Posted on 02/18/2012 7:20:22 AM PST by BarnacleCenturion
The Pentagon made big news last week when it announced it was opening up more combat positions to women in the U.S. military. These 14,000 positions include tank mechanics and front line intelligence officers. However, about one-fifth of active-duty military positions, including the infantry, combat tank units and special operations commando units, will remain off-limits.
...
Last week’s rule change in the United States was largely a reflection of the fact that women are, to a large extent, already participating in combat. Despite the restrictions in place, 144 American women have been killed and 865 wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001, according to the Defense Department.
The number of countries that have opened front line combat positions is also larger than you might think (or than media reports sometimes suggest). A 2010 survey by the British Ministry of Defense listed Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania and Sweden as countries that allow women in “close combat roles,” defined as “engaging an enemy on the ground with individual or crew served weapons, while being exposed to hostile fire and to a high probability of direct physical contact with the hostile forces personnel.” Australia joined that list in September 2011 when it opened its front-line units — including one of the largest contingents in Afghanistan — to women.
A handful of other countries could probably also be added. South Korea has begun opening up more front line positions to women, including in artillery and armored divisions. Women have fought in Eritrea’s military since its war of independence from Ethiopia in 1991 — at one point they made up 30 percent of the country’s combat forces — and are required, along with men, to serve a year and a half of military service. Women have flown combat missions as fighter pilots for Britain, Pakistan, Serbia, South Africa, the United States and others.
In Israel, which is well known as one of the few countries where women are drafted, the policy is evolving. Santorum cited Israel as a country that doesn’t allow women on the front lines because of the psychological effect it has on men. But in fact, the Israeli military does allow women in the vast majority of combat positions.
I understand that Russia, which also once had women on the front lines, has also rescinded that policy. We should learn from other nations’ experience.
Making another pot of coffee.
Hmm, wonder how long it’ll take for them to cry “Sexual harrasment” when they’re expected to do their new job?
Nothing scarier than a woman with PMS holding a gun.
Like in this you tube video...” I don’t trust anything that bleeds for five days and doesn’t die!”
http://youtu.be/8m9uEN9Xlwc
Where are the “front lines” these days?
Booker! Get me my aerial photographs!
Israel at its inception had women in combat positions. But when they realized that the men tended to "look out for" the women, they decided it wasn't a good idea, so they stopped it. Israeli women currently serve in combat positions because of a high court decision -- whatever you call the Israeli Supreme Court, not a decision of the military, the government or the people.
Not against women in the military at all in fact I proudly serve with some awesome ones. Seem unnecessary to allow this as our tool of a president wants to cut 78,000 active duty position just for starters in the next 3 years.
Hmm, I don't think so. I was just reading this article...
Moscow, 22 June 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Kseniya Agarkova is not just a pretty Russian brunette. She can shoot rifles, assemble machine guns in a flash, and floor the fiercest attackers. Lieutenant Agarkova was also crowned Miss Russian Army 2005 yesterday in Moscow, outmatching 18 other long-legged beauties serving in Russia’s armed forces. “Beauties in Shoulder-Straps” is the second beauty pageant staged by the Russian Army as an attempt to boost its waning prestige and encourage young men and women to join its ranks.
Putting women in combat units is an incredibly dumb idea. While some women have done fine in recent days under fire, the whole question isn’t whether you can train some women to fight, it’s whether a combat unit benefits in proficiency by mixing women with the young men. The internal personal dynamics completely change and no amount of training, threats, or blandishments change hormones.
The whole purpose of combat units is killing people, period. Ignore the war movies, the comic books, the “analysts” who think warfare has changed. It hasn’t - if anything it’s more brutal than ever. We either maximize the efficiency of our combat units or we start learning to enjoy occupation.
That goes double for incorporating gays into the units. We are not a social experimentation venue, we are supposedly the lifeline for our independence and freedom.
This simply isn't true.
Well said!
"Dr. Ruth" Westheimer always comes to mind immediately.
Dunno, I’d rather have a woman as a buddy than a homosexual oogling the Bacha Bazi boyus on Friday night.
Put two women in front of each combat-ready troop. They can act like boron in a fission reactor. Moderators such as boron slow down and absorb high energy neutrons.
Actually, I recently read, to research for another such discussion on this forum, that Israeli feminist lawmakers are responsible for adding verbiage to a law that states that all opportunities in the IDF are equally open to both men and women. There is even a coed unit that is stationed in their southern desert of Israel:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracal_Battalion
However, the IDF is taking heat for dragging their feet on further deploying more women as combat grunts. Your larger point that this is being forced on the IDF is spot on. The original coed nature of Israeli fighting forces in 1948 grew out of a far left egalitarian ideal that there is no difference bewteen the sexes. That spirit lives on, at least until the sh*t really hits the fan.
The only combat those chicky poos are going to see is fighting off rival suitors on russianbrides.com.
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