WOMEN IN COMBAT
Right! Integrated with combat infantry units! Where will it all stop?
I’ll tell you what would have to happen to make that work. We’d have to change our culture. Burn all our books. Destroy all copies of movies. Rewrite all the text books.
Chivalry is so ingrained in the American male psyche that even all that wouldn’t work.
It is simply not in our nature to ever treat a woman equally in a combat unit. And if she can’t be treated equally, she shouldn’t be there.
You add to that the distractions that females will cause in an integrated unit, let alone an integrated combat unit… well, the arguments against are so obvious and immense that I’m surprised there can be any argument at all.
I will go farther. I don’t like to see women in a zone where there is a possibility of evacuation.
I arrived in Saigon in early June, 1962. At that time there were perhaps 2,000 Americans in the country. Even then, I strongly resented seeing American women in offices and on the street. I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that should an evacuation come, they would get first priority. If it came to a choice between me and a woman getting out, my ass was mud.
In a situation like that (possibility of evacuation), there should be no women. It’s just not fair to have them there. Get a hold on reality. In life or death situations, let’s make the playing field level. In our culture, that means no women.
What happened to the old objective of women releasing men for fighting duty? There are tens of thousands of men in non-combat, non-risk jobs in the states and overseas who could be easily replaced by women. That would add divisions to our fighting forces and, at the same time, give the guys in combat a fairer chance of living.
I’ll tell you what would have to happen to make that work. We’d have to change our culture. Burn all our books. Destroy all copies of movies. Rewrite all the text books.
Chivalry is so ingrained in the American male psyche that even all that wouldn’t work.
It is simply not in our nature to ever treat a woman equally in a combat unit. And if she can’t be treated equally, she shouldn’t be there.
You add to that the distractions that females will cause in an integrated unit, let alone an integrated combat unit… well, the arguments against are so obvious and immense that I’m surprised there can be any argument at all.
I will go farther. I don’t like to see women in a zone where there is a possibility of evacuation.
I arrived in Saigon in early June, 1962. At that time there were perhaps 2,000 Americans in the country. Even then, I strongly resented seeing American women in offices and on the street. I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that should an evacuation come, they would get first priority. If it came to a choice between me and a woman getting out, my ass was mud.
In a situation like that (possibility of evacuation), there should be no women. It’s just not fair to have them there. Get a hold on reality. In life or death situations, let’s make the playing field level. In our culture, that means no women.
What happened to the old objective of women releasing men for fighting duty? There are tens of thousands of men in non-combat, non-risk jobs in the states and overseas who could be easily replaced by women. That would add divisions to our fighting forces and, at the same time, give the guys in combat a fairer chance of living.
posted by Walter Guest at 8:29 PM
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