I guess my daughters are going to have to register for the draft.
Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said Thursday that he is opening all jobs in combat units to women, a landmark decision that would for the first time allow female service members to join the country’s most elite military forces.
Women will now be eligible to join the Navy SEALs, Army Special Forces and other Special Operations Units. It also opens the Marine Corps infantry, a battle-hardened force that many service officials had openly advocated keeping closed to female service members.
As much as some would like it not to be, there are physiological and biochemical differences between men and women. There is also the issue of 20-year-old men and women, seeped in hormones, serving in close quarters. Our military is not stronger for this decision.
Can women still choose to be out of harm’s way in a military theatre?
If not, I don’t support this.
Asked if military women can opt out of combat jobs if they choose, Carter didn’t leave much ground for that possibility.
“If you are a service member, you have some choices, but you don’t have absolute choice,” the defense secretary said.
“People are assigned to missions, tasks and functions according to need, as well as their capabilities. Women will be subject to the same standards and rules that men will.”
I hope this answers your question Kevin. Of course there is an exemption for members of the Chicken Hawk religion.
Why shouldn’t they be subject to the draft? Are they not citizens? Perhaps Kevin and Owen could share with us the reasons that they chose not to insure our freedom with their military service.
Pat, Bystander,
I don’t have a problem with it if women have the choice inside the military to move to a combat role. I have a problem if it’s thrust upon them.
If we have to face an enemy on the ground like ISIS, Islamic extremists are more than willing to use rape as a tactic of war. I have a problem putting women in that position…unless they understand the risk and do so willingly and with transparency.
Kevin:
Soldiers have used rape as a weapon against males and females since the first ape picked up a stick and attacked another. Please explain why you choose not to serve in the military?
Bystander,
Don’t disagree that rape has long been a tactic of war. However, why do we need to make it easier for our enemies to employ that tactic on the front line?
Like I said, if women want to do a combat role, and can make the choice inside the military without coercion and full transparency about the extra risks, great.
Kevin:
The biggest rape threat for women in the military is from their fellow American soldiers. Please explain why you choose not to serve in the military.
Bystander,
You make Owen’s point on how this makes the military weaker.
Kevin:
Are you saying that the average American soldier does not have the self-control to NOT RAPE his fellow soldiers? Yes interpersonal relationships will develop, they always have. Including consenual sexual relationships. They always have. The presence of women in combat should not make our military weaker. Substantial civil criminal prosecution and lengthy prison sentences for rapists in our military would only make it stronger. Please explain why you choose not to serve in the military.
What a sad effort to try to claim women are the same as men. There will never be a woman SEAL, since the instructors would just about kill them in BUD/S.
For those who think the 2 Army females (both West Point grads) out of the 19 who applied to Ranger Training were something akin to “GI Jane,” think again. Read this: http://www.allenbwest.com/2015/12/as-obama-orders-women-in-combat-look-what-we-discovered-about-female-army-rangers/
It’s easy to reach the other side of the river when someone builds you a bridge.
There are plenty of women who volunteered and are qualified to serve in combat and already have. There are also plenty of men, kevin included, that chose not to.