To my old-fashioned way of thinking, a nation that relies on its women for its defense is akin to a husband who would nudge his wife when he hears something go bump in the night and says, “Aren’t you going to check that out?” So, when I read where the US Army is negotiating with the Pentagon’s civilian leaders to eliminate the women-in-combat ban so it can place mixed-sex support companies within warfighting units, I was a bit disappointed.
Then I considered the media hysteria surrounding the capture of then nineteen-year-old Pfc. Jessica Lynch. What the Iraq war proved to me was that everyone in the war zone regardless of what sex they happened to be were in danger of becoming casualties but, women casualties, also had the potential to be front page stories. This tells me that the press and American people aren’t quite comfortable with idea of sending their daughters off to defend the home front.
Why else would the capture of one GI Jane trump the deaths and heroic deeds of hundreds of GI Joes? Sadly, at some point the stories of women like Pfc. Lynch are going to become common place and their heretofore front page stories will be relegated to the list of killed and captured on page B 26. What will that say about us as a nation? Equality! All citizens honor America by coming to her defense. Well, it doesn’t sound quite so bad when you put it like that.
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