Thursday, February 10, 2011

Women in combat

I'll put my head on the block and say that I oppose having women in ground combat. Fire control on an AC-130? Remote piloting a drone? Fine, reading scopes and pushing buttons is not sex specific. But on average (repeat, "on average") women are not as strong as men, which can lead to politically correct compromises in battle readiness. They can't throw a grenade as far as a man? Okay, we'll make the grenades less powerful. They can't keep up in PT and field exercises? Okay, we'll dial those down. They can't carry their end of a stretcher on the double on a battlefield? Okay, we'll require four people instead of two to carry the stretchers. A sailor on a combat cruise got pregnant onboard? Okay, we'll just delay the mission and turn around & go back to port to drop her off. And on and on. Again, I'm entirely supportive & grateful for the women under arms now. But I don't think it does anyone any favors to act as though they are 100% the same as men.