Why are we sending Teenage Girls into the Battle Zone?

AP (Yahoo News) ^

[pepsionice]

Some of these teenage girls...if you haven't met up with them...can beat the bejesus out of you...if you aren't careful. They aren't exactly fragle or typical teenage girls that you meet on the street and they say hi. They can pull a knife and cut you if they have to. They can fire on the run, and can operate a M-16 as well as most men. I think too many people have an image of a hometown girl in their mind. They don't realize the impact of boot camp and the soldier that graduates from boot camp. This is a volunteer force. If someone goes through bootcamp and graduates, then they deserve to wear the uniform and face the dangers. Its not for danty women or anyone with passive complex. If you have a major problem with this...then why not ask the next question...why allow teenage boys (18-19) to enlist. You could have the same image in your mind of them.

[elephant]

Nicely done, thank you!

[BSunday]

I do. I don't look down on women and I'm not a chauvinist. I just think it is our job to protect them, not the other way around. I have nothing against women in support roles.

[SerpentDove]

So that disqualifies his opinion...how?

[mhking]

I don't understand the military reason for having teenage girls sent into the combat zone.

They volunteered to join; war is a part of it.

[jrawk]

Ok, I'll bite.

I do not want women in the combat zone at all. I really feel more emotion for the women POW in Nasyria than the guys(sp?) I think most people will have more sympathy for her than her male counterparts. You just think how they will treat her differently. I won't get graphic. It is human nature, you just see her as your mother, sister, wife, or girlfriend.

That sympathy turns to a loss of morale on the part of the citizens of the country. It get's in the way of the job to be done.

So yeah keep teen girls out of combat areas. Teach her to type, and put her in the Central Command. Put her in Mess. Put her in Intel, or a Radar Station. Put her on a Fuel Plane. Put her in an aide station. There are plenty of jobs in the military for women that don't make them POW targets.

But don't put her in the ground, where she can be captured by the enemy, or without her intent, pull on the genetic emotional strings of her fellow soldiers and employers. We have enemies who are all too willing to play that card. Let them be the ones hiding behind women and children.

I don't have military experience, so I could be way off. But hey you asked...

-- lates

[LizardQueen]

You obviously have no concept how the miltary works.

I never claimed I did, no need to get snotty about it. I'm genuinely confused about the job descriptions and who goes where.

LQ

[sit-rep]

volunteers? no... draftees, yes.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Welcome to FR. As for your question, "Why are we sending Teenage Girls into the Battle Zone?", please note the following:

"The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder. We will meet that threat now, with our Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard and Marines, so that we do not have to meet it later with armies of fire fighters and police and doctors on the streets of our cities."

-GW Bush, March 19, 2001-

[frostbit]

"IMO women can serve honorably & be of great value in other positions more remote from the frontlines.."


Yep- Fighter pilots.

Shorter aorta means they can usually handle G forces better.

[albee]

"I don't understand the military reason for having teenage girls sent into the combat zone."

Does your concern apply equally to teen-age boys?

[Duckdog]

Bingo!

[cicero's_son]

Good question.<p

Don't worry too much about the resident FR Feminists. There are more of them around than there used to be, but most people here are still genuinely conservative.

[skinkinthegrass]

Thank, Pattie S., Shillary and the N.A.G.s. (N.O.W.) for it... :|

[CheneyChick]

no, i have a problem with letting teenage girls joining the military.

WHEW. Then I'm glad I waited until my twenties to volunteer to join the Army because I wanted to serve my country.

Cheers, CC :)

[discostu]

MREs are for deep contact units that don't get the added comforts. Further back from direct contact with the enemy (like where you'd be repairing vehicles) you get things like cots and cooked meals.

It is loaded and checked in the rear. But somebody has to know how many clutch assemblies for M1's you've used and when to request more from the rear area, that person is called a supply clerk. A mechanic unit is about moving the supplies as close as possible to where they'll be used, they are UPS, only armed and they also have the mechanics to use the equipment.

[arly]

I don't understand the military reason for having teenage girls sent into the combat zone. 1 posted on 03/26/2003 9:07 AM PST by optik_b

I don't understand not sending them into combat, if the draft starts again we should be drafting both males and females... remember that "women can do a job just as good as a man" mentality from the Ms. crowd?..

[jude24]

Another question: does what this gal has between her legs make her sacrifice any larger than that of a guy sent to die for his country? Or is it just because she's cute?

The real tragedy that an American had to give her life for her country. The fact that she's a beautiful young woman doesn't alter that fact.

[Spyder]

Call me a chauvinist but I don't have nearly as much problem with our brave young men going into the combat as our young girls.

It would hurt just as much to lose my son as to lose my daughter. She was doing a job that she was apparently quite qualified for, albeit in a dangerous location. She knew the possible cost and I applaud her sacrifice and that of her family. Probably a lot more of our young teenage girls were killed in auto accidents the same day she died in combat.

As an aside, I don't think physical requirements should be different for women, though I don't think it out of line to require different physical requirements for different jobs (e.g., a specialty heart surgeon who is never located outside a tertiary care center shouldn't have to be able to perform the same physically as a soldier in the field).

[ggekko]

Evry Army that has tried to use woman in combat has dropped the idea eventually. The overturning of the prohibition againt women in combat was a sop thrown to the feminists in the wake of the Tailhook scandal. It should be reverted to the old policy prior to Clinton.