G.I. Jane is here to stay (Bravery of women in combat)

[RamboLiberal]

First time I mostly agreed with this columnist. Most of his column are militaristic neocon propaganda pieces.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05107/489037.stm

<snip>

The second thing to note is that the team sergeant who took the lead in clearing the ditch was Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester, 23, who sells shoes at a store in Nashville in civilian life.

Nearly as courageous as Sgt. Hester was Spc. Ashley Pullen, who treated the wounded under fire.

Sgt. Hester and Spc. Pullen pretty much close for me the debate over women in combat. No, I'm not in favor of lifting the restrictions in the Army and Marine Corps that keep women out of infantry, armor and Special Forces units. The combat arms exclusion exists for sound reasons which ought not to be ignored to please a few feminists who would never dream of enlisting themselves. But anyone who says women can't pull their load on the battlefield should take it up with Sgt. Hester. But not when she's mad.

Neither the Army nor most women who serve in it have any desire to lift those restrictions, but Elaine Donnelly, who heads the Center for Military Readiness, is in high dudgeon over the chief of staff's plan to collocate support units in which women do serve with infantry and armor battalions.

I think her objections are foolish. In this war, women already are in combat. Insurgents in Iraq are far more likely to attack support units, in which women serve, than the combat units in which they do not. The reorganization that Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker has proposed makes enormous tactical sense, and ought not to be sidetracked because women might serve in forward support companies.

[captain_change]

1. My letter to the editor

"Regarding Jack Kelly's "G.I. Jane is here to stay" , it was a good article until he made an uninformed swipe at President Clinton. I graduated from Basic Training at Ft Jackson SC during the Reagan administration there was coed training by platoon. When I returned to Ft Jackson as an XO of a reserve training cadre, during the Clinton administration, it had changed back to single sex training companies. As usual, a right wing commentator never lets the facts get in their way."

[Lisa]

2. I don't follow all of his reasoning ...

He's praising the female soldiers he's singled out in the article, but then he kind of shifts the issue to criticize "a few feminists who would never dream of enlisting themselves". Personally I've never served in the military, but I do know women who have -- and they aren't all unanimous on the issue of women in combat. He does imply (if only by omission) that there are some Army women who would like the policy altered, but he never seems to get around to addressing their views -- even though they have the credibility lacked by people who "would never dream of enlisting themselves" (the males as well, I assume?).