Women must win fight for opportunity

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February 10, 2012

Anonymous Daily Star The Daily Star Fri Feb 10, 2012, 09:20 AM EST

The Pentagon announced Thursday that it will recommend that Congress officially allow women to serve in more jobs closer to the front lines.

The new rules would formally permit women to be assigned to a battalion and serve in jobs such as medics, intelligence officers, military police and communications officers. The changes likely will have the greatest effect on the Army and Marine Corps, largely because women have been prohibited from serving in infantry positions. The change would open up about 14,000 positions.

This would change a 1994 exclusion policy banning women from being assigned to ground combat units below the brigade level. Women have been "attached" to battalions, doing work in communications or intelligence, but not getting credit for being in combat arms.

This has put them at a disadvantage for promotions and job opportunities, which can be based on combat service and experience.

This decision is more in tune with reality, because women have been fighting on the front lines since the early years of our nation's history. From days of the Revolutionary War, wives kept on fighting after their husbands had died in battle.

For years, those in power have questioned the mental and physical stamina of women, questioning whether they have what it takes to handle combat. Military officials questioned what women could do to unit cohesion.

At the same time, these women -- in supporting roles flying helicopters or providing medical aid if troops were injured -- have been in close contact with violence on the streets of Iraq and Afghanistan. In wars in which there are no fixed front lines, women have not been shielded from combat.

According to a story by The Associated Press, 280,000 women have been sent to Iraq, Afghanistan or neighboring nations in support of the wars. This represents 12 percent of all who have served there.

They have fought and died for their country and the cause of freedom. Of the more than 6,300 who have been killed in these wars, 144 were women.

While the rules open up new possibilities, it does not go far enough to allow for more equality in the ranks. The Pentagon will keep with the long-held belief that women should not serve as infantry, armor and special operations forces, such as Navy SEALS or Army Delta Force.

The military should realize that men or women, those who wish to serve their country on the battlefield, should be given the opportunity. Regardless of gender, the most qualified, competent and prepared for a job should be the one to receive it.