Pentagon lifts ban on women in combat

Story here.

So, ladies, who’s gonna run join up?! :slight_smile:

There are rare times when I miss the entertainment value of the Derp Storms that used to come out of the wife of a military officer friend of mine. I just know she’d be sending out a FW:FW:FW:FW: email claiming this is part of Obama’s plan to destroy America, force the entire military to be gay and enslave us all to the evil muslims.

But no, I’m not going to go looking for that kind of stuff on-line. I value my sanity.

Because I’m too lazy to look it up…how was Tammy Duckworth injured while flying a combat helicopter?

I am not questioning the lifting of the ban (I’m not that dumb, heh) I am asking because I saw a news piece about the lifting of the ban and it featured Duckworth but never explained how she happened to be injured in combat.

Helicopter pilot jobs have been open to women for some time (I don’t know how long), and she went into it because it was a combat position.

So will women need to register for the draft now?

We better get ready for the POW horror stories. I shudder to think what will happen to women prisoners. Some of those gang rapes that happened last week in India will look tame compared to what is in store for women POW’s. We’re currently fighting people that totally devalue and subjugate women in their culture. I can’t see them treating our women POW’s any better. Women soldiers may even enrage them more.

I hope combat assignments for women will be voluntary. I’d hate to see women with kids forced into combat. If they want to volunteer then thats their choice.

Probably the same things that have already happen to female POWs. And you really don’t think male POWs could be sexually assaulted/raped?

But men with kids are A-OK? :dubious:

There is no draft, everyone who signs up does so voluntarily.

Also, the decision seems to have been made by the Joint Chiefs of Staff itself who asked Secretary Panetta to sign off on it rather than by the President or other politicians.

I just hope we’re not setting our troops up for a very rude shock. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a balls to the wall slug fest. We’ve been fighting troops that faded away and left their uniforms behind. Or insurgents that hit and run type fighting. Most of the casualties in Iraq were from IED’s. Troops just trying to drive up and down the roads were dying. I guess it doesn’t really matter what gender is sitting in those trucks.

Imagine another battle like the Chosin Reservoir. Where 67,000 Chinese troops surprised and encircled our troops. A 17 day battle in sub zero temperatures. Our guys had to fight their way out of that trap. That’s a real war. Up close, hand to hand killing. I just hope our politically correct troops in the future are ready. Sooner or later we may be in for a really nasty surprise.

<shrug> There’s no point in debating. It’s a done deal. We’ll have women troops in combat. Somehow our military leaders will have to figure out a way to make it work.

You seem awfully hysterical for someone whose problem it isn’t.

I’ve spent most of my life reading books on WWI, WWII and Korea. I don’t want to see another situation like we had in the Philippines. They estimate 60-80,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war were taken after the Battle of Bataan. Thats what happens when America gets caught unprepared and complacent. Our troops were under trained and under supplied before the Japanese invasion. A lot of brave men died and many more suffered because of that mistake.

I hope they figure out a way to keep our troops in top combat readiness. Political correctness is a strange thing to apply to the military. Somehow they got to make this work.

Women in our military are being abused and raped by their own side; keeping them out of battle doesn’t protect them from that. And being male doesn’t protect you from abuse.

Yes, it is certainly too bad for the military when battles are lost and prisoners are taken. What does any of that have to do with women in the military? Does it make you boo-hoo to think about women being hurt or raped? Is it just too much for you to bear?

Maybe you should start reading books about fishing or hamburgers.

The entrance test has been defined. It involves backpacking around India for 6 months and coming home alive and unmolested.

Any woman who can do that…the Taliban has no fears.:smiley:

I’m sure they’ll manage. Other countries do too. The US is not that exceptional. :stuck_out_tongue:

Young females in Israel have been serving mandatory stints in the military, just like males, since the nation’s conception IIRC. I’m not sure if they’re involved in front-line combat but I wouldn’t doubt it.

This reminds me of the weak arguement against women serving on submarines. That fight tanked, huh.

I’d say it’ll be voluntary for many years. Change is slow. But like with anything else, those who can, do, and ability falls into different levels. Someday it may become commonplace to wear a forehead ruby shot by a modern-day Annie Oakley.

Rape? Subugation? Forced patience and perseverance? At least they’d get paid.

This is part of the matter: the US military has been defining “Combat Position” for these purposes kind of narrowly, when in fact in the modern battlefield a whole damn lot of positions other than MOS 11B(Army)/0300(Marine) Infantryman or their analogs in the other Combat Arms units are right up against it day in and day out.

Right. we may have forgotten because it has been ten years since, but very early in the Iraq invasion we already were dealing with this.

By AD 2013 it’s kind of hard to support the notion that the horrors of war are unacceptaby horrible when borne by a woman, but that they’re just a man’s lot in life to bear.

Y’know, I posted this news in MPSIMS rather than GD because I just didn’t see anything debatable about it, any more. Didn’t even seem to rate IMHO.

Check out this recent - and fairly contentious - thread.

But men, and men only, must still sign up for the draft. Women should too.

If men must fight, women should too. Maybe then we wouldn’t go into wars so easily. I like what Prince Andrew said in Tolstoy’s War and Peace.

“Not take prisoners,” Prince Andrew continued: "That by itself would quite change the whole war and make it less cruel. As it is we have played at war- that’s what’s vile! We play at magnanimity and all that stuff. "

BTW: I spent 24 years in the military.