Posted on 02/09/2012 6:37:37 AM PST by PghBaldy
Defense officials say as many as 14,000 positions could be opened up, though the restrictions on women serving in infantry combat units will remain in place.
The rule change reflects the ongoing reality that in a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, women were already dying in combat with the blurring of the traditional definition of front lines. Nearly 300,000 women have served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and 144 of them have died in those conflicts.
The rule change is included in a report required by Congress as part of last year’s Defense Authorization Bill that has been overdue for months. The new rules likely will not go into effect until the summer if Congress raises no objections to the change.
Women will still be barred from serving in infantry combat units, defense officials say, but the changes will formally open up new positions at the combat battalion level that, until now, have been off limits.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I heard this on NPR this morning. Some military woman also came on and said it is “un american” to not allow women in all roles. So I start thinking about the revolutionary wars, the civil war, wwI and II and the Vietnam war. I’m thinking we didn’t allow women on Omaha Beach, in the belly of a B-17 or the trenches in wwI or any other war.
It sounds like it is VERY American to restrict how women can serve. Or has America changed? Do we no longer value our women as we once did?
We have something like 6 females from the NG armory in Jackson Michigan deploying to Afghanistan this week. They’ll be going out on patrols to deal with women they encounter since men talking to them stirs up the ants.
This pretty much says it all. It's not about defeating the enemy at all.
For women officers, it may be a big deal. Judging by the number of enlisted women who use lack of childcare to avoid deploying, or who choose to get pregnant to cut short deployment, I detect a lack of enthusiasm for being deployed in combat.
Within our lifetimes, the shower rooms on military bases is going to be like the shower room scene in the first Stormship Troopers movie.
And the, “Social Experiment,” goes on. We don’t go to war to win any more so we might as well experiment with the military.
And the, “Social Experiment,” goes on. We don’t go to war to win any more so we might as well contimue to experiment with the military.
It means we fight wars with a lot more technology and a lot fewer grunts in the future military that need sheer body strength to carry 100 pounds of gear and a comrade off the battlefield
What is a “battlefield” in modern war, anyway? It is not WW1/2 battlelines, Omaha beach, trenches and foxholes. More like villages, house-to-house urban pacification, protection and “winning the trust” of civilians, remote operating bases in Injun country, temp airfields, field hospitals to stablize and evacuate the wounded, reinforced supply depots, and constant sweeping of LOCs
Any woman who has the temperament and tech capability to kill an enemy or to risk her own life to support her fellow soldiers in their efforts to kill the enemy has a role, and doesn’t need to be “valued” by anyone but herself and her commander and her comrades
Operation Lioness
But not considered “combat” ... as if
I’ve spent the last 10 years of my Army career in the Infantry. Before that, I was a Cavalry Scout.
99 percent of women do not belong in the Infantry. A lot of men don’t belong either. The men who can’t hack it, we transfer them to different units or force them to change their MOS.
In this PC world, a women who can’t hack it in the Infantry will not be forced out.
Don’t get it twisted either; There are women who can outperform some men. But to open up the Infantry/Combat Arms to all women regardless of their abilities will be a disaster.
I’ve seen with my own eyes what happens when females mix with high testosterone driven units. I am not saying it’s the women’s fault either.
People like to compare other countries who have women among the ranks in combat arms. But the response to that is simple: None of those countries are tested in combat the way we are. There is a reason the USA is the greatest combat force in the world and it’s not from being politically correct.
The way I see it is that if they’re going on patrol in Afghanistan, its combat even if its unplanned combat.
I do see the value in sending females to deal with the Afghan women.
http://lionessthefilm.com/about_the_film/#trailer
well, I’ve seen this whole “Operation Lioness” video and a lot of it is sappy and overdone (like about the “PTSD”, as if women are uniquely damaged by war)
It does make the point of “what is a battlefield” in modern warfare? Frankly we are not going to ever prevail in a counterinsurgency without the trust and help of the female population, and in muslim societies there are unique challenges that men cannot meet
If “officially” opening up more MOS to women gives them better training for this, more power
How many female soldiers have already been killed by incoming or by IEDs as they rode the convoy?
Restricting women from MOS 11B or 11H is a moot point if the object is to keep them out of direct combat.
They have shown incredible courage in the combat theater, that’s not the issue. Does a society expose its womenfolk to the dangers of war, that’s the question.
How ironic that in a society like Afghanistan where Islam dictates that women be treated worse than animals, that American women risk death to interact with their Afghan counterparts.
“For more than two decades, America has fought Islam in order to protect Muslims”.
...ducking under the desk...
and America will NEVER go all “Chechnya” on villages to destroy the will of the people to resist by destroying the people
So there is a a factoid for you to ignore
“Taking over a country” like Iraq or Afghanistan means winning the will of the women to cooperate with us against the endless vendettas and murderous insanity of a own male-dominated ideology. We can’t do that with men, bombs and bullets.
If we ever reach this turning point in a muslim country, we “win”.
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