Women in Combat - An Update

File this under the "not all that surprising" category:

AP Exclusive: Few Army women want combat jobs

FORT EUSTIS, Va. (AP) -- Only a small fraction of Army women say they'd like to move into one of the newly opening combat jobs.... 

That survey and others across the Army, publicly disclosed for the first time to The Associated Press, also revealed that soldiers of both genders are nervous about women entering combat jobs but say they are determined to do it fairly. Men are worried about losing their jobs to women; women are worried they will be seen as getting jobs because of their gender and not their qualifications. Both are emphatic that the Army must not lower standards to accommodate women. 

Less than 8 percent of Army women who responded to the survey said they wanted a combat job.

 

Well, I have some questions.

 

1. Are we really going to have an Army where women alone get to decide whether they "want" a combat job?   Could men just say... "you know what, sir, I'd just rather not be in a job where I have to actually fight"?  

 

2. Can the women (1 in 12) who say that they want a combat job rescind that decision if it turns out that combat is... well, icky?   See, because if men try to get out of combat because it's icky or scary or dangerous or just not their cup of tea, they are committing a CRIME.   It's called DESERTION or COWARDICE UNDER FIRE.   And, historically anyway, it's been punishable by DEATH.   So, if we're going to have women in combat, will the rules governing how combat soldiers are supposed to behave apply to them?  

 

3. Finally, I know it's fashionable to think that women can do anything a man can do.   But if more than 90% of women in the Army -- who are, safe to say, already self-selected to have more "martial" personalities than the average woman -- still don't want to be in combat, is it still too politically incorrect to believe that maybe, just maybe, women in combat is a bad idea?