And yet we cannot? Catharine Ross asks the question in a web-only commentary at the NY Times' site.
I do have a dog in this fight, so you can take my opinions for what they are worth. I agree with Ms. Ross, the physical test standards for everyone should be the same. The IDF is a no-nonsense force that seems to be very good at keeping non-military chickenshit to a minimum. If the IDF can make it work to have women (and yes, gays) in most combat jobs, why is our own military so inept?
Or maybe this is the reason: The IDF has a separate battalion for those whose intolerance is based on religion.
Cat Pawtector!
3 hours ago
3 comments:
I'm not sure, given the poor performance of the IDF in combat over the past ten years since they removed the restriction on women serving in combat, that the IDF is a good example of integration of women into combat units not affecting performance of combat units. This is especially true since, unlike countries like France and Sweden, the IDF still does have some restrictions on women's service. While women can serve in infantry roles, they're restricted to the 33rd Battalion, for example...
Granted, the IDF's decline in performance over the past ten years has nothing to do with women -- it has to do with a serious existential crisis amongst Israelis themselves, who are conflicted about what the nature of the State of Israel should be or even whether it is still worth fighting for, especially amongst the children of Russian immigrants who never really wanted to be Israeli in the first place but are there because Israel was the only nation which would accept them as immigrants when they fled the crumbling hellhole that was the late Soviet Union -- but point is, there are other nations where women serve in combat roles too. And given that the U.S. military more resembles those other militaries than it resembles the IDF (which is a draftee military where reservists are the majority of man/womanpower), perhaps a better example could be found?
- Badtux the Military Penguin
My scuba instructor was a reserve captain paratrooper in the IDF. He told me that the IDF uses women in a wide variety of training roles because young men pay closer attention to women in instructor positions, such as marksmanship, etc. It makes perfect sense, too. The Israelis have traditionally been very good at taking the best equipment (ie. American), materials and methods and improving on them. For the past decade or so, the Israeli government has also been held hostage by the rat bastart coward neocons, so that has probably caused some institutional rot and mission creep & etc. (The constant neocon-driven focus on Iran by other already nuke-capable countries is fairly ridiculous. Remember the cold war? Remember that if Iran even launches a bottle rocket against any neighbor that we can glassify their entire country to a depth of six feet within about 45 minutes? No. Nobody remembers.)
"the rat bastart coward neocons"
{smooches}
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