Re: [SG] Mixed combat units

On Mon, 28 Oct 2002 20:13:06 -0500, "Damond Walker"
<dwalker@syncreticsoft.com> wrote:

>Social problems as well.  I was told (during basic training) that
having
>a woman on the front lines would be a Bad Thing because it would cause
the
>male troopers to put themselves at undo risk in order to protect them
from
>harm.

There are a lot of reasons given by certain members of the military as
to why
they don't want women in combat positions. Most of them are completely
bogus.
History has shown that women make good soldiers. I read an excellent
article
in Military History Quarterly on the British women who had combat roles
in
WW2... as flak gunners. They were allowed to do everything but pull the
trigger (as it was seen as wrong to have a woman actually kill a man).
They
destroyed almost all the myths of why women couldn't be in combat. And,
yes,
they came under fire. A number of women died in attacks on their
emplacements.

I hadn't heard about the biology thing, though I can't for the life of
me
think of what could be the problem, biologically speaking. This sounds
like
someone justifying their own prejudices. 

Allan Goodall		       agoodall@hyperbear.com
http://www.hyperbear.com

"We come into the world and take our chances
 Fate is just the weight of circumstances
 That's the way that Lady Luck dances
 Roll the bones." - N. Peart