Pollyana

To the pigeon! I had a boss for a while who snickered just like Muttley, he was a great bloke but sometimes it was hard to take him seriously

geordie mandy

Ive always said that if a person is capable of doing the job male or female then they should go. Over the past 20+ years ive known many female soldiers and some damm good ones and many of them served alongside my OH in the 2nd gulf war. Women were at the front as part of the nursing corps in the first and 2 nd world war. So what is different now.
Ive known amazing soldiers of both sexes and some real idiots who should never been given any uniform.

Years ago army wives felt threated by females in the army. Not me, all is fair in love and war.
Mandy

Amazulu

The Nursing Corps is not front-line. Infantry, SF, armour, combat engineers are, and women should not be allowed into these units.

Deancm_MKII

There's a big difference between the nursing corps and infantry.

geordie mandy

If the women have the skills needed then cant see a reason why not. My freind has just come back from afghanistan and is an engineer and very intelligent, many of the blokes she serves with were delighted when she got promoted on her return as she had done such a good job out there fixing stuff and sorting the things that needed to be done.
Her husband also served out there but in a different area.
Mandy

Amazulu

But she is not front-line - a big difference
What unit was your husband in?

Pollyana

I guess my opinions on it have changed over the years. I always used to think that a woman could do the job just as well as a man could, but more recently I'm not so sure. Women's brains and emotions are different to those men have, no doubt about that, and its hard enough for some men to deal with what they've seen and experienced in the thick of a fight. The vast majority of women find emotions harder to deal with and so surely for that reason alone they would find it harder to come to terms with what the experienced on the front-line? From what I've learned over the last few years its not just a question of whether they can cope while they are in the thick of the fighting, but how will they cope afterwards? Women generally aren't as good as men at shutting things out of their minds, after all.
Obviously I've never been in a warzone so I'm happy to listen to views either way, but some of the things I've heard and listened to have really me think maybe its not the right place for women?

geordie mandy

see your karma
Mandy

geordie mandy

All i can go from is my mate, who has seen sights that not many women deal with but saying that she could not cope with the emotional aspect to my job. Women discuss their emotions more freely and dont bottle things up as much, my friend has walked among the rotting dead bodies, believe me the smell is almost as bad as the burning flesh in theatre that i saw and smelt as a trainee nurse. My husband still cant talk about what he saw when he was in the first gulf war. Very few of the blokes could, even now that many are out of the army.
Dont get me wrong i would not want to be on the front line but my freind who is good at her job and has not had special treatment for being a woman knows that her job is dangerous and she could die and she accepts that risk. That is why i support women who want to be on the front line. If they know the risks and have the skills needed then by not sending them then it underminding them as soldiers.
Mandy

asprilla

I'm not sure that this is a wise move, on balance. I certainly believe that men and women should have equal rights in all walks of life. In this context we're talking about front-line battle, and any woman who has the required physical and mental aptitude, should in theory be permitted to fight alongside men on the front line.

However in practice, the front line unit operates as a team with a strict line of command. I would be more than a bit concerned that women would not be treated equally during conflict situations and this may well have a significant impact on the unit operating to it's full potential.

asprilla

Yes, but I took on your grandmother over 400m last week and she beat me by 5 seconds easily.

asprilla

I think that nowadays people are just far too keen to brush over the simple facts of life that you describe, all in the name of equality.

The fact is, men and women aren't equal...they are different. There are some tasks that men in general can perform more effectively than women.... and some* that women can do better than men. Neither sex can ultimately be considered "better", but we should be mature enough to accept that some tasks are more ably fulfilled by women, such as childcare, whereas other tasks such as lifting heavy objects, disregarding other humans as individuals and killing them during war, are better suited to men.






* but not many though. (just kidding).

Bix

Quite right.

Do we really want a front line bazooka war?

eddie007

I would have agreed some years ago that women should be allowed to etc etc etc based on equality...

Havent read this thread all the way throught so apologise if this has been mentioned before...

Front line troops captured.... rape of men by capturing forces not often heard about, maybe it does happen maybe they keep it quiet, maybe thats not something WE talk about

Women captured in war? Well documented use of rape by male soldiers to subjugate women... How would that affect their colleagues judgement when it comes to further action?

Women in war zones, women who are mothers.. I have a problem with that... Its personal I suppose, but the idea of a mother being killed in The line of duty... Leaving children unmothered really bothers me .. possibly because I'm a mother and have faced the possibility of knowing my kids would grow up without me ... the idea of loosing either parent is abhorent ... So that reason is irrational... But its mine ...

keel

The reason that everyone ignore's is the sex. They keep saying that women don't have the stamina etc but it's nowt to do with that.

I had a mate came back from Afganistan recently and popped over to perth to visit. He showed me photos of his oppos in the unit. They are not infantry but pretty close and he was giving me a commentry of which of them he'd shagged and which he hadn't. He also was telling me about the bickering that went on in the unit, the Sgt's shagging her so we'll have to pick someone else ETC.

This is the problem. It destroys the unit cohesion. It's nice to see lasses out and about in the unit but the army is not a social experiment. It is real life, and people will/ getting killed because of it.

Remember Helen of Troy!

Keel