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Women in Combat

1/25/2013

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Women are now awarded full combat rolls. At a joint news conference, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey signed a memorandum rolling back a 1994 directive prohibiting women from doing so. This move allows women to have greater military career advancement not previously available because of the absence of combat experience.

In reality, the years of warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan have blurred, if not erased, the traditional notions of combat versus noncombat positions. Battle fronts are fluid, and the concept of a defined front line is virtually meaningless. Some 280,000 women have been deployed to those two countries since 2001, the military says.

Female helicopter pilots fly in and out of combat zones. Female medics treat the wounded wherever they fall. In Afghanistan, the Marines have set up all-female teams, known as "lionesses," who are deployed to speak to Afghan women who would never speak to male U.S. troops. The Marines have found them extremely valuable in gathering intelligence.

More than 150 women have been killed and more than 800 wounded in the Iraq and Afghan wars, according to the military. (source: npr.org/womenincombat:5keyquestions)

The Minnesota National Guard on Thursday said it would be part of a pilot program to integrate female soldiers into previously all-male combat infantry units. The Guard's First Brigade, 34th Infantry Division Red Bulls will be one of nine Guard brigades nationwide to immediately assign women to positions at headquarters combat units, where jobs previously were restricted to men.

I favor giving women the same opportunity as men to advance in their military careers. The women who have served and are currently serving have my highest respect for their commitment to our great nation. Questions are raised about physical strength, gender neutral standards, and the treatment of women risks to those captured during combat. The recent hearings and trials of military generals regarding sexual misconduct among women soldiers are larger issues of how to control sexual harassment within the military that currently exits and in the future.

I question a nation that is willing to send its mothers and daughters into military combat. I believe a very traditional role of men is to protect the women and children of our homes, communities, state and nation. A counter argument may be that having our mothers and daughters officially active in combat may reduce needless bloodshed and collateral damage to the civilian innocents.           

Deborah was a judge, who led military campaigns for the nation of Israel.

Judges 4: 4-7
4 Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. 5 She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided. 6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor. 7 I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’”


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    Mark Radeke

    Husband of one, father of five, pastor and friend of many.

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