Pic Of The Moment: Women In Combat: Stay Classy, Conservatives

[EarlG]

The 7 Best Right-Wing Freakouts Over Women Going Into Combat

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[kairos12]

1. Too Bad Ryan Smith (bottom comment) Does Not Suffer From Shy Blather

[sheshe2]

2. What Exactly are Women Designed for, Mr Fisher???

Hmmmmm?

[malthaussen]

5. Rape, obviously.

One of the most venerable perks of being in combat... and one of the reasons why the men don't want the women to be armed!

-- Mal

[sheshe2]

8. That may be how Right Wing Freaks, want it to be viewed, because it is easy.

However, the Male Chauvinist's, just want to assert their control over Women.They view us a vapid females. For the Righties, we will never be good enough,strong enough or smart enough. The truth is they are afraid of us, and not just because we would be armed!

Male sexuality is strangely policed by a combination of macho patriarchal attitudes involving virility and power that it seems no one really desires to work on or deconstruct. Now, don’t get me wrong, we can’t always control what we are sexually aroused by, but controlling reactions to that attraction and how we express those reactions is something that everyone can take personal responsibility for. The idea that men cannot control themselves from their biological urges is quite frankly insulting to all men.

I vote for Peace.

she

http://somethingfeministy.wordpress.com/2011/11/03/meanwhile-back-at-the-ranch/

[BDavinciNY]

39. I Guess

According to Mr. Fisher women are designed to pop out a new human unit every 9 months or so! That won't probably happen right after the rapey sperm is eliminated!

[AlbertCat]

3. "This is not a Hollywood movie."

Says David A. Pattern of NewsMax....

No it's not!

But neither are women! They aren't the shallow dummies of Hollywood and TV you think they are, Mr. Pattern.

[MADem]

4. I'd love to see these clowns' DD214s!!

My guess is they don't have a one amongst them!

They probably think that DD214 is a reference to an insect spray, or something....

[RoccoR5955]

6. How about this...

NOBODY in combat.
We will no longer be the world's police, and will not partake in others' wars!
That's what I say!

Yes, I know it will never happen, but I just had to say it.

[malthaussen]

10. Yeah, from one form of victimization to another...

... something to celebrate, eh? Mind you, I've always thought women should be in combat. I just don't favor combat.

-- Mal

[RoccoR5955]

15. War is not a thing that any of us should partake in.

So in effect, anyone who participates in this is a victim, whatever their gender.
Personally, I don't favor anyone being in combat either. That was my point.

[Meandering1]

33. As it is right now men make up 98% of the war dead

the plan to put women in harm's way may incentivize an end to the military industrial complex. When women get put on the front lines? They may take a more serious look at the whole wicked game. Right now it is virtually only men getting killed & maimed.

This does raise battlefield hazards as male troops will tend to take excessively dangerous risks to help their female comrades when the hurt happens. These men tend to over-protect women when the bullets fly and go on suicide missions to save women. Had it been a man stranded on the field wounded? He's considered expendable. Preferential protection according to gender is common even now with women not on the front lines. Also women generally only have the physical strength of a young teen age male. Thus a serious liability to themselves and their fellows. The top 5% female recruits perform strength and endurance tests only at the male average.

What has often disturbed me has been an under-emphasis on ending war and an over emphasis on peripheral issues like this one and ending DADT. I tend to consider these discussions wedge issues. Conservatives talk Gay marriage & abortion the Dems talk only Women & Gays in the military. So it seems with only slight exaggeration.

No one of much influence speaks out to just end the whole fucking war racket to begin with. While the media is to blame for much of this so are the rest of us for getting sidetracked,

[RoccoR5955]

38. Agreed. The media just keeps putting war on a pedistal

when it should be deplored, for the racket that it is.

Perhaps if women are put in harm's way, this will change, but it is doubtful.

What I believe will put the idea that war is a racket back into people's heads, is if there is a mandatory draft. Only when every family has to suffer, and not just those who choose to join the military, will there be any change.

[pasto76]

41. hardly

being on a 'pedestal' as you put it, would have meant that more then 3% of news would have been about the war. I understand what you are trying to express, and I agree that there should be a draft or mandatory service for everyone. But your choice of words belies another current in your mind, and I see this expressed by many people. Troops should in fact, be placed on a pedestal. We have volunteered to stand in harm's way, so that you and your families do not have to. Dont ever take that for granted. We dont choose if we serve in peace time or war time. We also have no control over where the Commander In Chief sends us.

solving the literally centuries old problem of mankind warring on each other is a tad more complex than blaming the media for putting it on a 'pedestal'. Like I said I probably get what you are really trying to say...try not to insult us while doing it.

[RoccoR5955]

43. I wasn't trying to insult anyone.

I was merely trying to say that the media puts those who prefer war over peace in a higher place in society than those of us who prefer peace over war.
When was the last time that the media said anything about non-violence, and people who strive for that?

I am sorry but I have to disagree with your point that troops have volunteered to be put in harm's way, so that the rest of us do not have to. It is my belief that troops are not being sent to war to defend the people, but to defend the interests of multinational corporations who have interests in the power structure of the US. At least today anyway.

Understood that you don't have control over where the Commander In Chief decides to put you, but you do have an obligation to not follow an illegal order. I believe that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are, in fact, illegal, as they do not directly affect the security of the US. They do, however affect the profits of corporations who want the oil from Iraq, the natural resources from Afghanistan, and the profits to be made from the building of a gas pipeline in Afghanistan.

Again, my purpose was not to insult, I merely find that war is a racket, as did two time Medal of Honor winner, Major General Smedley Butler. (If you don't know who I am talking about, remember that Google is your friend.)

[JDPriestly]

7. About the humiliation of relieving yourself in front of the opposite sex.

Men deliver women's babies. Women doctors examine male patients.

Women nurse old men and male babies, sometimes not their own.

Ryan Smith should stay out of hospitals and, if he ever needs a nurse, hire a male one.

About what God created women for. How do we know? Other than that women potentially bear children, but only to a certain age, we have no idea why any of us were created. We may just be a fungus growing on the big toe of the universe. That's totally meaningless. What does "know" mean when it comes to God? (And I am no atheist, just humble.)

Why should women want to be treated like men? Who says we do? If a woman goes into any other profession that takes the ability to be bold, decisive, make life and death decisions, live on the edge, no one says anything. And I'm talking about female doctors and nurses. Especially in emergency and operating rooms, danger is their way of life, more likely to be a part of each and every day than for a soldier in combat.

[madrchsod]

9. ignorant uneducated right wing brain-stems

women in combat through out known history.....

http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/womenbiography/tp/030110WomenWarriors.htm

[kardonb]

14. uneducated

Bravo , Mad ; but don't expect the opposition to be informed by history . They just feel threatened by strong women , suffer from low self-esteem .

[toby jo]

11. This whole issue is cracking me up -looks like we've uncovered another round of fear

they've got theirselves blanketed up in.

I was at the gym last night & fox news was the only monitor with caps so ....

"Men fight so that woman don't have to. Woman are needed to repopulate the earth. One man can populate an entire (village) but it takes alot of woman to bear children. Even if a woman has a child every year of her regenerative life, that would be about 40 years, or 40 children, ( yeah he really said that) that (makes it difficult to repopulate) . We need all of our woman."

Pretty close to a direct quote.

It looks like all the woman are gonna go get shot up now and society is doomed. uh oh.

Then this china doll broad gets on and says something like ' the army has already downgraded it's requirements for woman, and now it 's going to get worse.' She missed the 'they have to pass the same standards meme'.

Right wing woman will hate this more than the men.

As for peeing in front of the guys -step off the trail & go is a problem? Never had a guy freak out on me yet.

[sarge43]

16. In other words, women are nothing more than brood mares.

When my fiance was killed in Vietnam, our children died with him. Who knows what was lost.

The 'downgrade' meme is so old it should be sent to a nursing home. The same thing was said when the WAAC and WAVES were established. Still managed to win WWII.

One of my action packed, fun filled duties in Uncle's Balloon Corps was processing reenlistments and discharges. There were no separate DD Forms 4 for men and for women. We 'downgraders' took the same oath and agreed to same obligations as any enlisted man. I also note that nothing in the UCMJ excludes servicewomen. It's an equal opportunity kick in the ass.

All the combat restriction ever did was prevent women from shooting back. There's no record of it ever once stopping a bullet or bomb. According to my husband, retired ammo man, those bullets and bombs are utterly indifferent to the gender of their targets.

[AlbertCat]

36. Talk about living in the past

"Men fight so that woman don't have to. Woman are needed to repopulate the earth. One man can populate an entire (village) but it takes alot of woman to bear children. Even if a woman has a child every year of her regenerative life, that would be about 40 years, or 40 children, ( yeah he really said that) that (makes it difficult to repopulate) . We need all of our woman."

This is indeed biologically "true"... but not socially true or necessary since, oh, I dunno.... homo habilis? 2.33 to 1.4 million years ago

[NightOwwl]

12. Aren't you thankful

there are people telling us how to feel and think?

Because being women, we obviously don't know how to do these things ourselves.

[damonm]

13. Mr. Fischer, the Israeli and Australian Armies...

among others, would like a word with you...

[KamaAina]

17. Three of these five dunces are women!!!

[alp227]

31. What else do you expect in a nation that conditions women to be subvertive to male authoritarianism?

[KamaAina]

32. I expect them to express sentiments that differentiate them from a doormat or a prostitute.

In other words, to be feminists!!

[sarge43]

34. Part of being a feminist means taking responsibility for yourself

instead of letting someone else impose a model and standard for you, ie stepping out of the faux comfort zone. It's tough and scary and often lonely. Not everyone can do it.

The true revolution of our times has been people realizing, then insisting that they're far more than the sum of society's labels. We are, each of us, individuals, therefore unique.

As for the nay sayers, this old sarge and first wave feminist likes a Bedouin saying, "The dogs bark; our caravan moves on".

[Initech]

18. To quote Hank Hill: "I don't know whether to laugh or vomit."

Oh Bryan Fischer does make me want to do that:

[Skelly]

19. Why does this remind me...

Of the "First World Problems" meme?

[Cha]

20. Yeah, this fits right into the War On Women

the republiCons are waging. Of course, they don't like it.

Thanks EarlG

[Starry Messenger]

21. We have a few freaks here who agree with the right-wing

positions on this. Just FYI.

[rickjliberal1946sef]

22. The stupidity of the Republican Party is simply astounding

Do they not realize that such comments will only alienate potential voters for their party? And they'll keep on being defeated as a result.

[tclambert]

23. Lyudmila Pavlichenko--309 kills in World War II.

She was one of about 2,000 women snipers the Soviets used against the Germans. They put her on TWO postage stamps.

Chris Kyle, America's most lethal sniper, possibly had 255 kills (160 confirmed). White Feather, the legendary Carlos Hathcock, had 93 confirmed kills during the Vietnam War. One of Hathcock's kills was the notorious "Apache," a Viet Cong sniper and torturer who terrorized American troops in the mid-1960s. Apache turned out to be a woman.

These few stats do not mean that women are inherently better snipers or soldiers than men. Vasily Zaytsev had 225 kills in one 5 week stretch during the Battle of Stalingrad (the bloodiest battle in human history with about 10 times the death toll of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs put together). Zaytsev may have had between 400 and 700 kills total. (The score-keeping was a little sloppy back then.)

My point was really that the Russians had pretty good success with women as snipers, and combat soldiers, and combat pilots during World War II. To fight a war without women fighters is just to fight with one hand behind your back.

[47of74]

29. Sabiha Gökçen

That got me thinking of Sabiha Gökçen of Turkey.

Sabiha Gökçen is the world's first female fighter pilot. Born in Bursa, Turkey in 1913, she was orphaned early in life. Fortune began to smile on her in 1925, when the founder and President of the new Republic of Turkey, Kemal Atatürk, took her under his wing. He gave her the name Gökçen ("related to the sky&quot and brought her to Ankara for more education. She completed her education at Üsküdar Girls College in Istanbul. In 1935, with war clouds over the horizon in Europe, the Turkish Aeronautical Association opened the country's first civil aviation school. Atatürk participated in the opening ceremony and named the school Türkkusu (Turkish Bird).

He enrolled Gökçen as the first female student. It was a revolutionary move in an Islamic country. Following initial glider training, she attended advanced training in the USSR with seven male Turkish students. All hoped to teach flying. Gökçen was an apt pilot and within a year returned to Turkey bearing her glider instructor's diploma. In 1936, she went on to military flight school in Eskisehir. Gökçen endured more than a year of rigorous basic and advanced training. Successful again, she earned her pilot wings in 1937. Flying extensively in French-built Breguet XIX and American-built Curtiss Hawk biplanes, Gökçen earned a place in history as the world's first combat-ready female pilot.

In 1937, she took part in maneuvers in Turkish Thrace and on the country's Aegean coast, and in combat operations in Eastern Anatolia. In the Dersim Operation, the First Air Regiment moved to Elazig to provide close air support for Turkish ground forces combating a foreign-provoked rebellion. Gökçen and other male pilots flew daily shifts. Her performance was superior, both as a pilot and observer. For this she was awarded the Turkish Aeronautical Association's first "Jeweled Medal." In 1938, she was invited to tour several nations of southeastern Europe. On 16 June, she began a 5-day tour flying a Vultee-V bomber. From Istanbul, she flew to Athens and Thessalonika in Greece, and then to Sofia, Bulgaria.

At her next stop, in Belgrade, the Chief of Yugoslavia's General Staff awarded her the "White Eagle," the country's highest military decoration. Her last stop was Bucharest, Romania. On this tour, she had flown nearly 2000 miles over the rugged mountains of the Balkans. Next, Gökçen was named Chief Instructor at the Türkkusu Flight School, where 3 years before she had earned her glider wings. In the 1950's, Gökçen made two trips to the United States, and in 1990 she was invited to India. She retired from active flying in 1964, having flown a long list of aircraft from France, Great Britain, Germany, the United States, and Turkey. The Fédéderation Aéronautique Internationale awarded Gökçen its Gold Medal in 1991 for outstanding achievements in aviation.

http://www.au.af.mil/au/goe/eagle_bios/1996/gokcen_1996.asp

[underpants]

24. Having served in the Army I can tell you what the real problem is going to be with this

Middle Managment

Anyone in any work setting has seen good management and bad management and in between.
Sgt.s in the Army have healthy, MALE, well-trained, and well-conditioned (in all senses of the word) underlings who have no choice but to do what they say. Now there are differences in Sgt.s but at the end you have to do what they say.

Women are not predisposed to not follow orders, they are much more disciplined and practical, but that one little change in the workforce is going to be very hard for many in the middle management to handle.

I was a gunner on a Bradley Fighting Vehicle. A supposed ultra-masculine job....but there was nothing that I did that a properly trained women couldn't have done just like us properly trained males.

I am very glad to see this change, this progressive change.


BTW - the same types of things were said when the Army was desegregated in 1950. Think about that and what change it brought to the whole country. It had to be desegregated due to the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses in the CONSTITUTION. These clauses are the same reason that gay marriage (and the end of Don't Ask Don't Tell) will have to become legal.

[Godot51]

25. No one deserves to be in combat...

Human evolution is moving too slowly. If only we could evolve beyond the need for anyone to experience war and combat.

[indivisibleman]

26. WOW! Once again the Right shows their true colors.

I always say they won't surprise me any more and then they do. This is truly amazing.

[Kalidurga]

27. Okay 'publicans, don't want women in combat stop making stupid wars.

there problem solved.

[decrepittex]

42. simple solution

and the one not any Republican in DC would have ever thought of.

[FormalObserver]

28. Haircuts

Can they all get high and tights now?

[davidpdx]

30. Here in Korea men have to do 2 years of mandatory military service

which is considered a duty to their country. Women don't have to. I've told many of my students I believe if the military service applies to men, women should have to do it as well. Men have to start their service before they are a certain age (I can't remember what that is, but it's early 20s I believe). This means they go do a year or so at university, then take a leave of absence to go into the military and come back to finish college afterward.

As to the OP, I think women should be allowed to service in a combat role in the United States.

[pasto76]

35. "humiliating" to pee in front of other men?!?

dude, when you gotta go you gotta go. Kinda stand in between the tires on a truck and have at it. I speculate that the guy who said this is another closet freak with seriously oppressed sexual desires.

does he think that females will be forced to pop a squat in front a formation? newsflash buddy, most males dont want to see any female pee. Females used to go under the high part of the tractor trailer to pee. They would ask somebody just to stand there as kind of a human door. I was like 'i dont even want to hear you pee'...but we take care of our own so I would hum loudly.

[DhhD]

37. Division of Labor is a term of Modern Mechanized Warfare. Ability of strategic association is a

female characteristic. Ability to exist and over come traumatic situations is a female characteristic. Ability to sense the enemy in a close encounter decision making is a female characteristic. Modern Mechanized Warfare in the presence of civilians will make men the back-up.

Please add to this list of positive characteristics as we already know all the negative ones that were apart of old fashion hand to hand combat.

[RedCappedBandit]

40. One can only imagine the humiliation of going to the bathroom?

What kind of fucked up childhood did this guy have? Sheesh.