not that the enemy will care about THOSE if the women are captured...)

By the way, what branch of service are YOU in, and what's your MOS?

[lawdude]

" If a woman wants to fight. She should be able to fight."

Not if by doing so she jeopardizes a mission or the moral of the fighting unit. If, by being captured, she would subject the unit or the country to undue criticism or herself to undue harm, her "fighting" would become secondary and a negative benefit. No thanks, women can perform valiently in many other regards and have done so in othe conflicts.