She is the aircraft commander of the first all-female C-130 crew.
Women are miracles.
All right... read that correctly. I didn't write "I think women are miracles", or "it can be said women are miracles"... I said, without qualification, that women are true-blue, dyed in the wool, Triple A-1 miracles. Are we clear where I stand, here?
Now that we can begin from a mutual point of understanding, let us do so.
I consider myself to be a relatively enlightened being. I think if a person can do something to help their community or improve themselves in a way that is constructive and is fully aware of the risks inherent in such a pursuit, then that person should be allowed to do such a thing.
If a woman wishes to be a police officer, and passes the training and other requirements to become an officer, great. If a woman wishes to be a firefighter, and passes all the requirements thereof, great. If a woman wishes to be a soldier... OK... Let me stop here.
If a police officer, fully cognizant of the risks of her job, dies in the line of duty, protecting her fellow citizens... it is a sad, honorable, and laudable death. If a firefighter who knew the risks dies in a fire or other disaster, her death is sad, honorable, and laudable.
If a soldier, who knew the risks, dies defending her country and fellow soldiers, her death is sad. Her death is honorable. I cannot laud her death in good conscience.
The thought of women in combat horrifies me. It really is the worst thing I can think of. It isn't because I don't think women can do the job. That's not it. Women can and do kick ass and take names. So... why am I so squicked out about women in combat?
I guess it's because of the inherent beauty of a vital, young, and capable woman. To see her using her miracles to kill, or to see her get killed... in war, fucks me up. I don't think being upset at the thought of a woman dying or killing makes me some kind of male chauvinist.
Now, the death of a male soldier, defending his country and squad... that death is sad. That death is honorable. I cannot laud his death in good conscience. However, my denial of praise of such a death is for different reasons...
War... is the victory of human vice over human virtue. Sometimes, war is unavoidable. For decades, Afghanistan was abandoned by the international community. Human misery and desperation festered while the western world fiddled. I understand and accept why my nation and her allies went into Afghanistan.
Just don't ask me to praise it.
Any ways, I would like to hear the thoughts of you guys (gender neutral usage of "guys"), and how exactly I suck for not being a warmonger who loves it when a lady perforates a muslim with an M-16.
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Capt. Carol J. Mitchell, USAF
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gender politics
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7 comments:
Fuck, man.
Any soldier -- male or female -- knows they could die. They die doing their job, like a police officer or firefighter. THey knew the risks when they signed their name. It's not just weekend training for free college, good sir.
Equal rights, brother. This is what women have been fighting for. EQUALITY. Not equality, except when it sucks. It's about time men AND women got the same treatment in the armed forces, home and abroad.
It is an interesting perspective.
I can understand your anti-war sentiments, if fact I can agree partially. I can also understand why women in combat - women hold the power of creation. So do men, on a smaller scale. It is difficult for someone who views women as creators to take part in so much destruction.
I must agree with Joe however - women sign their name, they don't have to. I don't ask you to praise the fact they want to go to war. If one doesn't believe in the war, it is only fair to not believe in the war for everybody, including those who have fought for the right to do so.
Instead, appreciate the fact that women, long seen as objects and delicate are also human beings, with the power to live the lives they want to and not forced to lead half-lives, lives that just aren't as full as they would have them.
seriously, i'm all about equality. the ladies wanna shoot, fly, be seals, be rangers, be whatever... by all means. if you can match the qualifications set for the men then most certainly do it. i would not have a problem fighting alongside a woman, so long as they realize they are coming into a long established boys club, and she will be treated as a man. a man with a vagina who in times of need, may be hit on, and that there is no crying in firefights. i'm good with it.
I've never heard the term "squicked out" but I like it.
I like to think that it's because if all the men die in combat, we will somehow find a way to reproduce asexually. Sort of like a flatworm.
I'm agreeing with Joe and Stepho because of her idea of asexual production...preferably without the flatworm.
IMO, there isn't a difference in value or a sense of worth or value between the sexes or between race, religion, economic disparities, etc. If a man and a woman both die in combat, and if I don't know them from Adam and Eve, I will still feel sadness and know that there's a whole out there in someone's family, friends, work, their organization.
You must know all the hazards of the job and know that you will be risking your life every day (which we do already but not in a war zone.) You may die, be seriously injured, have limbs severed off, may lose some of your senses, or lose your mind.
When you know all this and still sign the papers, making you a posession of the United States military...You are fully aware of all that can and will happen. You are willing to give your life to save mine? Hell yeah, I am going to be eternally grateful for roaming through enemy territory. I am going to say a prayer for all of who have fallen. All those who were brave under fire and whose deaths meant something. God bless you
I truly believe in equality of women and men. But have we become so desperate as a powerful Nation to start sending our women into the battlefield? Where are the actors, professional athletes, rap stars and all the brave bold men? If we see the beheading or rape of a female soldier on CNN, where will we be as nation? Have we lost our sense of gallantry and honor?
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