Posted on 09/24/2012 4:19:45 AM PDT by Eleutheria5
The IDF's mixed-sex Caracal unit apparently has reasons for both pride and embarrassment following the firefight on the border with Egypt that left one soldier and three terrorists dead.
The pride is due to the fact that one of the unit's female fighters, a markswoman identified only by the initial S., took part in the assault on the terrorists and shot one of them to death. The embarrassment is due to reports that another female combat soldier cowered behind a bush for over an hour, causing fear that she had been abducted.
S. has been feted by the media, which has been enamored with the IDF's women-in-combat program for more than a decade.
On Sunday, however, reports from the IDF's initial inquiry into the firefight revealed that another female soldier from Caracal behaved in a way that could cast doubt on the entire logic behind the creation of mixed-sex units.
The soldier, who serves in Caracal's reconnaissance unit, was near the Artillery Corps force that came under fire when the incident began. The rest of her unit was not far away at the time. She radioed to her unit that the force had come under fire, but then proceeded to hide behind a Hummer vehicle's tire, with her weapon's safety catch still on. She proceeded from there to a bush, where she hid for over an hour. At no point did she open fire at the terrorists, according to the initial details from the investigation. .....
(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...
Perhaps we need to review a little more history. The IDF does NOT want women in combat roles. After the 1948 war an internal study concluded there were too many problems with their deployment and women were excluded from combat for decades.
Left wing politicians in the Knesset have forced the IDF to add women to combat units. They are still under pressure to pick up the pace of change, and have faced charges of dragging their feet for not doing so.
Very true.
Besides, sometimes the prudent thing is to hide
Maybe.
or to surrender.
Not when you're dealing with hajis.
>>Is it ever prudent to surrender?
You sort of concede that it sometimes is, by saying not when dealing with hajis.
Perhaps by using “hajis” you mean Al Qaida, a transnational organization that has not signed the Geneva Accords and which has not conducted itself in accordance with Geneva so as to not warrant a presumption of acceptance. Clearly, when dealing with such an entity, the scales of prudence are inclined against surrender.
The example of Masada stands as a monument that there are indeed times when you would choose suicide over surrender.
Me neither Holly. Me neither.
If you’re dealing with a professional military, it might be prudent to surrender. When you’re dealing with Islamic crazies, you’ll be better off going down fighting. They’ll torture and murder you anyway, it’s just a matter of how long they want to hang on to you before they do.
IIRC, it happened fairly frequently up through WWII. Marksmanship training changed afterwards and made people more comfortable returning fire.
Ummm... ISREAL is the FRONT. There is your break.
I suspect the Bronze Star has seen the same inflation....In VN, I feel the Bronze was given to almost anybody anywhere near an explosion, or shots fired. NOT the Combat Bronze, mind you. I got one and at Commander’s Call was called up front to receive it. I was dumbfounded and said “What for?” It was not taken humorously by the officers. A cook’s assistant got one the same ceremony for taking turkey up to a fire base on Thanksgiving. He told us at the beer bash (after) he never saw, heard or was aware there was NVA on that road. It was all political for the papers back home.
“...and which has not conducted itself in accordance with Geneva so as to not warrant a presumption of acceptance.”
I don’t believe American soldiers have ever faced an enemy that conducted itself in accordance with Geneva, with the possible exception of NAZI Germany. Al-queda is no different from a long list of others in that respect.
I knew a guy in Germany whose father was an infantry company commander during the Soviet siege of Berlin in 1945.
The Germans re-captured a slaughterhouse in East Berlin from a Russian women’s infantry brigade.
The women had hung their German prisoners from the meat hooks...alive.
His comment: “Women can make fine infantry. You just have to have the right women”.
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