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But is your position, "Women shouldn't be in the military at all" or "A single woman on a submarine is trouble"? Mine is somewhere in between.

Israel had to fight for its existence from the day the UN voted to recognize it. Arabs swept down upon the fragile cities, colonies, and kibbutzim with armor and infantry as modern as anything we had at the time. Israel didn't have the luxury of keeping its women and children off the front lines. Women and children were ON the front lines from the getgo. Yep, they were raped and slaughtered by the enemy. (I might add that men aren't exempt from rape and warcrimes.) But they fought. Adolescent girls were out there side by side with men, trying desperately to build roads to get supplies to Jerusalem before the end of a cease-fire. Women carried rifles on their backs and toddlers on their hips. They fought for each other and for their new nation. Nobody who knows any history of the Middle East could think that women can't fight if they have to. I'd just as soon not see American women and children in combat, but make no mistake: firearms are a potent equalizer. A bullet from my gun will kill an enemy just as dead as a bullet from yours, and if I'm fighting for my babies I am pretty sure I'll be considerably more dangerous than you will.

My position is that the military should be as effective as possible in killing the enemy and destroying his or her ability to make war. No credible person can make the case that a campaign to push females into combat roles would, at this point (or at any any point in any other credible scenario), make our military more effective at that role.Yes, women fought alongside men in the Palmach and Hagnagh in 1947 and 1948. It was an unimitigated disaster in the occasions where it occurred, since Israeli men acted more to protect their female comrades than to to kill their opponents and achieve their objectives. The Israelis have been wise enough not to repeat that mistake in 1956, 1967, 1973, or any other wars.

You claim that a bullet from your gun would be as effective as a bullet from my gun, and you would be more effective in combat than I since you would be fighting to defend your babies. Hmmmm...., Well, leaving that aside....are you under the impression that infantry combat is conducted as a sharpshooting contest on a rifle range? One of the most critical infanty skills of today, yesterday and forever is the ability to dig a hole quickly. This is a fairly upper-body-strength intensive exercise. It also helps to be able to carry a nine pound rifle, many pounds of ammunition, grenades, and possibly mortar rounds or mortar parts, and possibly anti-personnel mines, along with 16 to 23 pounds of body armor, and more various and sundry pieces of gear (satelite communication equipment, crypto, rations, etc) in extreme conditions for ridiculous lengths of time, up hill, sometimes double-timing it, sometimes sprinting. Sorry, its not like on TV.