As we discuss the Pentagon’s plan to open all military units (including SEALs, Rangers, infantry, and armor) to women effective Jan 2016, we must consider the consequences.
First, we must ignore all the comments of presently serving military people. They are stating the party-line of the president and his team in order to keep their jobs. They demonstrate a cowardice of silence. The scientific evidence and the lessons of combat experience are utterly one-sided: women are unsuited for ground close-combat units.
In an all-volunteer army, as we have now, I think that we could make it work for women to be in the close-combat units—as long as we absolutely don’t lower any standards. The reason it could work is because there would be so few women in those units that adequate supervision could be provided to ensure that if a woman was having problems she would get the attention she needed. Further, sexual tension opportunities would be minimal. There is no plus to having the occasional woman in these units—and the dollar cost of maintaining them would be quite high, but our military would likely maintain readiness.
But why, when our nation is seriously broke—and our military has taken the biggest of the budget cuts, would we want to spend serious money trying to make something work that, at its best, will make no positive contribution to anything?
Now, one way to cut personnel costs in our military is to re-instate the draft; military folk can be paid less when a draft is in place as citizens have to serve—we don’t have to woo people to join with good pay and benefits during their first two years; pay raises would come after the first two years—to encourage the good troops to consider staying in.
Further, we must also look at the consequences of opening all positions to women. Whenever we have a draft again—it will have to include women. What will our military do with tens of thousands of young women who aren’t in great physical condition, aren’t particularly well disciplined, and can’t meet standards for the positions the military needs the most people—in the infantry? If nothing else, think of all the lawsuits that wanna-be draft-dodgers will be filing—and fleeing to Canada. That is the only logical consequence if all military units are open to women.
Activist Phyllis Schafly called the law that made 18-year-old-males eligible for the draft “classic” sex discrimination—and that it shouldn’t end. I truly agree with her.
So, folks, if you don’t want to see your mom or wife or sister or daughter drafted at some point in the future—you may want to tell your Congress-critters that this is a bad idea.
Maybe the simplest example is athletics. College, professional, and Olympic sports are all segregated by gender. Can you guess why? Think of football, hockey, or basketball—all could reasonably called non-lethal combat. If we don’t allow women to participate in non-lethal combat, with or against men, why in the world would we consider allowing them to participate in lethal ground combat? Professional sports are for entertainment; if they could find a way to include women on men’s teams they would—to attract more viewers—right? And there are no women there.
Here’s the bottom line, in my not-very-humble opinion. If you only consider the differences in women’s bodies—things like monthly periods, pregnancy, upper body strength, and hygiene needs—allowing them into close-combat units is a bad idea. If you add the sexual tension aspect, now it’s a horrible idea.
The one thing close combat brings out in today’s male soldiers is testosterone—trust me on this; I’ve been there and done that. With high levels of that flowing over time, does anyone really think that the presence of a woman or women will never bring thoughts of sex to the mind of at least some of the men? And might at least some of the women find this Type-A male attractive? I don’t need to say more on this.
So, I do feel the inclusion of women in all the areas they are now serving in to be a very positive step. However, the idea of allowing women into close-ground-combat units is a horrible idea that will seriously weaken our military—and, the next time we have a draft, seriously disrupt our society. I vote not only no, but HELL NO. I hope you do, too.
