Women in battle.

Women in Battle

THE FIRST REPORTS had Captain Linda L. Bray leading her troops as they stormed a Panamanian Defense Forces outpost. At the end of the firefight the position was won, three of the enemy lay dead, none of the Americans were hurt, and a new era of opportunity for women was upon us. Representative Patricia Schroeder (D., Colo.) instantly, and sanctimoniously, declared that this showed that the distinction between combat and non-combat roles in the military was "a joke," and that the time had come to open the ranks of the infantry to women.

The unglamorous character of the target--the PDF K-9 corps kennels--was not given prominence in early reports, and it now appears that the gunfight lasted only ten minutes, that Captain Bray was half a mile away when the shooting started, and that no one on either side was killed. A legend in the making evaporated in embarrassment. The issue, however, is a real one. Should women go into combat? Are Representative Schroeder and the New York Times correct in their joint opinion that technological change and social evolution make restrictions on the military use of women unworthy atavisms, as unjust as they are outdated? Let's review the arguments:

Lots of other armies use women in combat roles: why shouldn't we? Actually, very few serious armies have done so, save in the case of direct necessity where national survival was at stake. The Israelis make extensive use of women for all kinds of military work (including intelligence, education and training, and maintenance) but immediately pull them out of combat zones for three reasons, among others: if captured they will be raped, repeatedly; many men simply fall apart when they see young women they know well being disemboweled by shell splinters; Israeli society does not want girls to be killers. In the words of one Israeli general, "We don't do what you do in the United States, because unfortunately we have to take war seriously." Yes, men can be abused, and male casualties are horrifying, and no one likes the idea of his son being taught to shred another human being with machine-gun bullets or burn him with napalm. Nonetheless, there is an entirely different dimension to these matters when women are concerned. By brutal experience the Israelis (who draft most of their young women) have learned this.

Modern military technology no longer requires brute strength, so women can perform most combat tasks as well as men. In point of fact, combat still requires lots of brawn. It's easy to point a tank gun and shoot it--but what about loading the shells, or changing tank treads? Well, say the advocates of female grunts, why not have simple strength tests for the different combat specialties? When this has been tried there has been an enormous clamor because (surprise, surprise) it turns out that very few women meet the upper-body strength criteria. When that happened (surprise, surprise) feminist groups lobbied to have the tests revised. Moreover, the case for keeping combat units all male has a lot to do with "male bonding," a term that invariably evokes the sneers of (usually middle-aged, usually non-combat veteran) critics of the combat exclusion rules. But ask, or simply observe, a teenage boy on an athletic team and you will get a rather different answer.

Isn't this argument like the one that used to be made for keeping the military segregated by race? Most emphatically not. Black and white men are pretty much the same--men and women are different, with respect to physiognomy and, as many feminist authors now proclaim, with respect to psychology as well.

Representative Schroeder and those who agree with her see this issue as one of equal opportunities, much like disputes about private clubs, or differential pay scales. The reality is very different. This sort of decision is, ultimately, about suffering and death, and those shrillest in the clamor to have young women--even pregnant young women--kill and be killed for their country will not be the ones to pay for it. The Israelis are right, and we would be wise to learn from a nation that has learned these lessons in the hardest school. With all due respect for the undeniable coolness and professionalism of Captain Bray, neither she nor any other female soldier belongs in combat.