Feminists received a blow this week when the Pentagon's top brass said Tuesday that if all military jobs must be open to women, then lawmakers should make it mandatory for them to register for future drafts.
As WND reported, "Gen. Mark A. Milley, chief of staff of the Army, and Gen. Robert B. Neller, the Marine Corps commandant, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that registering all women for Selective Service is an appropriate request given the push to make military occupational specialties gender-neutral."
Well crud. This is what happens when feminism meets fairness. Sometimes there is war. If women want total equality with men, they have to accept the fact that at some point they may be required to fight and die, just like men.
In theory, feminists should support drafting women. After all, to oppose drafting women on the grounds of gender goes against everything they believe in. But the reality is this: If a national emergency occurs, our nation goes to war and the draft is initiated – well, I have a sneaking suspicion an enormous number of feminists will conveniently get pregnant (for once, claiming abortion isn't an option).
Personally, I have issues with the draft. To pluck a man against his will out of his life and send him overseas to fight a war to which he may not feel committed strikes me as too similar to the old days when "press gangs" would kidnap men and force them to serve aboard naval ships. However, I also understand there may be times when national security is at risk from outside forces and the armed services may need more people in a hurry. This is reality, and my opinion about the issue won't make a difference one way or the other.
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But should I, as a woman, oppose women getting drafted into combat?
Simply put, I don't believe women belong in combat. Make no mistake, women have made enormous contributions to the military; but there are biological realities that are simply impossible to deny. Aside from the obvious interference of menstruation and pregnancy, women have different muscular-skeletal build (see this gif to illustrate my point), which makes it difficult or impossible for them to duplicate the physical feats men do as a matter of course. My draft-age daughters (ages 17 and 20) are 5 feet 2 inches in height and weigh about 110 pounds. How can they march with 70-pound packs on their backs or be expected to carry a 220-pound injured man away from danger?
Then of course there is the matter of morale and unit cohesion. Most men are biologically "hardwired" to be protective of women, and a female soldier in danger may jeopardize the safety of a unit as men scramble to rescue her regardless of the consequences. Further, studies have shown that all-male combat units outperform mixed-gender units every time. In war – the only time when a draft will be initiated – this could easily be the difference between life and death for the unit.
There is also the undeniable psychological makeup of women. As bringers of life, it's usually more difficult for women to kill than for men. Even now after years of living on a farm, it's hard for me to kill a chicken; whereas my husband doesn't blink an eye. How much harder would it be to take a human life under battle conditions?
Feminists don't want to hear it, but humans are sexually dimorphic, defined as physical differences between the genders that go beyond just the reproductive organs.
The ultimate case in point comes from Marine Capt. Katie Petronio who wrote a provocative piece entitled "Get over it! We are not all created equal." Petronio's impeccable military credentials include five years of active service and two combat deployments, one to Iraq and the other to Afghanistan, as a company-grade 1302 combat engineer officer who led numerous combat operations. This woman is no lightweight and no wimp. A highly athletic and strong-minded woman, she was determined to prove herself against all odds. And she did – for a while.
But in the end, her body betrayed her. She ceased menstruating and developed polycystic ovarian syndrome, which led to infertility. Her spine compressed, causing nerve damage and neuropathy. She suffered muscle atrophy, which caused her legs to buckle under weight. "It was evident that stress and muscular deterioration was affecting everyone regardless of gender," she wrote of her fellow soldiers. "However, the rate of my deterioration was noticeably faster than that of male Marines and further compounded by gender-specific medical conditions."
Petronio touches on the increased injuries and medical issues facing even the fittest, toughest military women. Now what would happen if women who are not as fit and tough as Petronio are drafted under wartime conditions?
In short, Petronio admits the inadmissible under political correctness: that women can't keep up with men. "[M]y main concern is not whether women are capable of conducting combat operations, as we have already proven that we can hold our own in some very difficult combat situations," she wrote. "Instead, my main concern is a question of longevity. Can women endure the physical and physiological rigors of sustained combat operations, and are we willing to accept the attrition and medical issues that go along with integration?"
For years we've watched political correctness weakening Western civilization. This is the PC nonsense that says men and women are exactly the same and have precisely identical abilities, physical or otherwise. It has cost many high-ranking people their jobs to merely suggest differently. But it's not true.
Yet now women may be facing the draft. Biology and reality make no difference to the politically correct powers-that-be. Already we've seen lowered standards for military, for firefighters and for other government positions that are physically demanding. This denial of reality will literally put the nail in the coffin of many women – and men.
So ladies, get ready. You – or your daughters – might soon be serving alongside the brave male soldiers who are defending our nation in the sandbox of the Middle East. Sadly, captured women are not likely to be treated "fairly" by the Islamic men they're fighting.
Chew on that for a while.
Media wishing to interview Patrice Lewis, please contact [email protected].
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