{"id":25,"date":"2013-04-16T21:45:09","date_gmt":"2013-04-16T21:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.williamrussell.net\/?p=25"},"modified":"2013-04-16T21:45:09","modified_gmt":"2013-04-16T21:45:09","slug":"dont-lift-the-combat-arms-exclusions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.williamrussell.net\/?p=25","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Lift the Combat Arms Exclusions"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/font><\/p>\n

Originally Posted 11\/29\/2012 in response to a lawsuit to drop the Combat Arms exclusion preventing women from serving in certain combat arms units. The ban has since been lifted by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. The reasoning posted below remains valid, and is currently playing out in the Marine Corps testing and integration of women into the Infantry Officer’s training.<\/font>
<\/i><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n

There is a new lawsuit the federal courts demanding all exclusions
\nbarring women from ground combat positions be dropped in the name of
\nequal opportunity. This would be a great mistake. We have achieved the
\nright balance of opportunities for women and the requirement to maintain
\ncertain sex-based exclusions to meet our national interests. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Women,
\nsuch as General Ann Dunwoody, are commanding at the highest levels and
\nserving effectively in many combat, combat related, and intelligence
\nrelated roles. There are many brave women who are flying combat missions
\nand out on patrols in Military Police, Civil Affairs, and Intelligence
\nroles alongside the Infantry in Afghanistan and throughout the Middle
\nEast.  <\/font>When working with the Infantry, they are performing
\nroles that men are incapable of in those cultures to gather critical
\nintelligence and provide inroads through healthcare and education to the
\nveiled half of those societies.  <\/font>These women have proven
\nthemselves more than capable of defending themselves when attacked. To
\ndate, two women have been awarded Silver Stars for bravery under fire
\nwhile defending their units in Iraq and Afghanistan.  <\/font>
<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

But
\nthere are realities of warfare that remain the same as they have
\nthroughout history, and there are certain types of units that must
\nremain all male.  <\/font>While there are some very physically fit
\nwomen who can outperform the average man at endurance and strength
\ntests, they are the rare exceptions to the rule. When it comes to the
\npure applications of \u201cbrute force and ignorance\u201d that goes along with
\nclosing with and killing other men who are actively trying to kill you,
\nunder conditions which require physical exertions  <\/font>that exceed those of any NFL game, men are simply more suited to the occasion.  <\/font>The reality is far different from what Hollywood portrays in the movies. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Imagine if our sense of political correctness required that 20 percent of one NFL team\u2019s starting lineup include women.  <\/font>It
\nwould fundamentally change the game. The effects on the capabilities of
\nour ground combat units would be no less than the effects such a move
\nwould have on a professional sports team. But the cost would be much
\nhigher. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

There are physical differences between men and women that no amount of social engineering can overcome.  <\/font>The
\nstarkest example I can think of goes back to my college judo team. We
\nhad the best women\u2019s college player in the nation on our team. But she
\ncould not throw most of the men she practiced with.  <\/font>I
\nremember seeing her pinned once in a free play by a smaller man who had
\njust joined the team and whose only grappling training was in a required
\nPE wrestling class. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

This
\ntruth of physical strength in martial endeavors applies when carrying
\n70 to 100 lbs of gear up the side of a mountain at 10,000 feet above sea
\nlevel to root Al Qaeda members out of caves, when repairing the 3 ton
\ntrack of an M1 tank in the snow, and to all the tasks related to the
\nmovement and operation of a field artillery piece or other heavy armored
\nvehicles. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Then
\nthere are the political realities of implementation which are
\ncompletely ignored by those advocating the removal of the combat
\nexclusions.  <\/font>The most important is that it will make women
\nsubject to the draft. Without the exclusion, there is no legal
\njustification to drafting only men into military service.  <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font>All
\nthose arguing for this, need to consider the NFL analogy again. While
\nthey might argue that women should be allowed to play in the NFL if they
\ncould meet the standards, do they really want to make the argument that
\nan NFL team must make a quota and implement different strength and
\nspeed standards for those women who want to play, but are not quite as
\nstrong and fast as the male players? Do they really want to make the
\nargument that women should be called up and forced to play on that NFL
\nteam?  <\/font>Would they then expect that team to win, when it plays against teams which do not have those requirements?  <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Once
\nthe barrier preventing women from voluntarily serving in the Infantry
\nis removed, there will be no legal barrier to preventing them from being
\nforced to serve in the Infantry. Is this what our country wants? <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font>William Russell is a retired
\nInfantry Lieutenant Colonel from the United States Army and has served
\nin Desert Storm, the Balkans, the Iraq War, and the Pentagon on 9\/11. <\/font><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally Posted 11\/29\/2012 in response to a lawsuit to drop the Combat Arms exclusion preventing women from serving in certain combat arms units. The ban has since been lifted by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. The reasoning posted below remains valid, and is currently playing out in the Marine Corps testing and integration of women […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fist-fights-gunplay","category-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nDon\u2019t Lift the Combat Arms Exclusions - WILLIAMRUSSELL.NET<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.williamrussell.net\/?p=25\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Don\u2019t Lift the Combat Arms Exclusions - WILLIAMRUSSELL.NET\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Originally Posted 11\/29\/2012 in response to a lawsuit to drop the Combat Arms exclusion preventing women from serving in certain combat arms units. 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