Panetta opens combat roles to women

[green73]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senior defense officials say Pentagon chief Leon Panetta is removing the military's ban on women serving in combat, opening hundreds of thousands of front-line positions and potentially elite commando jobs after more than a decade at war.

The groundbreaking move recommended by the Joint Chiefs of Staff overturns a 1994 rule banning women from being assigned to smaller ground combat units. Panetta's decision gives the military services until January 2016 to seek special exceptions if they believe any positions must remain closed to women.

http://www.wtop.com/931/3181819/Pane...roles-to-women

[kcchiefs6465]

God forbid one of them gets captured.

[phill4paul]

God forbid one of them gets captured.

It will provide all the moral outrage needed to enter/continue any war.

[Confederate]

Ridiculous.

[loveableteddybear]

It will provide all the moral outrage needed to enter/continue any war.

$#@!, you guys just figured out what this bull$#@! is all really about. Justifying endless wars.

[paulbot24]

God forbid one of them gets captured.

Indeed. Those guys will never know what hit them. Women understand women, that's why they hate each other.

[James Madison]

It will provide all the moral outrage needed to enter/continue any war.

Ding ding ding!

When all those caskets with dead women come back Boobus will be out for blood.

Reminds me of the South Park episode where the boys turn into cavemen at first sight of girls developing breasts.

[jkr]

DISGUSTING

[Anti Federalist]

Just another indication of a sick and dying society.

Call me whatever names you want, a society that puts young girls out on the front line to get ground into hamburger, to advance the cause of the banskters and the NWO, is sick.

[sailingaway]

It is to justify a universal draft, I am sure.

[Pericles]

US women have already been captured, and what happened to them has not been made public - no more needs to be said.

OTOH, it furthur degrades US military capability, which may be a bad or a good thing dependeing on circumstances.

[Anti Federalist]

OTOH, it furthur degrades US military capability, which may be a bad or a good thing depending on circumstances.

Or point of view, I suppose.

[jkob]

how long until they start the draft up again?

[phill4paul]

US women have already been captured, and what happened to them has not been made public - no more needs to be said.

OTOH, it furthur degrades US military capability, which may be a bad or a good thing dependeing on circumstances.

To be sure the U.S. military is doing its part in keeping its OWN house clean by sweeping under the rug the treatment of some women within its ranks.

[Anti Federalist]

To be sure the U.S. military is doing its part in keeping its OWN house clean by sweeping under the rug the treatment of some women within its ranks.

What is the rape and sexual assault rate again?

[phill4paul]

What is the rape and sexual assault rate again?

Varying reports but I think it stands at 1 in 3 according to the DOD. Which would put it roughly at 70,000 victims. Whether this number is correct or not could be endlessly disputed. However, had these women not been in the military then I think the number would be zero. And if a civilian had been raped or assaulted by a military member then chances are better that some form of justice would occur.

[QuickZ06]

Some of us want to stop the wars not need women for more.

[Danke]

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/29/us...ted=all&src=pm

[kcchiefs6465]

US women have already been captured, and what happened to them has not been made public - no more needs to be said.

OTOH, it furthur degrades US military capability, which may be a bad or a good thing dependeing on circumstances.

Wait until one is captured and it is made public. And I'm not talking about edited, PG-13 news reports.

[thoughtomator]

Someone record the name of the first American soldier to give birth mid-combat for posterity.

[phill4paul]

Someone record the name of the first American soldier to give birth mid-combat for posterity.

While fighting off a hoard of terrorists and saving her squad! Made for (payed) TeeVEE I'm tellin' ya!

[Danke]

USS Acadia (AD-42) in 1990:

"This was the first war-time deployment of a mixed male-female crew on a U.S. Navy combat vessel. Just over one third of her crew were women, which caused some controversy when during the course of the mission 1 in 10 of the female crew either became pregnant or discovered they already were."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...-115647-8125r/

[pacodever]

Fact is most women just cannot meet the physical requirements for combat grunt work (marine, army) or special forces. In the navy, I deliberately pulled women and some men off fire hose teams and made them phone talkers. I knew there was no chance in hell that they would be able to carry their own weight with 50 lbs of gear, let alone carry a 200± lb buddy up a several flights of ladders if he went down. It endangers women and the men they serve next to.

Not to mention the completely different physical standards they are currently held to.

[SpreadOfLiberty]

I just don't want a draft to include women(or anybody for that matter).

[MelissaWV]

Fact is most women just cannot meet the physical requirements for combat grunt work (marine, army) or special forces. In the navy, I deliberately pulled women and some men off fire hose teams and made them phone talkers. I knew there was no chance in hell that they would be able to carry their own weight with 50 lbs of gear, let alone carry a 200± lb buddy up a several flights of ladders if he went down. It endangers women and the men they serve next to.

Not to mention the completely different physical standards they are currently held to.

This.

I'm all for "allowing" women in combat, personally, but hold them to the same standards. No excuses. No once-a-month time off for cramps or PMS or whatever. Too short to march? Too weak to lift? Too jiggly to handle recoil? Tough luck.

There will be some women that meet and exceed expectations/standards. There will be many that do not (just as there are, every year, many men who do not).

* * *

This will make a draft interesting if it ever happens. You will see all sorts of female-illnesses crop up to make people unfit for duty all of a sudden, and you will see a marked upswing in pregnancies.

[SpreadOfLiberty]

Has anybody checked the fitness tests for our military? Personally they seem kind of lame. You should be in prime physical shape in the military, with strength and endurance.

Anyways, they have it weighted based on age, but also a different set for females. However, the battlefield doesn't make such adjustments. I wonder if the combat fitness level for women will be raised?

[CaptainAmerica]

God forbid one of them gets captured.

Panetta would probably hope for it to fuel the propaganda to go to more war

[Lucille]

On the bright side:

http://voxday.blogspot.com/2013/01/w...ont-lines.html

Tell me again about how the People will never be able to resist the assembled might of the US military?
[...]
Between the reduced female capacity for fighting and the inevitable dissension and lack of unit cohesion that will result from putting women into front-line companies and commando units, I can only conclude that this is ultimately a positive development for long-term American freedom. Give it enough time and the military will go the way of the Fortune 500 companies, HR commissars will be assigned to each unit, and the combat rifle will be replaced with a lighter .22 caliber carbine that comes in fashionable teal, mauve, and eggshell.

Heh.

Related:

Losing the next war
http://voxday.blogspot.com/2012/02/losing-next-war.html

I don't care how much the USA spends on its military. It's all but guaranteed to lose its next major war:

The Army is ordering its hardened combat veterans to wear fake breasts and empathy bellies so they can better understand how pregnant soldiers feel during physical training. This week, 14 noncommissioned officers at Camp Zama took turns wearing the “pregnancy simulators” as they stretched, twisted and exercised during a three-day class that teaches them to serve as fitness instructors for pregnant soldiers and new mothers.

[P3ter_Griffin]

I remember a discussion we had on this in 4th or 5th grade. My thoughts are still the same, why they hell do women WANT to serve in combat roles? But its about damn time they are given the option.

[Anti Federalist]

In Case You Don't Subscribe to the Marine Corps Gazette

Posted by Laurence Vance on January 19, 2013 08:21 PM

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewr...es/130957.html

Then you missed the article, as I did, by Captain Katie Petronio. Here are two excerpts:

As a combat-experienced Marine officer, and a female, I am here to tell you that we are not all created equal, and attempting to place females in the infantry will not improve the Marine Corps as the Nation’s force-in-readiness or improve our national security.

I can say from firsthand experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, and not just emotion, that we haven’t even begun to analyze and comprehend the gender-specific medical issues and overall physical toll continuous combat operations will have on females.

I am confident that should the Marine Corps attempt to fully integrate women into the infantry, we as an institution are going to experience a colossal increase in crippling and career-ending medical conditions for females.

Now, if we could just encourage men to not join as well.