More on Women in Combat

Kathleen Parker, syndicated columnist, mother, stepmother, H. L. Mencken Award winner, realist, and genuine woman, writes in her book Save The Males:

What has been presented as a matter of women's rights... distorts the purpose of the military. What we are sacrificing in the push to satisfy [feminist] goals of absolute equality is the reality of what it takes to prevail against real enemies in war and to save real lives. We have allowed ourselves to enter a pretend world where what is false is true - and we have turned a blind eye to the consequences in the name of equality.

The fundamental falsehood that increasingly drives military policy and begs urgent correction is that women and men are interchangeable and equally qualified in all areas of military service. We know this isn't true as a matter of observation and common sense, but it has become easier to pretend otherwise - or simply to avert our gaze from the hippopotamus in the powder room. To suggest that women don't belong in combat these days is to risk being labeled a misogynist throwback and invite assault from the PC police. But there are objective reasons to keep women off the front lines and the sexes apart in basic training and other areas. The first reason is physical, and the rest have to do with male traits and behavioral differences that are rooted in our genetic makeup....

Through some slight of mind, women dying [in the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, who are not in combat positions, but are in danger due to the lack of clear boundaries between combatants and non-combatants in these anti-terror wars,] has been construed as evidence of women's qualifications for combat. The thinking seems to be that if they're already in combat situations - [i.e.,] if they are already dying and being wounded - any argument against their being included in ground troops is so much rhetoric. By that logic, children may as well be allowed to play in the streets, since so many of them are getting hit by cars anyway....

...[P]utting women in and near combat requires a denial of sex differences that could put both men and women at greater risk. Women are at greater risk because they have diminished capacity for survival, and men because having to fight alongside fellow comrades who aren't equal to the task increases the likelihood that they themselves will be killed. To insist that men pretend women are their equals, meanwhile, only engenders disrespect and resentment.

See my article on why women should not be in combat positions for objective arguments on the issue, which are far less philosophically cogent than Parker's statement here.

Do Feminists Care About Equal Rights?

It is commonly asserted that feminism is simply about securing equal rights for women. That sounds an awful lot like "feminism wants the same rights for women as men already possess," doesn't it? But if "the same rights as men" is the standard of equality, then the answer is, No, feminists do not care about men's rights, in the same way that assassins do not lobby in behalf of the rights of politicians.

While it is a common mis-assertion that feminism is about "equality," this is the Goebbels-like lie that makes it easier to swallow the unpleasant truth: feminism exists to procure superior rights for women at the expense of men, children, other women, and indeed, of society itself.

The inarguably false assertion that feminism is "all about equality" has been made even in response to this question itself. However, feminism's PURPOSE is more accurately revealed in its GOALS than in its deceptive political speech. And what are the goals of feminism?

1) Feminism glorifies the autonomy of the individual woman to the extent that it even romanticizes the irresponsibility of women. The wedding vows of women are worth nothing in the feminist mind. The responsibility of women toward their own children is irrelevant if said responsibility infringes on the autonomy of a woman in any way. Even the stability of society itself is not to be valued if such stability depends on the subjective, perceived "happiness" of any individual woman.

2) Feminism wants women to earn the same wages as men without turning in the same performance as men. Because women work less time than men (for a variety of reasons, ranging from starting work later, to taking time off for sickness and pregnancy, to voluntarily taking time off for child care, etc.), the average woman at age 35 has worked a full 10 years less than men who are her peers at age 35. Yet feminists want all 35-year olds employed in similar occupations to make the same money, in spite of the fact that women bring much less experience, generally fewer accomplishments, and such risks as pregnancy or moving to the table.

3) Feminism says that women are equally capable as men in all traditionally-male professions, then lobbies to have entrance and promotional requirements lowered so that more women can be hired and promoted in law enforcement, fire departments, and the military.

4) Feminism says that women should have the RIGHT to fight on the front lines in the military, without having the OBLIGATION to do so - an option not available to male soldiers, sailors, and airmen.

5) Feminism says that women are equally as strong as men intellectually and emotionally, then claims that women are victims of "domestic violence" if a woman's feelings are not duly regarded by her husband and that women are victims of "sexual harrassment" if they happen to spot a bikini calendar in the workplace.

6) Feminism, while vocally maintaining that men and women are equal, in fact, considers women to be more equal than men. Feminism argues that women are morally superior to men and have propagandized the legal system to hold that women are the superior parent and that women never lie about rape, domestic violence, sexual harrassment, and child abuse, although the evidence suggests that women lie about such matters a majority of the time.

The fact is, feminists realize that feminists (not women) are NOT equal with men, and they despise men for being able to stand on their own, resist the government, lead families, and blaze moral, entrepreneurial, and artistic trails for all the world. Feminists (not women) resent the obvious superiority of men (over feminists - not women) and have banded together out of hatred to harness the power of government to harm men - a concept rightly classified as "misandry."

No feminist anywhere can give an example in which feminism has actually LOBBIED for anything approaching "equality." While the mouths of feminists are filled with empty, meaningless sloganeering such as "equality" and "empowerment," the fact is that all of the ACTIONS of feminists are directed toward securing superior rights for women, regardless of the irresponsibility and immorality of the individual women involved.

Any talk of "equality" among feminists is misdirection. Don't listen to their words - watch their hands!

Should Women Fight in Combat?

No. Women should not fight in combat missions.

Women should stay at home baking cookies and washing diapers until they can look inside someone's cubicle, see a bikini-clad woman on the screensaver, and avoid either crying or bringing a sexual harrassment lawsuit.

Until women have mastered that skill, they should not be allowed into combat. I understand it is much more stressful to be in the middle of blood, explosions, and people who want to kill you than it is to see a bikini model on a screensaver, after all.

I'm just sayin....

Item 1:
During the United States' Panama invasion, a female truck driver taking troops into a combat zone started crying. Another woman who had been performing the same job also broke into tears, and the two women were relieved of duty. After reporters learned about the incident, the Army "took pains to convey that the women had not disobeyed orders or been derelict in their duty," reports The New Republic. "On the contrary, according to an Army official quoted in the Washington Post: "They performed superbly." Since men, too, have been relieved of duty after breaking down emotionally during combat, the point is not to single these women out. The point is that the Army was less than candid about the incident. As The New Republic commented: "To call the overall performance of a soldier who breaks down and cries during combat 'superb' is ludicrous and patronizing." ("Soldier Boys, Soldier Girls," The New Republic, February 19, 1990, cited in Congressional Quarterly Supplement, February 7, 1990, p. A14.)

And for the foolish individuals who say that women are capable of anything that men are....

Item 2:
In Canada, combat training was opened to women in 1987 as part of CREW Trials (Combat Related Employment of Women). The Canadian Defense Ministry had planned to form an infantry unit with 40 men and 40 women and compare them with a unit of 80 men. The experiment was never completed because not enough females volunteered, according to Commander Judith Harper of the Canadian Defense Ministry in Ottawa. (Telephone interview with Heritage Foundation researcher on June 7, 1991.) From 1987 to February 21, 1991, some 342 women were enrolled in Canadian army combat units, and 79 graduated. More than HALF the graduates were radio operators. Of 102 women who enlisted in infantry training, only ONE (less than 1%, for any math whizzes out there) graduated. That woman served her three-year mandatory term and recently left the army. (Ibid.)

Item 3:
Following the War of Israeli Liberation in 1948, women were never allowed into combat again (unless by accident). It has been Israeli law since 1950, for a variety of reasons, including underperformance by women and overprotectiveness to the jeapordizing of combat mission goals by men, that women are still drafted, but not placed into combat.

When women have been placed into combat they have underperformed, to the danger and detriment of their units. Nations that have allowed women into combat have done so only temporarily, and even the soldier-starved Israeli army will no longer allow women to fight in their combat forces (though they still fill many support roles, as they ought to, as long as they can meet the same requirements as the men who fill those roles).

The military is a very poor place to engage in social engineering. The purpose of the military is to kill people, break things, and subjugate the enemy - not to function as a testing ground for pink and blue uniforms. The inability of feminists to admit the truth, think rationally, and place the needs of their nation above their own personal whims is disturbing in this instance, but unfortunately, for them none of that is entirely out of character.