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Back from combat, women struggle for acceptance
AP via Yahoo ^ | 14 Dec 2009 | KIMBERLY HEFLING

Posted on 12/14/2009 9:15:22 AM PST by US Navy Vet

Nobody wants to buy them a beer.

Even near military bases, female veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan aren't often offered a drink on the house as a welcome home.

More than 230,000 American women have fought in those recent wars and at least 120 have died doing so, yet the public still doesn't completely understand their contributions on the modern battlefield.

For some, it's a lonely transition as they struggle to find their place.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: combat; militarywomen; oefveterans; oifveterans; women; womenincombat
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To: driftdiver

So, where is your solid argument? You’ve only proferred up your opinion. And, then chose to ignore the thrust of my post to you, deciding instead to focus on one short sentence. Seems that this is exactly the type of thing that Obozo’s press secretary does on a regular basis.


21 posted on 12/14/2009 9:49:05 AM PST by SoldierDad (Proud Dad of a U.S. Army Infantry Soldier whose wife is expecting twins SONS.)
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To: US Navy Vet

I’m a Viet Nam vet [male]. Nobody bought me a beer, either.


22 posted on 12/14/2009 9:50:35 AM PST by PzLdr ("The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am" - Darth Vader)
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To: US Navy Vet
I'm not able to read the entire article, but I'd like to say that I do NOT believe the outright bitter nasty chauvanistic misogyny in today's MSM.

These people are WEIRD.

23 posted on 12/14/2009 9:51:18 AM PST by hennie pennie
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To: US Navy Vet
I call BS on this story. I routinely buy anyone in uniform lunch, dinner or a drink. I often just pay the tab on the way out and do not say anything. Just as often I go over and shake hands with everyone. This area has both an Army and AF unit(s) that have been to the sandbox multiple times. We have suffered many causalities including the loss of a Chinook and her crew in Afcrapistan.

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=31012&archive=true

24 posted on 12/14/2009 9:51:50 AM PST by mad_as_he$$ (usff.com)
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To: SoldierDad

“So, where is your solid argument?”

Arugment that women shouldn’t be in combat? Yes its opinion from having been there.

Obviously most women don’t have the physical strength that most men have. That is a factor in many cases. The real reason though is the impact it has on discipline and complexity it introduces into operations.


25 posted on 12/14/2009 9:52:26 AM PST by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: equalitybeforethelaw
"Hey, who believes this sh*t? The only reason female vets may be shunned is they may be unattractive. "

Exactly.

This post doesn't have anything to do with whether women should be in combat roles or not...it's just whining because no one asks them out for a beer.

I'm sure my wife would understand that...sure...I took some chick in battle fatigues out for a beer, but Honey, it was just to show my appreciation for her defending our country.

Yeah, right.

On the other hand, these chicks might be amazons, schooled in five black belts of the martial arts...a strange guy walks up and asks them out for a beer and gets temporarily paralyzed from the neck down with Karate chops.

But, the cold, hard facts are these...if no one is asking these chicks out for been AFTER they've been overseas, chances are no one was asking them BEFORE they went overseas either.

Would you like some cheese with that WHINE?
26 posted on 12/14/2009 9:52:54 AM PST by FrankR (SENATE: You cram it down our throats in '09, We'll shove it up your ass in '10...count on it.)
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To: mad_as_he$$

I can believe she’s having trouble adjusting but these reporters will manipulate people for their own purposes.


27 posted on 12/14/2009 9:54:11 AM PST by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: driftdiver

Again, women are there. Women have been there for war after war since before this country’s founding. The Israelis seem able to hold together a very very disciplined military despite the presence of women in Combat. Other than comments like yours (which are rare) there does not appear to be any negative effect of women in combat in the U.S. military either. Or, are there any sources of information that is being withheld from the general public on this that would shed a different light? If so, share, please.


28 posted on 12/14/2009 10:00:09 AM PST by SoldierDad (Proud Dad of a U.S. Army Infantry Soldier whose wife is expecting twins SONS.)
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To: SoldierDad

So why should we put women into combat roles? How does it benefit the security of the United States?

The only reason women have been put at risk is to placate the PC crowd. Meanwhile what has been the cost?

I’ve seen it first hand. It damages discipline to put 5 women in a unit of 100 men.


29 posted on 12/14/2009 10:00:33 AM PST by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: driftdiver; Travis McGee
Hey, we agree about something but you're wasting your time here.

These are the same folks who think Danica Patrick will win NASCAR and women are just as good a carrier pilot and so forth

Yes...women have always been exposed to war in war zones...kids too but no one is suggesting employing children..yet.

But no one of any note except in myth/legend has ever fielded frontline forces with women..never...there have been a few decent female war leaders in history...Bodicea always comes to mind first.

Women have been most exposed in partisan efforts which are by their nature brutal desperate affairs.

I have lived in brutal desperate affairs regions in Sierra Leone years back and even there very few women were integrated into the various fighting groups and some coulda sure used them....they did use kids btw..boys.

My irks me is that feminine emasculated boys sit at home smoking pot and playing video games whilst women are in harm's way...even women with children at home.

I have an issue with that. It bodes poorly for how we prevail.

It is arrogant to assume that we as a culture have just stumbled upon some new notion that mankind throughout history was wrong about and that really women should be in combat as troops at the frontline....whatever that is now.

That arrogance we have these days that we are so much smarter and more tolerant ad nauseum goes way beyond just women in combat. We as a culture are like kids who think they know so much better than their parents about everything.

We rejected all social precedence starting back in the 1960s and are now reaping the windfall. I was there. We are not better off now but try telling that to anyone under 45.

30 posted on 12/14/2009 10:00:34 AM PST by wardaddy (Angel Flight by Radney Foster on GAC, if you don't tear up then you must be mighty cold)
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To: equalitybeforethelaw
Indeed.

Back in the Gulf War I, when the war was over and we were planning our re-deployment back to the states, one of the guys in the TOC mentioned that it seemed to him that the females were getting more and more b^tcher. Many agreed. Then one guy said he understood why, that in a few weeks time they would be ugly again and that really angered them.

31 posted on 12/14/2009 10:02:29 AM PST by Hulka
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To: SoldierDad

“Again, women are there. “

yes they are

“Women have been there for war after war since before this country’s founding.”

Women have been in support roles for most wars, not in front line combat or in highly exposed positions.

“Other than comments like yours (which are rare) there does not appear to be any negative effect of women in combat in the U.S. military either.”

BS, I’ve seen the negative effect first hand. This is not a knock on women. This is a knock on the PC crap that has been allowed to take control of the military.


32 posted on 12/14/2009 10:03:03 AM PST by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: wardaddy

Well said


33 posted on 12/14/2009 10:04:21 AM PST by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: SoldierDad; driftdiver; Travis McGee

Israelis do not put women in combat...not since. They tried, it failed.

One of my closest friends was a Yom Kippur vet and he complained that the men would stop and obsess over a wounded woman and that they simply could not keep up and did not fight as well:

FROM DOUGHERTY:

“Despite 225 years of witnessing the horror of wars fought by male American soldiers, there are still a number of idiots – mostly feminists who themselves will never have to face an armed enemy soldier – pushing lawmakers to drop a ban against allowing women in combat.

Israel – a nation of about 6.2 million people constantly at war with its neighbors – allowed women in combat, the idiots shriek. Why, then, must the American military, as regards ground combat roles, remain so androcentric, so “male-centered”?

It’s time to debunk the myth, once and for all, that Israel’s experience with allowing women in combat was successful and, therefore, should be duplicated by the Pentagon. It wasn’t successful. It was a disaster by Israel’s own admission.

“History shows that the presence of women has had a devastating impact on the effectiveness of men in battle,” wrote John Luddy in July 27, 1994, for the Heritage Foundation backgrounder.

“For example, it is a common misperception that Israel allows women in combat units. In fact, women have been barred from combat in Israel since 1950, when a review of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War showed how harmful their presence could be. The study revealed that men tried to protect and assist women rather than continue their attack. As a result, they not only put their own lives in greater danger, but also jeopardized the survival of the entire unit. The study further revealed that unit morale was damaged when men saw women killed and maimed on the battlefield,” Luddy said.

Writes Edward Norton, a reservist in the Israel Defense Forces: “Women have always played an important role in the Israeli military, but they rarely see combat; if they do, it is usually by accident. No one in Israel, including feminists, has any objection to this situation. The fact that the Persian Gulf War has produced calls to allow women on the front lines proves only how atypical that war was and how little Americans really understand combat.”

“Few serious armies use women in combat roles. Israel, which drafts most of its young women and uses them in all kinds of military work, has learned from experience to take them out of combat zones. Tests show that few women have the upper-body strength required for combat tasks. Keeping combat forces all male would not be discriminatory, as were earlier racial segregation schemes in the military, because men and women are different both physically and psychologically,” said the Feb. 5, 1990, National Review.

Furthermore, Israeli historian Martin Van Creveld has written extensively about the failure of the IDF to successfully integrate and use women in combat.

Finally, even Israeli citizens don’t relish the thought of allowing their women into combat roles. In 1998, a survey conducted by the Jerusalem Post newspaper found that 56 percent of Israelis don’t want women in combat.

There are now and always will be idiots who say the Pentagon should put women in any combat unit they wish to serve. Most of these people will speak with the ignorance of never having had to experience the horror of combat, as well as the luxury of never having to worry about engaging in armed conflict themselves.

But to use the “Israeli experience” as an allegedly successful model for the U.S. to follow is not only absurd, it’s disingenuous. It is a lie propagated by radical feminists like ex-Democratic Rep. Patricia Schroeder who have falsely claimed that such a goal is merely an extension of “the will of the people.”

Perhaps if more lawmakers – and Americans in general – were exposed to military service, the idiots who seem to be dominating this debate wouldn’t have many sympathetic ears.”


34 posted on 12/14/2009 10:04:42 AM PST by wardaddy (Angel Flight by Radney Foster on GAC, if you don't tear up then you must be mighty cold)
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To: Thunder90
“Israelis have it now”

Bu they stopped making co-ed line units. . .as the ever-so-sensitive muslimes would fight harder and not surrender if it was found out they would surrender to women. Yeah, I know, big deal, wish more would die, but the thing is, this would also result in prolonged fighting and more friendly injuries and death.

35 posted on 12/14/2009 10:05:56 AM PST by Hulka
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To: Hulka

I worked with a lot of women in the Air Force. As a general rule they really really enjoyed the attention. Some turned into sluts or even hookers.

Some encouraged competition for their affection. Leading to all kinds of problems. Some managed to stay ladies.

Many were very competent at their job. But their presence there certainly detracted from the mission.


36 posted on 12/14/2009 10:07:38 AM PST by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: driftdiver

“Weak Link” by Brian Mitchell. Documents well the adjustments in standards to modify combat tasks and weapons requirements in order to integrate women into traditional front-line units.


37 posted on 12/14/2009 10:08:44 AM PST by Hulka
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To: driftdiver

You make a claim - then there is no follow up with details. Details, please. In what way does this damages discipline? As you formulate your answer I’ll text my son and ask for his experience with respect to this while he was in Iraq (with a combat unit) just to see if there is any common elements. I’ll also ask my niece who was in Iraq providing security for convoys. Then, I’ll begin asking the same from friends whose daughters and nieces also served in Iraq in various capacities. And, perhaps there is even some documentation out there in cyberspace that can be brought into the discussion. Maybe even writings both pro- and con-? Before a debate of this type can be thoroughly considered, I’d suggest more than one persons opinion is required.


38 posted on 12/14/2009 10:08:49 AM PST by SoldierDad (Proud Dad of a U.S. Army Infantry Soldier whose wife is expecting twins SONS.)
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To: wardaddy

Well stated.


39 posted on 12/14/2009 10:10:52 AM PST by Hulka
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To: US Navy Vet

No women ever bought me a drink.


40 posted on 12/14/2009 10:11:27 AM PST by bikerman (Buck Farack)
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