toldailytopic: GI Jane: Should women be allowed to serve in combat roles in the armed

Nathon Detroit

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The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for February 10th, 2012 11:48 AM


toldailytopic: GI Jane: Should women be allowed to serve in combat roles in the armed forces?



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vegascowboy

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No, I don't believe they should.

Please know that I have a deep and abiding respect for women. Perhaps I am old fashioned in many regards, but I do not believe it is the place for women to serve in combat positions.

I think that it is the job of men to protect women and children.

I am sorry if that offends, but I truly believe that.

I am the type of fellow who still runs to open the door for women and I am not above throwing down my coat over a muddly puddle in the street so that a lady can cross without soiling her shoes.

If that is offensive to Feminist sensibilities, then so be it.

In my opinion, men should protect and watch over women - not that they always need it, but because it is our God-given mandate to do so. God bless women; they are often so much stronger than we men.
 
elohiym

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No.

I served in a medical unit during combat and we had a number of women in our ambulance company. When I say "no," I say so based on personal experience serving with women in combat.

Things like sexual favoritism, adultery, and pregnancy were the main problems. When it came time to engage the enemy on the ground, all the women who didn't get pregnant to get out of combat in our unit were placed in one platoon and kept to the rear as much as possible. The thinking was protect the women, the same sentiment vegascowboy was expressing in his post. The women didn't mind that we did that, as I recall.
 
oatmeal

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yes, the men should stay home and drink beer and watch TV while the women gather the kids and the diapers and go out and fight wars.

NOT.
 
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MrRadish

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There might be practical problems with having women in the army, but I think it's ethically very important that men and women are treated exactly the same in a military context. This would probably still mean that more men would serve on the front line because of their typically higher physical prowess, of course. But it would help to break down this idea that women are some delicate form of property that need to be protected, and that men are not only expendable but naturally inclined toward violence. It might also make the more 'chivalrously inclined' think twice about joining an organisation in which they are forced to kill and maim people if those people against whom they fought included females.

Also I don't really understand oatmeal's point. Nobody's suggesting that only women should fight.
 
I

ideogenous_mover

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oatmeal said:
yes, the men should stay home and drink beer and watch TV while the women gather the kids and the diapers and go out and fight wars.
Click to expand...

yes, they should have a war with only women on both sides so that all the men will weep and finally realize how pitifully useless war is
 
vegascowboy

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oatmeal said:
yes, the men should stay home and drink beer and watch TV while the women gather the kids and the diapers and go out and fight wars.

NOT.
Click to expand...

Do you really feel that this is an equality issue...in the philosophical context, that is?
 
PureX

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I'm going to have to say 'no' on this one. The dynamic between men and women is such that to place women on the front lines in combat would, I believe, endanger everyone even more than they are already endangered. I believe that the enemy will deliberately target the women, for various reasons, and that the men will act to protect them, especially. This would be a serious negative factor in a combat situation.

Woman can certainly be of service to our military, in all kinds of ways, but I don't believe that their participation in combat is one of those ways. I think it would imperil their own lives, and the lives of the male soldiers, unnecessarily.
 
Sherman

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I can speak as a veteran. I say no. I have seen the ugly side of having women serve in a mixed gender setting. There is a lot of venereal disease, adultery and fornication. Woman in uniform shouldn't be sent away from their families, period. Bring them into a combat situation and it only gets worse.
 
keypurr

keypurr

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No women in war zone, ever. If you feelings are hurt I suggest you deal with it. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, period.
 
B

bybee

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vegascowboy said:
No, I don't believe they should.

Please know that I have a deep and abiding respect for women. Perhaps I am old fashioned in many regards, but I do not believe it is the place for women to serve in combat positions.

I think that it is the job of men to protect women and children.

I am sorry if that offends, but I truly believe that.

I am the type of fellow who still runs to open the door for women and I am not above throwing down my coat over a muddly puddle in the street so that a lady can cross without soiling her shoes.

If that is offensive to Feminist sensibilities, then so be it.

In my opinion, men should protect and watch over women - not that they always need it, but because it is our God-given mandate to do so. God bless women; they are often so much stronger than we men.
Click to expand...

There is so much that women can do, nurses, doctors, teachers, drivers, assistants, even fly airplanes or sail ships.
But, not combat. That is a job for men and men deserve to have men at their side during combat. Men in battle must rely heavily on one another. Sometimes sheer strength is required to save the day.
As a nurse I would have gladly been a medic but even there I wouldn't have the necessary strength to bring a wounded man to safety. But I could help stitch him up and give him as much TLC as time would allow.
 
lightbringer

lightbringer

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Inzl Kett said:
I can speak as a veteran. I say no. I have seen the ugly side of having women serve in a mixed gender setting. There is a lot of venereal disease, adultery and fornication.
Click to expand...

Well those reasons will be present whether women serve in the military or not.

But I do agree that women should not serve in combat positions, in the rear with the gear is different, at least until men can set their natural tendency to protect women aside and see them as another soldier and not a woman.
 
MrRadish

MrRadish

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lightbringer said:
But I do agree that women should not serve in combat positions, in the rear with the gear is different, at least until men can set their natural tendency to protect women aside and see them as another soldier and not a woman.
Click to expand...

I sort of agree, but I think that it's quite important that this tendency is changed and I'm not sure that continuing to set women apart from men is the way to make this happen.
 
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