Shaffer
02-11-03, 08:42 AM
U.S. military women in the 21st century can fly combat planes and helicopters, serve on combat ships, and command battalions in combat areas.
They also risk death from enemy action.
There are more than 200,000 women in the U.S. armed forces today, and there isn't much they don't do. Yet they are still banned from what is defined by the Department of Defense as "direct combat with the enemy."
Of the 40,000 American women sent to the Persian Gulf War more than a decade ago, 11 were killed and 21 wounded in action. Since World War II, women have slowly established their presence in war zones from Korea to Vietnam, Grenada and the Gulf, yet they still face opponents who argue against women in war.
As thousands of women join the forces now heading for a possible conflict with Iraq, the controversy over the involvement of women in street fighting and hand-to-hand conflict with the enemy remains the last bastion of what was once a solid wall of opposition to any female role in war that went beyond nursing the wounded.
How far women should be put in harm's way, as well as whether they should be trained with men, has been studied by commissions from the Department of Defense and Capitol Hill over the past two decades. These are also topics that continue to divide women, from those who blazed trails in the armed services over the past 60 years to those who complain that feminism is eroding military efficiency.
http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=IRAQ-WOMEN-02-10-03&cat=AN
They also risk death from enemy action.
There are more than 200,000 women in the U.S. armed forces today, and there isn't much they don't do. Yet they are still banned from what is defined by the Department of Defense as "direct combat with the enemy."
Of the 40,000 American women sent to the Persian Gulf War more than a decade ago, 11 were killed and 21 wounded in action. Since World War II, women have slowly established their presence in war zones from Korea to Vietnam, Grenada and the Gulf, yet they still face opponents who argue against women in war.
As thousands of women join the forces now heading for a possible conflict with Iraq, the controversy over the involvement of women in street fighting and hand-to-hand conflict with the enemy remains the last bastion of what was once a solid wall of opposition to any female role in war that went beyond nursing the wounded.
How far women should be put in harm's way, as well as whether they should be trained with men, has been studied by commissions from the Department of Defense and Capitol Hill over the past two decades. These are also topics that continue to divide women, from those who blazed trails in the armed services over the past 60 years to those who complain that feminism is eroding military efficiency.
http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=IRAQ-WOMEN-02-10-03&cat=AN