Should Women Fight in Combat?

Scrat wrote:

Since you appear not to be very familiar with the idea, let me reiterate that most men would find it more difficult to shoot a woman than to shoot a man, because most men feel an urge to protect women. You are correct, indeed, that possible hesitation by the enemy to shoot our female soldiers could give our side a tactical advantage, but at the expense of putting the women in a situation where they are in very real danger of being shot, which is the downside to the practice from our point of view.

I think that to ask young men to shoot young women, and undergo the emotional conflict that would cause in most of them, is more of a negative than any benefits that would be gained by the practice.

How do you plug spousal abuse into this scenario?

I finally finished re-reading the education thread that is under the aegis of politics. A group of hypocrites here made life hell for a writer who uses the handle, plainoldme, who, I believe from her writing to be a woman (I was fooled by the masculine FoxFyre, so I may be wrong on this one as well).

I believe plain left in disgust at the abuse that was hurled her way.

You have the nerve to upbraid me for a statement that in no way is as bad as the abuse you gave plain.

Somewhere in the news I heard that a female US soldier has been awarded the Silver Star. Good show.

detano inipo wrote:

Somewhere in the news I heard that a female US soldier has been awarded the Silver Star. Good show.

FoxFyre - I wonder whether you believe this woman should never have been in a position to show valour in a combat situation. ???

Scrat wrote:

detano inipo wrote:

Somewhere in the news I heard that a female US soldier has been awarded the Silver Star. Good show.

FoxFyre - I wonder whether you believe this woman should never have been in a position to show valour in a combat situation. ???

.
Not at all, she wanted to be a soldier and she seems to be a hell of a soldier.

What disturbs me is not women fighting, if that is what they are good at and wish to join up. It's just, I have seen so many with young children don the uniform and go off, and I find that offensive.

why not use children as well? Life is precious after all, and we need to take all possible steps to protect it by being war ready at all times. Children are a great unused source of military power.

They are programmed to obey without question and can crawl under ther radar and into tiny spaces with explosives attached to them. Why one small child with a bomb strapped to them could crawl under a fence and blow up an entire enemy hospital which of course would save many precious lives and yet still maximize that all important collateral damage.

...more than one resides in washington DC and is sliding down that chute into madness as we speak.

btw the way are you guys playing this Saturday?

I find it offensive that my son's life is considered to be of less value than the life of someone else's daughter, solely based on the difference in their gender.

Scrat wrote:

I find it offensive that my son's life is considered to be of less value than the life of someone else's daughter, solely based on the difference in their gender.

You find it offensive when anyone posts an argument you can't defeat easily, and promptly ignore it.

There is also a correlation between male phsyiology, such as testosterone level, and propensity for violence, desire to dominate, and competitiveness, which could be extremely useful in combat. See, for instance, Source

The task of combat has been done for millenia, or longer, by males, and evolution appears to have adapted them to it.