Parker: 'What the Hell Was Jessica Lynch Doing in the Army?'

NewsMax.com ^ | 11/19/03 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[kattracks]

Writing in the Orlando Sentinel, Kathleen Parker explained that Jessica Lynch joined the Army to get the college tuition she needed to become a kindergarten teacher.

Lynch wasn't looking for an assignment the Army never told her might put her into the combat situation that nearly cost her life, and left her shattered and crippled.

And Lynch was put into that situation because the Pentagon has caved in to feminist pressure.

Many veterans and observers have protested Lynch's "hero" status, and Parker feels Jessica Lynch's book is far from the story of a regular soldier, but rather "... the hijacked fairy tale of a scared, ‘prissy’ little girl who wanted to be taken care of."

So what was Lynch doing in the Army?

Parker says that Lynch's story offers Americans, and especially women, "a cautionary tale: A 5-foot-4-inch, 100-pound woman has no place in a war zone nor, arguably, in the military."

Parker goes further: "The feminist argument that women can do anything men can do is so absurd that it seems unworthy of debate. That some women are as able as some men in some circumstances hardly constitutes a defense for "girling" down our military - and putting men at greater risk - so that the Jessica Lynches can become kindergarten teachers."

Noting that Lynch was brutally raped while in captivity, Elaine Donnelly, President of the Center for Military Readiness, writes in the November 14 edition of National Review Online: "Experts in the field have noted that female captives, unlike their male counterparts, are almost always violated sexually."

That, she says, is a risk against which the Army does not warn women recruits. "We need brave women in the military, but no one's daughter should have to suffer an ordeal comparable to that experienced by Pfc. Jessica Lynch," Donnelly, wrote. "Not in the name of other women's careers, military necessity, or anything else."

Like Parker, Donnelly writes that many Americans also may wonder how Lynch got to the frontlines to begin with, and goes on to explain that "Under rules issued by the Clinton administration, female soldiers in support units are now being forced into areas involving a 'substantial risk of capture.'"

This policy, she notes, "is inconsistent with privacy rules that deny information about what happens to women who are captured. "

A petition now being circulated by Americans for the Military ( www.americansforthemilitary.com) asks President Bush to reverse the Clinton rules.

It also requests that Bush take action "to end admittedly inefficient Army co-ed basic training, gender-based recruiting quotas, and overly generous pregnancy policies that subsidize and increase single parenthood in the military. All of these problematic policies were enacted during the Clinton years. They can be revised in the same way — long before the next deployment begins."

Parker quotes New York Times arts columnist Frank Rich as noting that Lynch is not so much "a symbol of Bush administration propaganda," as she is a victim of the PC military career myth sold to young women through feminist propaganda.

Parker writes that it’s a pity a girl like Lynch had to be ‘broken’ to remind Americans that the Army is not an arbitrary career choice. As one Army officer told Parker: "Our job is to take human life on behalf of the nation."

[bannie]

We can win our wars without putting our women in battle.

As a she-vet, I concur. IN FACT: We can BETTER win our wars without putting women into battle.

SIMPLY: Women get in the way during combat.

[ntnychik]

After h.s. graduation my daughter began receiving Army recruiting calls. I recognized the voice as the same Army recruiter who tried to recruit my son. I asked what the call concerned. His answer? "Money for college."

A few days later my daughter told me she was thinking about going in to the Army. I asked if she felt strongly about going into battle to defend our country and fight the terrorists. Her answer? "He told me I'd get money for college."

[brownsfan]

Our present system of women in the military is a farce.
I have no objection to women anywhere as long as they meet the same rigerous physical standards as men. No more wimping down physical requirements for positions. Jane Wayne or out.

In truth, I think we are going to have to lose a major Naval Vessel before that happens.
If you read the reports on the fire on the Forrestal CVA-59 in 1967 you will see that if it happened today, with women in the crew under current physical strength standards, they would never have been able to manage the fire fighting and damage control and the ship would have been lost.

So9


I'm going to go with a minor disagreement, while keeping step with you in principal. I was in the USN, served on the USS Chicago CG-11 and USS Samson DDG-10. Sailors tend to not be physical specimens. I think women, in general, can handle the physical aspects.
BUT, I don't think women belong on Combatant vessels. The close quarters, and a woman's natural hormonal swings are not a good mix. IMO.

[LaraCroft]

What about the decades in Israel where women serve their Country alongside their men?

LaraDisclaimer: Lara believes that some women are capable of doing everything that men can do, just as some men are not capable. Lara further believes that the standards should be the same for men and women, and very strict at that and that anyone, man or woman that can pass those stringent standards should be allowed to do the job. Lara concludes that the men and women that have a problem with it should grow up and deal with it.

[No Blue States]

Was a surprising reply from a female vet, i just knew the flames would come.

I have 2 daughters, they will be discouraged from joining any part of the armed services that would use women in battle.

[bannie]

The exact "Jessica Scenerio" was what I've been predicting for years and years.

[No Blue States]

I remember reading a WND article a while back about Israel no longer using their women in dangerous positions.

[vanmorrison]

Having women serving in military roles that puts them in harm's way may be an asinine policy. But it was implemented by an ass who was twice elected by the majority of people in this country.

Does that make the majority of the American people asses? (No response required.)

[ibheath]

Isreal long ago pulled women out of combat arms divisions.
http://www.dadi.org/debunk.htm

[Verginius Rufus]

Clinton never received a majority of the popular vote (nor did Gore).

[#3Fan]

If you want a college education, study hard and work to earn a scholarship, or borrow money with a student loan and repay it later. Don't enlist and presume you will not be found in harm's way in your tour.

Oh brother. Every guy I know joined because of the benefits. They didn't do it for free!

Lynch's actions placed at risk a number of our other troops who found themselves in a mission to rescue her, and it is that group of individuals in which if one looks for a hero, one will find many.

Bull! She was not commander and she wasn't even driving the Humvee that wrecked. She wasn't the only POW taken. She had nothing to do with several taken POW. Amazing you guys try to pin all the blame on her with absolutely no evidence.

[Servant of the 9]

Sailors tend to not be physical specimens. I think women, in general, can handle the physical aspects.

Mostly they can, but it is things like changing from 2 stretcher bearers in an all male navy to 4 bearers per stretcher now that women are aboard that is going to cause a didaster. Not only does it cut the number of wounded that can be moved in a given time in half, but a stretcher carried by 4 is three times as wide as a stretcher carried by 2. That makes passageways and ladders too congested for the firefighters and repair people to get through.

A lot of people on a ship are doing jobs that could be automated. Their secondary assignment to damage control is the real reason they are there, to savbe the ship after it has take 50% casualties. The fact that a woman can lift the 40 pound load required of her nominal position does not mean she will be able to lift the 200 pounds that may be required in a disaster.

SO9

[lilylangtree]

The woman was in Supply for heaven's sake. She wasn't trained for the frontlines. Supply travels at the end. Doesn't anyone remember western movies and cowboys on a cattle drive. The chuck wagon traveled at the end. She was thrust into a situation that required either survive or die. She survived. Does that make her a hero because she survived in the face of all odds and brutality that was administered to her by the enemy. Who cares? She survived insurmountable odds and came home to her family alive. Many soldiers come home in a body bag. Give the girl her 15 minutes of fame.

[RinaseaofDs]

"Just as culpable"

He's been a bit busy of late. Reversing the policy now is sort of shutting the barn door after the horses have left.

I'd say that meaningful things are still left to happen on Bush's watch in this area.

To be a woman, go through basic, and then go to a war zone and not reasonably expect that you won't be raped after capture is absurd.

All-Volunteer Force. Emphasis on 'Volunteer'.

[vanmorrison]

I might agree with your statement that the majority of people, in strict numbers, didn't vote for Clinton. But I've been mystified my entire life about the fact that the Democrat party has been the majority party in this country for over seventy years. These asses (Democrat politicians) have been elected and re-elected by other asses (the American people) in large numbers time and again, at every level of government. The Democrats have been the mouthpieces for the majority of Americans for a very long time. Even today, given what we have witnessed of miserable Democrat failure in every area, I am continually amazed at how many people in this country continue to align themselves with the Democrats. This is what I mean when I label the majority of Americans as asses. Can you refute this? I don't think so!

[TruthNtegrity]

I've seen so many women become pregnant - for the benefits, then turn their children over to childcare, that it makes you wonder why they bothered to have them (that is NOT an argument for abortion, but rather chastity and marriage!).

In any case, did you read of the first birth on a Naval vessel? At the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, a Navy woman, who claims she didn't know she was pregnant, gave birth on ship. She made the record books, but not my book. The Doctor on the ship said he'd not helped in a birth since his residency. No comment.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

American doctors have said that she has injuries consistent with rape; her Iraqi doctors dispute that claim.

[Clock King]

And nowhere can you find this story. This is so stupid.

[tx_eggman]

It was a plurality, not a majority

1992
Clinton 44,908,233 43.3%
Bush 39,102,282 37.7%
Perot 19,741,048 19.0%

1996
Clinton 44,300,236 49%
Dole 36,985,693 41%
Perot 7,665,172 8%
Nader 549,950 1%

Never the less, it does amount to quite a few ignorant people.

[Freedom4US]

For starters, we're not Israel.

Everyone *always* inserts the caveat "women held to the same standards as men" &c.&c.; unfortunately the real world doesn't work that way. We've got what we've got now, though, and that's exactly what everyone wanted, apparently, except the military.

If US citizens/civilians understand that such policies may well result in higher casualty rates and possibly a lost battle or two, than I'm quite certain they would be adamantly against such policies. PC has no place on the battlefield.