Girls With Guns

Intelligence: Girls With Guns Get It

June 29, 2009: In both Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Army and Marines found it useful to send a female soldier along on raids, as it was less disruptive to have a woman search the female civilians. There was no shortage of volunteers for this duty. The marines, as is their custom, saw more opportunities in this. Thus the marines began sending a team of women on such missions....

The marines also noticed that the female troops were better at picking up useful information in general. This is something Western police forces noted, in the last few decades, as women were allowed to work in all areas of police work, including detectives and crime scene investigators.

I find that very interesting. The aim of the women on these missions wasn't combat although they were trained for it if required. I have talked about my opinion on women in combat in my post "Women in the special forces?" that women can be used in other roles which don't require direct physical confrontation like they did during WW-II. I had cited the example of Israeli women soldiers and their failure to prove my point. But I agree with Burgess Laughlin who said in the comments section:

It would be a hasty generalization indeed to look at one historical instance--or even a number of them--and draw a universal conclusion. For example, to reach the universal conclusion one would have to show that the culture values of those men and women were objective. The culture of Israel was certainly not objective. It, like all cultures today and in the past, was steeped in some degree of mystically assigned roles for men and women in society in general.

A researcher would have to identify the widest differences--that is, the differences that apply to all men and women in all circumstances before drawing a universal conclusion that women cannot participate in combat effectively.

It is the first time I have heard of women soldiers being used not because of the political pressures or reasons unrelated to the pupose of the missions. I hope that the role assigned to women in the above case is based on valid reasons and overcomes what Mr. Laughlin described as the mystically assigned roles for men and women in society in general.

Looking Good in Combat

(via Strategypage).

Check my very first post on this blog about Women in the special forces? It draws traffic from all over the world regularly.

Debunking the Israeli 'women in combat' myth

This is in response to a comment on my post "Women in the special forces?" by Steven Brockerman which was:
What about the the War of Independence (1948) in which Israeli women engaged in combat? From what I've researched, they functioned very well. As far as I can determine, moreover, there were no differences in the physical requirements for either male or female soldiers--except that all were expected to kill the enemy. Which they all did quite effectively, IIRC.

Well Steven here's an article by Jon Dougherty which should answer your question. Do read the full article.

Debunking the Israeli 'women in combat' myth: "'History shows that the presence of women has had a devastating impact on the effectiveness of men in battle,' wrote John Luddy in July 27, 1994, for the Heritage Foundation backgrounder.
'For example, it is a common misperception that Israel allows women in combat units. In fact, women have been barred from combat in Israel since 1950, when a review of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War showed how harmful their presence could be. The study revealed that men tried to protect and assist women rather than continue their attack. As a result, they not only put their own lives in greater danger, but also jeopardized the survival of the entire unit. The study further revealed that unit morale was damaged when men saw women killed and maimed on the battlefield,' Luddy said."

Women in the special forces?

I posted this on http://www.strategypage.com/ Armed Forces of the World Discussion Board on role of women in special forces.
Just tune out the politically correct gene and see who would be the best suited to protect your family, friends and country. In purely physical terms no average women can come close to an average man and even if some exceptional ones do then there are way too many complications and I am not even talking about the mental toughness part yet.

Combat has been and will always be a man's domain and armies who ignore this reality will pay for it dearly at the cost of weakening their armies. Women can be used in other roles which don't require direct physical confrontation like they did during WW-II where without their contributions in manufacturing (making planes and bombs etc.), spotting targets using aerial pics etc. it would have been near impossible to win the war.

People back then understood how to use the resources and allocating them where they were best suited. They were smart people who rescued the world from Nazis- lets not weaken our war with the new Nazis and lets for their and future generations sake and most importantly for our present generation's sake- go give them hell without loosing focus.

I have talked about the Israeli situation on a new post "debunking israeli women-in-combat myth.