Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Women in combat a terrible idea

Kathleen Parker�s email address is kathleenpark  erwashpost.com  .
WASHINGTON � It must be true what they say about women � that they are smarter, stronger, wiser and wilier than your average Joe.
How else could one explain the magical thinking that apparently has prompted Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to abandon all reason and lift the ban on women in direct combat?
Methinks the boys have been outmaneuvered.
This is a terrible idea for reasons too numerous to list in this space, which forces me to recommend my 2008 book, �Save the Males,� in which I devote a chapter to the issue. The most salient point happens to be a feminist argument: Women, because of their inferior physical capacities and greater vulnerabilities upon capture, have a diminished opportunity for survival.
More on this, but first let�s be clear. Arguments against women in direct combat have nothing to do with courage, skill, patriotism or dedication. Most women are equal to most men in all these categories, and are superior to men in many other areas, as our educational graduation rates at every level indicate. Women also tend to excel as sharpshooters and pilots.
But ground combat is one area in which women, through quirks of biology and human nature, are not equal to men � a difference that should be celebrated rather than rationalized as incorrect.
Remember, we�re not talking about female officers of a certain age pacing the hallways of the Pentagon when we speak of placing women in combat, though perhaps we should be. My favorite bumper sticker remains: �I�m out of estrogen and I have a gun.�
We�re potentially talking about 18-year-old girls, notwithstanding their �adult� designation under the law. (Parents know better.) At least 18-year-old males have the advantage of being gassed up on testosterone, the hormone that fuels not just sexual libido but, more to the point, aggression.
Now, hold the image of your 18-year-old daughter, neighbor, sister or girlfriend as you follow these facts, which somehow have been ignored in the advancement of a fallacy. The fallacy is that because men and women are equal under the law, they are equal in all endeavors and should have all access to the same opportunities. This is true except when the opportunity requires certain characteristics. Fact: Females have only half the upper-body strength as males � no small point in the field.
The argument that women�s front lines performance in Iraq and on de facto Afghanistan has proved concerns about combat roles unwarranted is false logic. Just because women in forward support companies can return fire when necessary � or die � doesn�t necessarily mean they are equal to men in combat.
Unbeknownst perhaps to many civilians, combat has a very specific meaning in the military. It has nothing to do with stepping on an IED or suffering the consequences of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It means AGGRESSIVELY ENGAGING AND ATTACKING the enemy with deliberate offensive action, with a high probability of face-to-face contact.
Every objective study has argued against women in direct combat for reasons that haven�t changed.
The threat to unit cohesion should require no elaboration. But let�s leave that obvious point to pedants and cross into enemy territory where somebody�s 18-year-old daughter has been captured. No one wants to imagine a son in these circumstances either, obviously, but women face special tortures. And, no, the rape of men has never held comparable appeal.
We can train our men to ignore the screams of their female comrades, but is this the society we want to create? And though some female veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have endured remarkable suffering, their ability to withstand or survive violent circumstances is no rational argument for putting American girls and women in the hands of enemy men. It will kill us in the end.

Excellent article, but the die is cast and I'm glad I retired when I did.

Read a good description in a psychology article about the role of testosterone in the human body. The author was very succinct, "it produces one of two reactions to most situations � f*ck it or kill it�.

Maybe if we give the ladies hormone treatments it might help. Side effects of deep voices and hairy chests are probably acceptable side effects...

My niece is in an ROTC pipeline right now. She is top of her class in both academics and PT. Can out PT all other males in her class. She is very anxious for Airborne school and is geeked up over being allowed in combat.

But she is an extremely rare individual and may prefer women to men, which may have some reason behind her "drive".

Having said that I am still not a fan of the idea. Too much liability. Too much extra to worry about.

Does anyone remember Andy Kaufman? He was a comedian and actor in the 1970�s. To counter some of the more strident feminism going on at the time, he issued an open challenge to any woman to wrestle him and pin him.

Now I don�t know if some of those matches were staged or not and maybe he picked his opponents to eliminate the biggest ones, he was always trying to put one over on his audience, but no woman ever beat him. He was a mediocre physical specimen, not very tall or heavy and certainly not very muscular but not a single woman ever pinned him while he was able to pin every woman he wrestled. Again, I'll allow that the matches could have been completely phoney but he did wrestle a professional wrestler to prove how phoney those matches were and got his ass kicked pretty badly (almost got his neck broken for real), but that�s a different story.

Point being, if no woman could pin some runty little comedian, how in the world is a young woman going to fare against a healthy, strong and motivated enemy soldier?

"My name is Jose Jimenez."
Paul B.

Women in combat (not of NECESSITY!) ranks to me with abortion.

My pops was a Commander in the Navy.


He and my mom felt similarly, that women needed to stay home to "guard hearth and family" in time of war ......

My pops accurately pointed out that when the USA was kicking the living chitt outta the Krauts and Japs, neither of those countries DELIBERATELY sent their wimmins into combat!

Yeah both Germany and Japan had vigorous "morale" programs that used prostitutes, but their women were never used as regular front line troops.

This country is making another huge mistake.

Kaufman was at times a PIA, and a hoot!

they can stop a boolit to....... fu-ck it. If they wanna play, let em' play.

Rubio is all for it

http://www.buzzfeed.com/johnstanton/marco-rubio-backs-women-in-combat-decision

Not only that, but men have been the fighters for hundreds of thousands of years. Women haven't.

I got one to to say to the girls who want combat--
Be carefull what you ask for-- you might get it--

This is another good argument against.

https://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/no-better-critics_698023.html

it's a done deal. all we're waiting for is for the generals/admirals to implement.

they'll be horror stories for sure once some women soldiers get taken and raped repeatedly, along with sexual torture, but that won't stop the "we are equal" decision.

i disagree with the new ruling, but it won't be changed.

To of the class pt doesn't men schit when the gloves come off and its tine you're hand to hands you die or i die combat which is exactly what this article discusses.

Give them what they want and change the law to require them to register for Selective Service.

then guys must be pussies in her class if she can out PT them. Would like to see her do 100 push ups, not on her knees, 20 dead hang pull ups and hump- 70 lb pack up and down hills for 6 to 8 hours then do it the next day after 2 hrs of sleep during a heavy menstrual cycle.

PT'd in the military when I served with female college stud athletes . Sure they run ok but when it came to upper body strength and carrying heavy things long distances, with zero sleep and food they all failed.

About two weeks ago I watched cross fit gals running the Marine course on TV.
Most, but not all, made the grade.

The top winners looked to have some gas left to spare in their tank.
The top winners looked very tough�some in more ways than one�

I liked the ones who still looked like gals better�

can the cross fit gals lift and carry a 220 soldier on their backs?

Was it an obstacle course orb the actual PT test?

Did they max the USMC male standards or the lesser female standards? Did they run it in combat boots? How many dead hang pull ups did they perform?



How do they perform during a menstrual cycle?

I think everyone failed to read my closing statement.....said I am not a fan of it regardless of how well her PT scores were.