Interesting liberal priorities. Harvard lifts it’s 41-year, Vietnam-era, campus ban on ROTC because the military drops Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Of course, Harvard didn’t kick ROTC off campus back in the 70′s because gay men and women weren’t allowed to serve openly in Vietnam or anywhere else. The military’s policy concerning homosexuality simply served as a neat pretext in later years for the Cambridge campus to disdain the armed services and carry on their hippy-era, anti-ROTC tradition.
But wait. The military still discriminates when it comes to gender. After all, women are still not allowed to officially serve in combat roles. Hmmm… It seems that in the new millennium gay rights have eclipsed feminism. What to make of this discrepancy, this oversight on the part of Harvard’s impeccably liberal elites? Why aren’t they holding the feminist line? Could it be because feminism is over? So “pre-Bill Clinton” and whatever the meaning of “is” is?
Just a thought.
They’re merely trying to repair their reputation — after being tainted by their close association with the worst President in modern history, it just makes sense to cozy up with one the most respected institutions in the US.
The military does not discriminate against women. If women can physically function within the job requirements, then women can serve.
The thing is, women cannot adequately function in combat arms. The gear for an infantryman weighs 79.3 lbs, before any special extras. The smallest man gets the Machine Gun, because the hole required to fight from will be shallower.
Also, if a man is down, and you have to get him back to a safe position, women cannot carry the dead weight of a man with his gear. She cannot even drag him.
A woman cannot throw a grenade as far, nor as accurately. Likewise, if it came to bayonets and buttstrokes, forget it.
The regular maintenance on a tank requires a man’s strength. Tank treads are very heavy. Bolts require a man’s strength to loosen and tighten. Ammo is heavy! Same for Artillery. The 105mm shell weighs 90 lbs… think, a few car batteries at once.
In many cases, women’s reflexes are not those of men. Combat is for men, pure and simple, because the other side is using men. You cannot afford to come off 2nd-best in a two-army fight. There is a reason women do not play American football. It is the closest thing to combat in sports, and combat is for men.
Marc: My daughter flies the AH-1W Cobra.
And she’s a Marine, too.
Scroll a bit to read about Tally Parham, Princeton grad, and a female F-16 pilot who flew sorties over Baghdad.
Ivy Leaguer. Woman. Combat Pilot.
http://www.princeton.edu/~paw/archive_new/PAW03-04/03-1022/features.html