SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Multiple sources report that on Thursday, December 3rd, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced that the US military will open all combat jobs to women. From The Wall Street Journal:
"This means that, as long as they qualify and meet the standards, women will now be able to contribute to our mission in ways they could not before," Mr. Carter said.
He spelled out the implications of his decision: "They'll be allowed to drive tanks, fire mortars, and lead infantry soldiers into combat. They'll be able to serve as Army Rangers and Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Marine Corps infantry, Air Force parajumpers and everything else that was previously open only to men."
[...] The practical effect of the announcement is to open up the 10% of positions that still remain closed to women--nearly 220,000 jobs--in infantry, reconnaissance and special operations units.
[Much more after the break.]
ABC News brings us some words from combat veteran and US congresswoman Tammy Duckworth (link again):
U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., one of the first Army women to fly combat missions in the 2003-2011 Iraq war, welcomed the decision.
"I didn't lose my legs in a bar fight -- of course women can serve in combat," said Duckworth, whose helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. "This decision is long overdue."
The Kurdish militia is another option for women who want to fight. Fox News earlier this year wrote about one such woman, Gill Rosenberg:
A Canadian-born Israeli woman who joined a Kurdish militia to fight against the Islamic State group said that after a stint in prison, she felt compelled to do something positive with her life and battle against the "genocide" unfolding in Syria and Iraq.
Gill Rosenberg, 31, was among the first female volunteers to fight in the Syrian civil war.
Vice brings us a story about another woman determined to fight ISIS, model Hanna Bohman:
As thousands of Syrian refugees flee the country, escaping Bashar al-Assad's barrel bombs and the barbarism of ISIS, one woman from Canada has headed to the war zone for a second time.
Hanna Bohman, aka Tiger Sun, joined the women's militia army of the People's Defence Unit, known as the YPJ in the Kurdish region of Syria (Rojava) following a near-fatal motorbike accident last year.
Also see NPR's coverage: Pentagon Says Women Can Now Serve In Front-Line Ground Combat Positions.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by hulk smash on Friday December 04 2015, @05:11PM
The female culture in the military is what causes the divide. Women that aren't grossly promiscuous within and out of the unit are shunned by the other girls that reside in the unit. The socio political factors involved with women being in the service alone creates a vast divide in overall military moral. For instance, it's all too common for women that weren't deployed with the main body to receive promotions from the "rear defense" (REAR D - the pussy ass bitches that did what they could to dodge the deployment). The result is a return of wanting soldiers from a year long deployment only to find their female counterparts were given promotions and now reside over the redeployed soldiers. It's then left open to interpretation by jilted soldiers as to why they were passed up, but, they know why. In the military, just like anywhere else; sex is currency. A more direct reason women cause divide is because they divvy up the men into sexual categories; of course, as anyone would suspect; the men displaying the most physical attributes will be the most sought, and of the desirable physical traits, rank or position seems yield the greatest benefits. Again, interesting seeing as these male soldiers with more rank are the ones recommending these females for promotion. It becomes a vicious cycle in which women that were considered unattractive or noncompetitive in the civilian world can be thrusted into a position of swift upward mobility, they'll have a buffet of alpha males that are in their prime that they're expected to 'mingle'with (Ya gots to fuck em all), an unbalanced system of standards in which women receive special treatment not having to perform nearly as well as their male counterparts (female physical standards are a joke), and an environment where females are pretty much bitchy queens that are only expected to 'mingle' and never produce anything of worth. However, there are a few badass chicks out there that can run with the men. I'd say they're few and far between, like 000000.1 of the population of females, but, they're anomalous and do exist.
It's not women that are the problem, it's the female culture in the military that is largely to blame. But, the female culture in the military is all contingent upon its male senior non commissioned officers, and commissioned officers that take advantage of these young women and create this culture. The worse part about it all is it starts in basic training; the male drill instructors offer special treatment for sex, and the women gladly accept a few more hours of sleep, a trip to the PX in civilian clothes, or a cell phone call home.
Knowing this, it's hard for me to want women anywhere near a combat unit. Any divide created within these units will equal loss of life. These guys don't need to be worried about where they place on some female tier system, or whether or not they'll be passed up for promotion because their female counterparts are sleeping with the commanding officer. They need to be focused at getting the mission accomplished and keeping each other alive.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by zugedneb on Friday December 04 2015, @05:28PM
I am in a state of disbelief and awe that there avtually exist people who explain the obvious with such kindness and patience...
I sweden, in the early 90:ies there was a big debate about approving woman as fire fighters.
To be a fire fighter, you have some physical tests to pass, amongs them to cary the weight of a person upp and down stairs. Imagine doing this with a mask, in full gear, and several times in row...
The debate itself left a bit to ask for, when it comes to quality and rationality...
Obviously, a woman can not do this.
As a man, I would beg whatever power to actually be strong enough...
As a man, if I would fail one victim, I would weep and blame myself for not being strong enough.
But women happily ignore that they just don't cut it.
They have no heart. They think they are so beautiful and precious that failure is forgiven by default.
I wonder if they ever ponder failure and the price of it...
old saying: "a troll is a window into the soul of humanity" + also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax
(Score: 3, Informative) by tibman on Friday December 04 2015, @06:31PM
You make it sound like there aren't men who dodge deployments and fuck over their brothers. REMF and poges are everywhere and gender isn't part of that. Soldier's abusing their authority is not something you can blame on women. There are probably some male recruits giving blowjobs for a bag of skittles. So you can't just say it is female culture in the US Army. It's US Army culture and it's nine different shades of fucked up.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 1) by hulk smash on Saturday December 05 2015, @06:10AM
When I mentioned deployment dodgers it wasn't gender specific. I actually feel that deployment dodging is largely a male problem, though, women do participate as well. IMO any woman willing to get pregnant to dodge a deployment has my blessing, may the next 18 years go smoothly. I even attributed the toxic female culture to male NCO/COs propagating their bullshit for self/sexual gain. It's a dirty game, but everyone seems to play it.
In terms of rear defense; I have to disagree, however, I can only reference my experiences I had with XVIII ABC in that respect. With that deployment nearly all of the senior ranking persons stayed behind, as well as the great majority of our females. But, I think anyone could agree, most corps are farked to begin with. Hell, we had some CW5 that never left the palace and was awarded the bronze star; talk about a slap in the face to shitkickers. Luckily, that was my only corps deployment. Even then, I ended up going out with QRF and SEXY to see what I could "find" and bring back to the camp, really glad I left the ARMY right after that. Aside from that, I'd had a handful of six monthers prior to my corps deployment, but mostly as an augmentee, and one while I was in AIT.
But yeah, BigBigARMY is different. Can't say I liked it much, I donno anyone that has. If you ever get a chance check out all the Craiglist adds people post while they're deployed, lots of NSA fun of all sorts. Not the NSA you might be thinking of ^^