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Jessie Jane Duff | The Weekly Standard
3:25 PM, Jan 24, 2013 • By JESSIE JANE DUFF
On Thursday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that the U.S. military would lift its long-standing ban on women in combat. The national media, as can be expected, is popping the champagne corks in celebration.
But is it a good thing? As a woman and a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, I’m not so sure. To those who have been agitating for this step, I say this: be careful what you wish for.
At this point, we only know the broad outlines of the new policy. The service branches have until 2016 to implement the new policy and to determine if some positions should remain closed to women.
Many women will find out in the long haul that combat entails unprecedented physical stress. As it is now, many women have greater duress on their bodies than men with the physical requirements and are discharged at higher rates from the duress on knees, hips, ankles, and joints. That reality will only be exacerbated in combat. Will physical performance standards be adjusted (that is, made less stringent) to accommodate women?
And then there’s the emotional duress that troops in combat endure. I’ve seen many women in the Marines who chose not to reenlist due to the extreme emotional hardships of service. It isn't an easy culture to handle.
It goes beyond physical limitations—the object of military culture is to defeat the enemy and kill anything that is a threat. There is a constant mode of aggression; I’ve seen too many women who enlisted and completed training, but soon learned they simply couldn’t face that dark reality on a daily basis.
Moreover, the military cannot ensure women’s safety as it is. A recent documentary, "The Invisible War,” notes that over 15,000 women were sexually assaulted in 2011 alone. The odds of being sexually assaulted by a fellow service member are higher than being killed by the enemy. It seems unlikely that the proponents of this policy, in their zeal for “equality” at all costs, have considered these realities.
3:25 PM, Jan 24, 2013 • By JESSIE JANE DUFF
On Thursday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that the U.S. military would lift its long-standing ban on women in combat. The national media, as can be expected, is popping the champagne corks in celebration.
But is it a good thing? As a woman and a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, I’m not so sure. To those who have been agitating for this step, I say this: be careful what you wish for.
At this point, we only know the broad outlines of the new policy. The service branches have until 2016 to implement the new policy and to determine if some positions should remain closed to women.
Many women will find out in the long haul that combat entails unprecedented physical stress. As it is now, many women have greater duress on their bodies than men with the physical requirements and are discharged at higher rates from the duress on knees, hips, ankles, and joints. That reality will only be exacerbated in combat. Will physical performance standards be adjusted (that is, made less stringent) to accommodate women?
And then there’s the emotional duress that troops in combat endure. I’ve seen many women in the Marines who chose not to reenlist due to the extreme emotional hardships of service. It isn't an easy culture to handle.
It goes beyond physical limitations—the object of military culture is to defeat the enemy and kill anything that is a threat. There is a constant mode of aggression; I’ve seen too many women who enlisted and completed training, but soon learned they simply couldn’t face that dark reality on a daily basis.
Moreover, the military cannot ensure women’s safety as it is. A recent documentary, "The Invisible War,” notes that over 15,000 women were sexually assaulted in 2011 alone. The odds of being sexually assaulted by a fellow service member are higher than being killed by the enemy. It seems unlikely that the proponents of this policy, in their zeal for “equality” at all costs, have considered these realities.