Of the more than 6,700 U.S. service members who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, about 150 have been women. That’s soon to change ….. part of our “hope and change”?
Last year the military opened up about 14,500 combat positions to women, most of them in the Army, by allowing them to serve in many jobs at the battalion level.
The January order lifted the last barrier to women serving in combat, but allows the services to argue to keep some jobs closed.
Women make up about 14 percent of the 1.4 million active U.S. military personnel. More than 280,000 women have been sent to Iraq, Afghanistan or neighboring nations in support of the wars.
In an article by By Lolita C. Baldor, for Associated Press, it points out that women are beginning to be trained for Army Rangers and Navy Seals next month.
Supposedly they’ll have to meet the same physical and mental standards, but how has that worked so far?
The order Panetta and Dempsey signed prohibits physical standards from being lowered simply to allow women to qualify for jobs closer to the battlefront. But the services are methodically reviewing and revising the standards for many jobs, including strength and stamina, in order to set minimum requirements for troops to meet regardless of their sex.
In January, then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey signed an order that wiped away generations of limits on where and how women could fight for their country.
Does this policy change not seem to preclude insuring an end the ridiculous number of sexual assaults, or is it setting up more?
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