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UK MPs Authorise Syria Air Strikes Against Islamic State

posted by cmn32480 on Thursday December 03 2015, @04:45PM   
from the joining-the-coalition dept.

azrael writes:

BBC reports:

MPs have overwhelmingly backed UK air strikes against so-called Islamic State in Syria, by 397 votes to 223, after an impassioned 10-hour Commons debate.

Four Tornado jets took off from RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus, after the vote. Their destination has not been confirmed.

A total of 66 Labour MPs sided with the government as David Cameron secured a larger than expected Commons majority.

The PM said they had "taken the right decision to keep the country safe" but opponents said the move was a mistake.

...

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn argued that the case for war "does not stack up" - but his party was split, with senior Labour figures, including members of the shadow cabinet voting with the government after they were given a free vote.

The 66 MPs who backed military action was equivalent to 29% of the parliamentary party.

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[Editor's Note: For non-Brits, MP="member of parliament"]

Original Submission

• Re:World War III (Score: 2) by takyon on Friday December 04 2015, @01:32AM

  by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Friday December 04 2015, @01:32AM (#271653) Journal

  That study has faced legit criticism. I think it will turn out that only the top performing women make it to the front lines. That could mean physical strength, good aim, or maybe translating ability. It's not hard to imagine certain drugs bridging the gap.

  Assessment Of Female Marines Kept Secret As Critics Blast Methods [npr.org]

  ELLE HARING: It was a flawed design from the get-go.

  BOWMAN: That's retired Army Colonel Ellen Haring who has leaked several hundred pages of the report and wrote an analysis.

  HARING: It wasn't looking to establish minimum qualification standards and then see who could meet them. Instead it was a competition.

  BOWMAN: Haring complained that the study showed that some women performed on par or better than men, but that was not mentioned in the Marine report.

  HARING: But you've got some really super outlier women in there that consistently performed at the top level of the top men.

  BOWMAN: So the bottom line is there are some rock star women in this study that should be able to serve in Marine ground combat.

  HARING: Absolutely.

  BOWMAN: The Marines are privately frustrated they can't release their own report or even answer critics. A memo from Secretary Carter says none of the military services can talk about their findings on women in combat, even though only the Marines are seeking to bar women from infantry units. The Marines say they did not spotlight any high-achieving women because they work as teams, not as individuals. And women may do well on physical tests, the Marines say, but the study found they tired more easily than men, took longer to complete a combat exercise and had far more injuries. Secretary Carter told reporters he would focus on all the details the Marines lay out.

  (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

  CARTER: I'm going to make this decision on the basis of the facts of the analysis, and if there's good analysis in the report to which you refer, that'll be important to me.

  BOWMAN: Sources say General Dunford, now Joint Chiefs chairman, is not just concerned that combat effectiveness will be degraded with women in the infantry ranks. He also worries that injuries might force [some] women out of the Corps. So Dunford's recommendation, based on the study, says all infantry jobs, as well as combat engineers and forward artillery observers, should remain closed to women - roughly one-third of the jobs in the entire Marine Corps. Not everyone sees the Marines' study on gender integration as flawed.

  ANDREW LOERCH: I think I would give them an A for effort. It's probably a solid B-plus in execution.

  BOWMAN: Andrew Loerch is a professor in the department of systems engineering and operations research at George Mason University. He peer-reviewed the study for the Marine Corps, watching several dozen training events.

  LOERCH: I thought that this was as objective an exercise as it could be.

  BOWMAN: Congressman Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, a Marine combat veteran, liked what he heard about the study. He was among the lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee who were briefed by Marine leaders last month on the report's methodology.

  SETH MOULTON: I was impressed by the approach that they have taken, but we really need to see the results of the study so we can examine this in the most transparent way possible.

  Congressman Reacts To Marine Corps Report On Women In Combat [npr.org]

  MOULTON: Well, I served four tours in Iraq, two on a small male-female team working with the Iraqi security forces and two in an all-male infantry combat unit. On the small team, we survived because we learned how to build cross-culture relationships and get the best intel on whom to trust. And my teammate Anne (ph), who's one of the best Marines I know, made us safer and more combat effective because she gave us access to half of the Iraqi population whom we otherwise weren't even allowed to talk to as males.

  Now, in the front-line infantry platoon, we were breaking down doors, living in foxholes, facing mortar and machine gun fire head on. We survived by working hard to be the best-trained, most physically fit combat unit we could be. Now the Marine Corps is looking at whether women in the infantry will make our military more combat effective. And for any issue that affects our national security and the lives of young Americans on the front lines, we have to make an unbiased data-driven decision.

  SIEGEL: Do you sympathize at all with those who say that this is a political end that's being forced upon the services and that it's not about combat effectiveness; it's first about becoming gender-neutral?

  MOULTON: Well, I have heard that, and I think it's very important that we hold the line. You know, when I went down to Fort Benning to watch the first women go into Ranger School, that's something I heard consistently from all the women. They said don't change the standards. They don't ever want to be in a combat unit and have their fellow soldiers think they got there because they met lower standards than everybody else.

  --
  [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]

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