Women in combat: US military on verge of making it official

[morningfog]

In the opening days of America's war in Afghanistan, Capt. Allison Black's AC-130H gunship thundered low through the night sky. Below, US Special Operations Forces (SOF) were fighting alongside Northern Alliance warlords.

A navigator with the Air Force 1st Special Operations Group, Black was strapped in behind the pilots on a flight deck bristling with radios, gauges, and monitors that kept her in constant contact with SOF forces on the ground, helping them identify targets. It was Black giving the final "clear to fire" consent for the crew to release a barrage from a Gatling gun and other artillery on Taliban forces.

And it was Black's voice that special operators on the ground heard as they fought. Afghan soldiers overheard the chatter, too. On a mission over the northern Afghanistan city of Kunduz in 2001, one particularly fierce warlord, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, "found it amazing" that a woman was directing fire on the Taliban forces, says Black. "He thought it was so hilarious. He asked, 'Is that a woman?' "

When SOF fighters confirmed it was, Dostum, she says, was incredulous – and impressed: "America is so determined to kill the Taliban that they send women," he said.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Military/2012/0701/Women-in-combat-US-military-on-verge-of-making-it-official

[midnight]

1. Women or Men in combat has got to be the most horrific thing to ask of another person...

How many other countries want their women and men in combat too...

[4th law of robotics]

2. If they want to serve and meet the physical requirements

why not?

A woman's life is no more (or less) valuable than a mans. She suffers no more than a man by having her legs blown off or facing third degree burns or the other horrors associated with combat.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

3. I can't think of too many combat conditions more horrific or dehumanizing than trench warfare

such as the filthy disease-ridden trenches during World War I. The Russian 1st Women's Batallion Of Death fighting against German men on the eastern front acquitted themselves with honor and courage, on at least one occasion (battle of Smorgon) going over the top when all-male Russian units wouldn't advance, shaming them into joining the charge. Their leader, Maria Bochkareva was wounded several times during the war.