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posted by martyb on Friday December 04 2015, @03:52PM   Printer-friendly
from the anything-you-can-do... dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 04 2015, @08:46PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 04 2015, @08:46PM (#271943)

    You mean as opposed to being raped on base... by your fellow Americans... and with a chain of command that dismisses your claims without actually looking into it? Yeah... that'd be bad too.
    On the up-side, those videos will feature dirty "moslems" doing the deed; vile, evil creatures that are part of the axis of evil and must be destroyed by our valiant, brave, freedom-loving troops. I guess that will be good for the ministry of propaganda. Much better at least than the numerous and repeated claims of service-women and -men being raped by their colleagues.

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  • (Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday December 04 2015, @09:16PM

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Friday December 04 2015, @09:16PM (#271952) Homepage

    Getting drunk and willingly letting your entire platoon take turns on one or more of your three holes isn't "rape." It's only "rape" if that woman gets in trouble for something and she wants to portray herself as the victim in a desperate gambit to beat her rap - for example, if she gets pregnant while forward-deployed.

    Anyway, I'm all for nuking the entire Middle-East. This is the 21st century and goddamn barbaric savages have no place in it. After we exterminate the durka-durkas we can kick out all the Jews and they can go live over there.

    Yippie-kay-yay whooptie-God-damn-doo. All the world's problems solved!

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 04 2015, @11:04PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 04 2015, @11:04PM (#271990)

      what about systemd