Some General Thoughts on Women in the Military
Jack E. Kemp
In the last few months I've been reading and researching post traumatic stress and have found that data that says women are more susceptible to PTSD, especially as their "non-combat" jobs become front line jobs in Iraq's constant urban guerrilla war where everything is the front lines. And there is both a high (voluntary) pregnancy and rape rate in the military. Women now constitute now about 15-17 percent of the US military and there are many heterosexual couples where are members are serving in the military these days.
But the conclusion I have to draw is not the facile "get rid of the dames" but rather that unless we start reinstating the Draft, the military can't operate without both the women and the reservists at the counterinsurgency front, many of whom are sent on too many combat redeployments. A universal male draft was the Duty of the Polis in ancient Greece. Modern Greece seems to have lost that sense, but that's another topic. If the general population was more familiar with having family members in the service, the returnees from wars would get a higher rate of social support, although it is a lot better now than it was in the Vietnam era.
The US military is forced to take guys who have said in writing that they have raped women. That claim was made by a military investigator in that military rape movie "The Invisible War" for which I may have sent you my review article. And the movie has a strong message telling people not to allow their daughters to enlist.One woman vet mentioned in a book that she had to shoot a young boy with a grenade who was on an overpass in Iraq ready to drop it on her patrol - and the first time, she could only shoot over his head. What she did in subsequent patrols was not mentioned. And another woman saw too much death in the streets, along with her job in a military hospital overseas, leading to her later committing suicide later in the US (she came from a very troubled home as well). Don't think these messages aren't getting out among American women veterans and their female friends and family. It's called significant gossip.
In one book about a male Marine officer about the cute puppy he brought home from Iraq, he casually talks about what parts of a dead Iraqi in the street the packs of wild dogs preferred to first eat. This is not something you'd even see in a Steven Spielberg or John Wayne movie.
Don't believe that there isn't significant turnover in the voluntary military. It exists, particularly as a result of combat related injuries.
There a lot of things that women still could do in a larger male population military. In Israel, most women are not combatants even though they train with rifles in boot camp. I knew a guy in Israel who was taught how to use Raytheon Hawk ground to air missiles by a female army instructor.
Imagine you were a US Army recruiter in this society. Short of being able to remake the US national budget priorities (even though there is no written national budget these days) and getting rid of Howard Zinn's influence in high schools and Bill Ayer's influence in the colleges of education, what would you do to remedy current situation? I personally have no answers, just these questions.
Comment
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Comment by Roger Davies on August 14, 2012 at 9:12am -
Mr. Kemp: Please, Please, Please! If you would like to see the answer go to nebraska republic (one word) dot org. Pick on "WATCH VIDEO". Let me know what you think, rd6475 at hotmail dot com. Obviously, this is no small task, however, we are well on the way to being ready.
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Comment by Ronald Sorrells on August 11, 2012 at 9:00am -
Jack:
Hillary is in Africa drinking lotoko and doing the Watusi and Pat is in "Celebration City, Florida" drinking orange martini and doing the Jitterbug !
Yep....having their "Utopian Fantasies" and we are "On The Threshold of WW III in the Middle East ! No they know nothing of "War Fighting" and still trying to "straighten out their thoughts of the Birds & Bees".
So much for "Strategic Planning" !
Semper Fidelis,
Ron
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Comment by Jack Kemp on August 11, 2012 at 8:12am -
Ronald, Hillary and Pat Scroeder know a lot about utopian fantasies. Neither of them were in the military. The comment here by that lady who served in the Navy and realized how difficult things are in wartime speaks of volumes more knowledge than Pat Scroeder and Hillary ever got from their civilian jobs and educations.
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Comment by Thomas Angle on August 11, 2012 at 8:08am
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Hillary Clinton & Pat Scroeder.....what the hell do either of these two know about "WarFighting" ?
They been successfully attacking this country for decades.
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Comment by Ronald Sorrells on August 11, 2012 at 7:46am
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Hillary Clinton & Pat Scroeder.....what the hell do either of these two know about "WarFighting" ?
Semper Fi,
Ron
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Comment by Jim Coles on August 11, 2012 at 4:58am
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Jack ... I'd have to try to find it...I think it's on an old flash drive somewhere (transferred off a removable hard drive out of a Pentium II-driven big box desk top computer several years after I finished the program)...if I can't find it I know I can replicate it...and I've done a lot more thinking about the subject since I took that idiotic P-D class ... in the years since I took that class I spent a decade in China and Korea, then six years as Deputy Director of Public Affairs for all of the Army Reserve...and after retiring from government service I spent a year each in Afghanistan and Iraq with the forces...
I really don't like full retirement and would love to go back overseas to be with troops again but mama says that if I go I shouldn't come back (with a wink and a nod but I know she's had enough of my being gone so much) ... and I'm way too old for 'the life' anymore...I'll be 67 next spring and this old beat up body just doesn't recover from the rigors of the deployed life like it used to...but I digress...
I'll contact you off-site and we'll 'talk' more.
all best...
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Comment by Jack Kemp on August 10, 2012 at 11:36pm
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Jim Coles, you have a more informed opinion than I do, the type of thought I hoped to stir up by writing this article. I would like to see the paper you wrote published online as a summarized article here at TPN and an ebook or actual, physical paper book. I think the time is right to consider - or reconsider - your solution. When Hillary and Pat Schroeder were waxing poetic about women in the military under the leftist meme that "there is no inherent difference between the sexes," few were willing to listen to your realistic case. Now that we have seen the effects of women in what are essentially combat positions such as convoy driver or gunner in Iraq - we have more facts and less utopian fantasy as a "counterargument." Is it possible for you to post an internet link to the paper you wrote?
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Comment by Ronald Sorrells on August 10, 2012 at 10:24pm
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Donald:
Why did the Army stop this system?
Ron
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Comment by joseph C Avila on August 10, 2012 at 10:02pm
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I don't hold to having both husband and wife in the military. Only one spouse should be allowed and I'm not saying it should only be the male. That choice will be between the two of them.
Also, if a woman in the military gets pregnant she's out, discharged no matter what the circumstances.
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Comment by Jim Coles on August 10, 2012 at 10:02pm
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I know about combat. I know about killing people. Neither is pleasant, though both can be exhilerating...and terrifying...and addicting...and traumatizing.
The truth is that no civilized person is emotionally prepared for the horrors -- and thrills -- of combat and war, in general. Men are no more psychologically prepared to do the kinds of violence to others than women are...no more, no less.
Some people say humans are inherently violent ... I disagree. All sane people instinctively seek non-violent means of resolving disputes and conflicts of interest...but then sane people often have to deal with the insane among us...the same goes for nation-states. States led by rational leaders do not seek confrontation but the leaders know that the nation cannot survive if its people fail to respond to aggression against them or their interests...hence, even good nations like America finds itself at war...far too often for almost everyone's comfort level.
There are physical differences between men and women that make it more difficult for women -- who are generally smaller of frame and who carry less muscle mass than men -- to serve as primary combat arms soldiers...but we know that when push comes to shove, women in uniform have performed every bit as well in firefights as has any man on the team...that's not the issue...Our women comrades-in-arms have proven themselves in every military occupation group they've entered.
The issue is state of mind after confronting death on a grand and, or personal scale. Most people who look war and death in the face learn to deal with what they've seen and done...most people can put it aside, re-assimilate into society and get on with their lives...but some folks never do shake it all off...some of it sticks too closely to their souls...and judging by what I've seen, I don't think gender has much to do with it...
Again, normal, well-adjusted, properly socialized, civilized people of any gender are not prepared for war, death and wholesale destruction...no amount of training can prepare a person for that, although the extensive training provided to our professional forces gives them the skills to survive under very difficult circumstances...I contend that a good many PTSD sufferers wear their wounds so long because they were too well socialized before entering service...that their commitment to being civilized will not allow them to leave the savagery of war behind because combat is such an affront to civilization...it is barbaric and base, grotesque...it is all the things I wrote at the top of this comment...and more...
I don't know this to be true but my gut tells me it is so: More Americans have PTSD and related emotional conditions following combat experiences than do most nations because America is inherently one of the most peaceful and civilized places on the planet -- or it used to be, at least, until the Progressives began to divide the social strate and pit group against group...What I mean is even with the crimes and tragedies we hear about on the news there are few places that are safer and where people are more congenial than in the US...and it is our tradition of peace and compromise that most people identify with...have taken to heart and live by...
It is these civilizing traits that help to make us Americans and it is these same traits that cause the wounds of war to last longer or be more pronounced in some than in others...
Finally: I don't much like the idea of conscription but the opportunity to serve must be expanded so that more families can feel part of the national defense effort, which will always be with us. I can envision a system in which we have an adequately sized full-time professional force augmented with a 15-to-20 million strong tiered reserve force...I wrote a paper on the concept several years ago in a course I took...it can be done for about the same money we spend now and without a draft...
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