When I was a kid, there was one way to insult another kid that I never really understood. You would supposedly insult another kid and his mother by saying “your mother wears combat boots.” I never really knew what that meant, until now.
It seems that Leon Panetta, in his last act as Secretary of Defense, will announce today that women can now take on direct combat roles. Yes, women will now be allowed in combat.
As Catholics, we are often accused of being patriarchal and of denigrating the role and importance of women. Now, that is complete nonsense, of course. If you merely recognize the fact that men and women are inherently different and have different roles to play in life and society, then you are a patriarchal member of the he-man woman haters club.
So our culture, which is now indistinguishable from our government, is determined to show us how true equality and dignity is done. Nothing screams equality like putting women in harms way, where they must kill or be killed, where they are in danger of capture, rape, and torture. Well, you always hurt the ones you love.
Men …
January 24, 2013 at 8:06 pm
Soldiers will die as a result of this decision. Note to Panetta, Obama, and whoever else thinks this is a good idea — the military is not a jobs program! War and combat are terrible things and there is little room for "work place equality" when a 230 lbs. wounded soldier needs someone to carry him out of harm's way. We need soldiers that can fight, overtake, and kill the enemy in close quarters. If a female can do these tasks, then great. But we all know that there will be different standards of fitness for combat women than men. Do you think an Al-Qaeda soldier will "lighten up" their attack to match the muscle power of women combat soldiers? I think not.
January 25, 2013 at 8:38 am
These people are Neanderthals. I'm serious. Ironically, a major difference between anatomically modern humans and Neanderthals is AMHs have role-specialization: men hunt and fight, women forage and tend children. Neanderthal females participated in the hunt.
Division of labor is more efficient: instead of the family group's nutrition being entirely dependent on the success of hunts, it also has foraging to fall back on. That's why division of labor is associated with things called "anatomically modern" and both sexes hunting is associated with creatures known by the name of the valley their bones were found in.