[walden]

"Some of us respect women. Do you want to see any American woman in the hands of the Taliban, as a POW in a Vietnam or in the hands of Saddam? Think."

I think you might be as old, if not older than I am, so we probably can talk about this. I am a woman. I don't want to see ANY American as a POW, but it happens in war. However, this enemy is not the Germans, not the Vietnamese, not even Saddam Hussein. This enemy will torture and then kill all captured Americans, videotape the whole thing, then publish the videotape on the internet. The *ssholes in Chechneya (sp?) have done exactly that. I desperately hope that our troops have been provided with suicide poison pills, because I don't think capture is an option in this war.

This enemy is unspeakably horrible, but I can't see that it would be worse for women than for men. If I were 20 years younger I would have already signed up, and taken whatever position I was allowed to do the most damage possible to the enemy. This is a war we must win.

[this_ol_patriot]

I would be the last person to deny a woman the right to do her duty for our country.
That is a role to be admired.

Let's leave up to the military to assign roles for military purposes which is the whole point I think. Leave politics out of it, leave agendas out of it and leave feelings out of it. The service is about killing better and faster than the other guy and should forever remain that way and whatever is needed to do that should be done.

I'm not a military man but I assume there are many roles available to women in the service other than combat which are rewarding, satisifying and very important. Besides in my old fogieness I think a woman should be saving lives rather than taking them but that's me.

I'm willing to abide with what's thought best for the military by our generals and our leaders when it's used for the purpose of defending our nation and not for social experiements.