It looks like my old t-shirt that read, “If gays get their civil
rights, then everyone will want them,” just came true. The last (last?)
vestige of discrimination against women in the military is gone – the
ban on women in combat has been lifted, effective May 15.
And the religious right, and women-haters everywhere, died a little.
From the Washington Post:
Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta announced
Thursday a lifting of the ban on female service members in combat roles,
a watershed policy change that was informed by women’s valor in Iraq
and Afghanistan and that removes the remaining barrier to a fully
inclusive military, defense officials said.
Panetta made the decision “upon the recommendation of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff,” a senior defense official said Wednesday, an assertion
that stunned female veteran activists who said they assumed that the
brass was still uneasy about opening the most physically arduous
positions to women. The Army and the Marines, which make up the bulk of
the military’s ground combat force, will present plans to open most jobs
to women by May 15.
Like the ban on gays, the ban on women in combat was a long time coming and based in all sorts of myths and fears.
ThinkProgress reports that one of the biggest fears the women-haters have is having to poop in combat.
Seriously.
After Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s surprise
announcement on Wednesday that women would be free to serve in most or
all combat roles by 2016, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by
former Marine infantryman Ryan Smith. Smith argued that since soldiers
had to “defecate inches from his seated comrade’s face” during his tour
in Iraq, women could not be permitted in combat because it would
“humiliate” men:
Societal norms are a reality, and their maintenance is
important to most members of a society. It is humiliating enough to
relieve yourself in front of your male comrades; one can only imagine
the humiliation of being forced to relieve yourself in front of the
opposite sex.
Despite the professionalism of Marines, it would be distracting and
potentially traumatizing to be forced to be naked in front of the
opposite sex, particularly when your body has been ravaged by lack of
hygiene. In the reverse, it would be painful to witness a member of the
opposite sex in such an uncomfortable and awkward position. Combat
effectiveness is based in large part on unit cohesion. The relationships
among members of a unit can be irreparably harmed by forcing them to
violate societal norms.
Pooh-shy. That’s a new one.
And while we can all enjoy the expected fireworks from the religious
right, the Joint Chiefs all supposedly supported this move. They were
not so unified when it came to lifting the gay ban.
That’s not to say that women will get every combat job a man might get.
More from NPR:
All of the service branches are supposed to come up with plans by May
15 for integrating women into combat positions and for requesting
exemptions, Pentagon officials said.
The services are most likely to request exemptions in elite units
where only a small percentage of men are able to meet the demanding
standards, such as the Navy SEALs and the Army’s Rangers and Green
Berets.
Unless it’s impossible for any woman to ever be as physically able
for those specific jobs, and the jobs themselves require a level of
physical ability that a woman could never achieve, then I’d think it
would be better to simply require any candidates pass a physical regimen
and prove their worth. I assume men have to pass the same physical
test to get these elite positions.
Actually, it looks like the Israelis might have helped things along here. From the officially-designated hate group, the (un-)American (anti-)Family Association:
Apparently the IDF has gone totally PC on national
defense, and the research on which my column yesterday was based,
accurate at the time, is now outdated. The IDF was right before, and
wrong now, but it looks like they’ll have to figure that out the hard
way just like we will.
The IDF is actually now advertising “hardcore battle roles for women”
in the Israeli Defense Force. They now have a grand total of 27 female
pilots, have a largely female battalion of women who patrol the southern
border and “ambush… enemy forces,” female soldiers who partner with
dogs in their K-9 unit, a combat battalion whose job it is to
“neutralize…weapons live in the field of battle,” and sea-going unit
whose job it is to “safeguard Israel’s civilian ports.”
Right, because if it’s one the thing the Israelis are known for, it’s their weak-kneed PC military.
I couldn’t end this story without first checking what that other officially-designated hate group, the (anti-)Family Research Council, had to say. It seems that FRC worries that military women will lose their
je ne sais quoi if they fight in combat
.
In an incredibly compelling article for the Marine Corps
Gazette, Capt. Petronio says that while she was extremely successful
during both combat tours, she is a shell of her former self. (And based
on the nightmarish conditions Ryan Smith shares in the Wall Street
Journal, it’s no wonder.) “Five years later, I am physically not the
woman I once was,” (including a diagnosis of deployment-induced
polycystic ovarian syndrome), “and my views have greatly changed on the
possibility of women having successful long careers while serving in the
infantry. I can say from firsthand experience in Iraq and Afghanistan,
and not just emotion… 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.” Like us, she appreciates what the Pentagon is
trying to do but believes that diversity is not a military necessity.
“Let’s embrace our differences to further hone in on the Corps’ success
instead of dismantling who we are to achieve a political agenda,” she
pleads.
Yes, God forbid that women in the military suffer the same injuries as men.
While I’d prefer that none of our troops suffer any injuries, it
seems downright 1950s to argue that it’s okay for our men in uniform to
suffer mentally and physically from serving in the military but not
women. What’s the difference? This attitude reminds me of tornado
drills we use to have when I was in grade school back in Illinois. I
distinctly remember that the girls would get down on the ground in front
of their lockers and scrunch down in a seated ball, while the boys
would stand over them with their hands pushed against the lockers. At
the time it was explained that this was to protect the girls should
anything fall from the ceiling. Even then I did a bit of a
kiddie-double-take over the bizarre logic.
Military service has hurt, even ruined, a lot of men too, especially
over the last decade or so. It’s typical twisted logic that the
religious right thinks that’s okay for men, but verboten for women.
They oppress you because they love you, the same reason they’re always
oppressing gays. I do wish they’d stop loving all of us nearly so much.
The
NRA is recruiting new members through its Wine Club, with a donation
from every bottle of wine purchased going to the organisation to support
its battle to preserve the Second Amendment.
According to Australian newspaper the Herald Sun,
Yalumba has quickly distanced itself from the controversial US National
Rifle Association after it emerged that it was one of 20 Australian
producers sold via the group’s wine club.
Hundreds of wines are available through the site, from a Campo de Borja Garnacha at US$6.99 right up to Joseph Phelps Napa Valley Insignia 2008 at $159.99.
![secretsocietyofnone:
Annie Oakley: First American female superstar. Beat her future husband in a sharp shooting match when she was 15 years old (and won $100 from him, a tidy sum in those days). Had a rivalry with another female sharpshooter (who billed herself as younger and more attractive than Annie) who was also part of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show (but no one remembers that other woman’s name, so guess who won?). She taught over 15,000 women how to shoot in her lifetime and once said “I would like to see every woman know how to handle [firearms] as naturally as they know how to handle babies.” and was a total bad ass.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/5b038942b1e77b98b77392c1263f7bc8/tumblr_mfofkwadAW1s0noi0o1_500.jpg)
Ancient
mariners aren't the only ones that used the stars to navigate. It turns
out that the lowly dung beetle does as well when it rolls its ball of
muck in a Moonless night:
