I'd like to open a discussion about the roles of Women in war, especially given the recent capture by Iraqi forces of U.S. Army Spc. Shoshawna Johnson ([url]http://www.msnbc.com/news/890275.asp[/url]).
The topic question: What role, if any, do you believe women have in modern warfare?
Bear in mind that the Russian army, amongst others, has a history of fielding women in front line combat, or indeed in any position that a man could fill. In fact, the records will say that the most successful infantryman of all time was in fact a woman; a female Russian sniper who's rifle claimed over four hundred Germans. Women in the front line are nothing new to most countries.
My personal opinion is that women should not be exposed to front line ground combat because the chance of capture is relatively high. Women as pilots, technical, support or mechanical/maintainance roles I fully support. While some feminists will immediately jump up and down on me upon my utterance of said comments, one must recognise that men and women are very physically different and thus display different characteristics under extreme stress.
Women are (albiet slightly) more sensitive to physical pain then men, however, they deal with it far better (consider the birthing process). In addition, women are generally far better multitaskers then men; this makes them [b]better[\b] pilots then their male counterparts due to their ability to juggle several complicated physical and mental tasks while under extreme stress or paniced. This ability also makes them excelent command staff; I have no problem with female authority, simply because I know that she is probably doing a better job then a man could in the same position.
On this note, I find it disheartening that some women feel they need to be unnaturally assertive/agressive/dogmatic when in leadership/management positions due to their concerns that to lack such qualities makes for a poor boss. Some women in the United States take it a little far and actually wear shoulder pads underneath buisness suits in order to enhance their masculinity; I find women such as these impossible to work under as they fail to carry the supposed 'authority' of their male counterparts and at the same time suppressing their own female qualities which make up the balance. In short, they try too hard to please.
But any woman reading this shouldn't worry. Men are guilty of this too, it's just a little less obvious. Who here believes their boss would treat them worse if they drove a better car then him, or lived in a more expensive house (that you owned; IE not your parents)? What if you were promoted above him?
I digress.
Women have other qualities which give them the edge over their male counterparts. Women are the better communicators, both in speach and in the written word. Anyone who has had to make a 000 call will find that, more often then not, a woman answers the phone; and she doesn't just talk to you. She listens, evaluates the situation, contacts the relevant authority (police/ambulance/fire) all without missing a beat. This is in part because of training, and part because (as afore mentioned) women multitask far better then men. In my opinion, a woman would out preform a man in a communication/radio role as well because of this quality; in addition, it is biologically coded into the male psyche to feel calmer and to pay more attention when being spoken to by a female. Therefore, their natural skills in this field would no doubt be appreciated.
However, with these benefits come disadvantages; just as women are better at some things then men, there are some things which men can do better then women. The brains of men and women differ in their makeup; the male brain is spacially orientated and therefore handles space/distance tasks quicker and with more accuracy then the female brain. Women are generally worse shots with weapons then men, are not able to throw as far or with as much accurately as their male counterparts and have a far weaker ability to block out distractions to accomplish one single goal (ie; shoot this person). This is, of course, balanced by a greater ability to do more then one thing at once; but the jack of all trades is the master of none, as the saying goes, and men are generaly better at doing one single task at a time.
Although this is often debated to deadlock, I believe women are also more vunerable to sexual abuse, rape, or sexual torture if captured in a combat situation. Those who support women in combat argue that the risks are equally shared; men are just as easily sexually interfered with, and the results can be just as humiliating and degrading. I'll not go into this too much, but my personal opinion is that women are more vunerable to this combat hazard.
Opinions? Comments?