BREAKING: Panetta opens combat roles to women

[Elspeth]

I would be all for this had ERA passed in the 70s.

Interesting that women in combat was the major issue that tanked ERA. Now, despite the fact that ERA was shelved, we have women in combat anyway. Joke is on the feminists, I guess.

[noonwitch]

Interesting that women in combat was the major issue that tanked ERA. Now, despite the fact that ERA was shelved, we have women in combat anyway. Joke is on the feminists, I guess.

Yeah, the joke is on feminists like me, I guess. The world has changed since then, though.


As far as today is concerned, we are also talking about an all-voluntary military, not a draft. The SS cards are to register for a potential draft, in a national emergency. I don't think women should have to register for a potential draft unless they have their equal rights guaranteed in the Constitution.


I have a friend who is convinced that she registered for the draft in 1982, when she turned 18. I told her, no, women are not required to do so, but she is convinced that she did. She also believes that Bob Fosse played Joe Gideon in All That Jazz, not Roy Scheider-no matter what I showed her, movie rosters, the case to the video, she could not accept the facts. She further believes that Kwame Kilpatrick is innocent of all crimes, but that Mike Illitch (owner of Little Caesar's, the Tigers and the Red Wings) pays hit men to kill old people who own property around downtown Detroit. Please pray for her.

[Elspeth]

As far as today is concerned, we are also talking about an all-voluntary military, not a draft. The SS cards are to register for a potential draft, in a national emergency. I don't think women should have to register for a potential draft unless they have their equal rights guaranteed in the Constitution.

You're going to have a hard time selling that one. People won't understand the difference. America is also much more dumbed down since the late seventies.

[Adam Wood]

As far as today is concerned, we are also talking about an all-voluntary military, not a draft. The SS cards are to register for a potential draft, in a national emergency. I don't think women should have to register for a potential draft unless they have their equal rights guaranteed in the Constitution.

Women already have equal rights guaranteed under the Constitution. Has been that way since 1868. What you want is equal outcome guaranteed in the Constitution, which ain't gonna happen.


Whether it's a "potential" draft or not, it is a blatant double-standard to not require women to register for the draft when men are required to register. Men who are drafted don't get to decide whether they're in a support role or they're on point with a rifle; why should women get that choice if men don't?



You asked for equality. Now you have to deal with the consequences of that.

[Odysseus]

Most of the impetus for this is coming from female officers who feel that their professional chances are hampered by not being allowed to command combat arms units and get that in their resume. I don't have the sense that there are a lot of enlisted women dying to break track on an Abrams or hump mortar tubes and M240Bs on extended dismounts. God forbid something like military utility stand between a West Point woman and her shot at CofS.

I foresee the unintended consequences of this will be a reluctance to put any non-SOCOM boots on the ground anywhere in the world to the point that it'll make Clinton look like Tojo by comparison, and our opposition wasn't too slow-witted in getting an extremely accurate intelligence appreciation of him on that, which led directly to some pretty ugly results.

As long as the media doesn't report the ugly results, it won't register to anyone until St Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan is converted into a Mosque and the Chinese territorial claims on California go unanswered.

Yeah, the joke is on feminists like me, I guess. The world has changed since then, though.

Yeah, now you get to be treated like disposable chattel by what passes for men in the post-feminist era, while being expected to support yourself and any offspring that might result from the random couplings that substitute for love, family and life. You've come a long way, baby.

As far as today is concerned, we are also talking about an all-voluntary military, not a draft. The SS cards are to register for a potential draft, in a national emergency. I don't think women should have to register for a potential draft unless they have their equal rights guaranteed in the Constitution.

Yeah, it must suck not to be able to vote, own property, keep and bear arms, speak your mind freely, practice your religion, petition the government, answer questions under duress during trials that don't include a jury of your peers...

I have a friend who is convinced that she registered for the draft in 1982, when she turned 18. I told her, no, women are not required to do so, but she is convinced that she did. She also believes that Bob Fosse played Joe Gideon in All That Jazz, not Roy Scheider-no matter what I showed her, movie rosters, the case to the video, she could not accept the facts. She further believes that Kwame Kilpatrick is innocent of all crimes, but that Mike Illitch (owner of Little Caesar's, the Tigers and the Red Wings) pays hit men to kill old people who own property around downtown Detroit. Please pray for her.

What's her DU name?

[noonwitch]

Women already have equal rights guaranteed under the Constitution. Has been that way since 1868. What you want is equal outcome guaranteed in the Constitution, which ain't gonna happen.


Whether it's a "potential" draft or not, it is a blatant double-standard to not require women to register for the draft when men are required to register. Men who are drafted don't get to decide whether they're in a support role or they're on point with a rifle; why should women get that choice if men don't?



You asked for equality. Now you have to deal with the consequences of that.

How can women have had equal rights under the Constitution since 1868 when they weren't even allowed to vote until 1920?

[Bailey]

How can women have had equal rights under the Constitution since 1868 when they weren't even allowed to vote until 1920?

Well now you have all the same rights and you don't want to take the same risks as men.

[Hawkgirl]

The media is lapping this all up in anticipation of the Conservative response to this.

Anderson Cooper's exact words the other day were "Is Obama planning to annihilate the Republican party?" His guest answered "he's succeeding."


I can't say I agree.

[Elspeth]

Yeah, now you get to be treated like disposable chattel by what passes for men in the post-feminist era, while being expected to support yourself and any offspring that might result from the random couplings that substitute for love, family and life. You've come a long way, baby.

Wait til the draft. Now, young women won't have the option of avoiding a situation that has a higher probability of rape than anything stateside (outside of gang neighborhoods).

[txradioguy]

And somehow all the "smart" people in the Pentagon haven't connected the dots to the fact that sexual assaults and harassment has shot up in the military the closer they push females to the front lines and allow them into traditional combat roles.

After all of the training we've gotten on this stuff over the last 20 years...you'd think the incidents would be way down. Instead they continue to climb.

Only one reason I can see for that.