And the signs are not good. Judging from their stated motive for lifting the ban, they have it exactly backwards.
“Advocates have long said that banning women from elite combat roles was not only discriminatory, but also prevented women from reaching more prestigious military ranks and receiving promotions.”
When these advocates complained the ban was discriminatory, I feel confident in guessing they were complaining about discrimination against women. So in reality this is just more damseling, it’s all for the sake of the women.
If this is about nothing more than promotions and career opportunities, then Panetta should be handed a dagger, along with his whole crew.
The ban was discriminatory, but the victims of that discrimination are men. It was male disposability. And if the Defense department is worried about women here, that male disposability may even get worse. If this new policy is implemented the wrong way it will imperil men on the battlefield, all in the name of extending a benefit to women. (And for all the disadvantages, the ability to go into combat confers benefits too. Historically it has been to royal road to the prerogatives of citizenship – oh, wait, historically there’s been an exception made for women when it comes to those prerogatives, hasn’t there?)
What are the chances that all soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen will be trained to and held to and selected to meet the same standard? DOD’s record on standards for physical fitness for 30 years have been gendered; why expect any better on this?
If a man is too weak to perform in a unit, he gets bounced. Will the same apply to women? It’s unlikely, given the hyper-scrutiny and zero-defects atmosphere that is likely to prevail.
Disposability is in and of itself not a bad thing. It’s what confers a big part of the benefit of being a social species. A few die saving the rest. It’s only wrong when it’s imposed unequally. We will see how thoroughly DOD understands full and real equality.
After all, women have been in harm’s way in our last two wars and occupations for years now. The public didn’t go into fits when women came home in body bags, tiny though the percentage of all war dead they formed was. Non-linear warfare is dangerous in the entire area of operations and even safe areas are only less dangerous. Logistical support is always a high-value target, and women have been driving trucks for decades now. This is going to be at a higher level, but more a matter of degree than of kind.
This really could be for everyone’s sake, and that includes women. This is an issue of full citizenship. This is one more chance for women to shoulder the full burdens, all the burdens of citizenship, but this time, for the first time, without falling back on the pussy pass.
Now the real struggle for women in the military begins, to insist on real equality in training and in physical standards and every other thing in the face of the substantial white knighting resistance they will face in the DOD.
We will see how well they do with that.
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