Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Our Most Important Weapon

The Volokh Conspiracy is having a discussion of women in combat. Here is my 2¢.

I remember reading where being a woman in combat had a number of positive effects (in the current environment).

They connect with the females in the population better. Very helpful when fighting an insurgency.

They also shame Iraqis who are nor performing up to snuff. I mean seriously. What guy wants to be outshone in a masculine pursuit by a woman?

Or suppose the shoe is on the other foot? What does it do to the morale of our super masculine foes when they get beaten by a woman?

I understand the costs - what are the benefits? To the military. In our current war fighting situation.

It the current environment I think it has a lot of advantages that outweigh the disadvantages. The main one being that it gives women ideas. Our most important weapon.

H/T Instapundit

Cross Posted at Classical Values

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If I may take the liberty of opposing your point of view, I think women in combat would be a disaster. Why? S-E-X. Aside from the inferior physical strength of women, men are DNA hard wired to behave in certain ways around women. 1)Men have an innate desire to impress women. You have to get a woman's attention before you can have sex with her. Ladies, if you see a man acting like a jerk towards you, he is likely just trying to get your attention. I can see the desire to impress a woman driving a soldier to do things he would not normally do. 2) Men are hard wired to protect women. This instinct could not only skew soldiers' judgement in combat, it could affect commanders as well. 3) You would have the inevitable love rivalries and pregnancies. Bad for morale. Men and women are hard wired to behave in certain ways towards each other and that behavior can't be wiped out by decree.

LarryD said...

Two things I've read (and unfortunately don't have links for):

1. The US Navy has a readiness problem it doesn't want to talk about, related to female sailors getting pregnant.

2. At least one study has shown that when women are present, men are less alert.

I'm not sure if feebleminds' #2 is hard wired or cultural, but even if it can be changed, are you sure you want to? It won't be just a change in the context of military behavior.

M. Simon said...

FM,

You have to keep that in mind when you recall what the objective is.

Breaking their culture.

Yes. Having women in combat is going to add to the casualties. The question is then: are the rewards in terms of the objective worth it?

I think so. YMMV.