Women in Combat

"In the lull of peacetime, regulations that kept women in uniform at a safe distance from combat were lifted. We are now paying the price and being made to think that our national defense rests on the ability to deploy teenage girls and single mothers. What a disgrace." —Kate O'Beirne, author of Women Who Make the World Worse: and How Their Radical Feminist Assault Is Ruining Our Schools, Families, Military, and Sports.

Online Articles

Jessica Lynch and other young women like her in the U.S. Army have been shot, raped and permanently traumatized because our military leaders have deliberately put them in harm's way.

• The Faye Turney Incident. "You will know that among the detainees there is one lady who is a mother of a child. Why is it that the most difficult work like patrolling at sea should be given to a woman? Why is there no respect for motherhood? Why does the West not value its women?"
• Women Can't Fight. By James Webb. "The whole place has been pulled down to the level of the women."
• Red War, Blue War: How Diverging Family Politics Define Alternate Perspectives on the War Against Terror. By Bryce Christensen, The Family in America 19/2 (February 2005). A long article that explores the "media excitement about female soldiers."
• The Feminist Assault on the Military. By David Horowitz, National Review, 5 October 1992. Among other reasons, liberals are "advocating that women be put in combat roles because to do so would make it more difficult to commit troops to combat."
• Feminism Conquers America's Armed Forces. By Robert Bork, in Slouching Towards Gomorrah (1996). "The inevitable result is that training standards are lowered."
• Women GIs and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. By Kirsten Scharnberg, Chicago Tribune, 20 March 2005. "Thousands of women ... are returning home emotionally damaged by what they have seen and done. These female troops appear more prone to post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, than their male counterparts. And studies indicate that many of these women suffer from more pronounced and debilitating forms of PTSD than men." Did we need a "study" to tell us this?
• Female Veterans Deal with Postwar Trauma. By Katherine Spitz, Knight Ridder News, June 16, 2004. "Experts have long known that men and women react differently to stress. For example, women are more at risk for post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, a debilitating mental health condition that can be triggered by various life-threatening situations such as assault or natural disaster, as well as combat." Also here.
• They shoot women, don't they? By Kathleen Parker, 29 June 2005. "Some observers wonder whether the convoy was targeted specifically because it was known to be carrying women. More buck for the bang, if you're a suicide bomber. If the goal is to undermine U.S. will and commitment to the war, the twisted mind might think, what better way than to kill their women?"
• Women's Combat Role on Front Burner. By Bob Deans, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 27 June 2005. "It wasn't immediately known whether the militants behind the killings meant to target women. Among military strategists, however, it's well understood that the gruesome spectacle of female troops being slaughtered has the potential to demoralize an American public already growing weary of the war and its grinding toll."
• Does Bush Care? By George Neumayr, American Spectator, 20 May 2005. "One of Bush's improbable legacies may end up being a military more feminized than Bill Clinton's. As of this spring, 17,000 female soldiers had been dispatched to Iraq and Afghanistan, many of them serving in de facto combat roles, thanks to his military's fudging of the line between combat and noncombat positions. Could the ban on women in combat be abolished altogether under a Republican president? Yes, and if it does, it will be one more irony of American history showing that momentous cultural transformations often take place under 'conservative' presidents who lull their constituents into a sense of complacency."
• A Man's Job, by Mackubin T. Owens, National Review, 12 May 2005. "The Army says it is not in violation of Department of Defense regulations because women in Forward Support Companies are not really 'collocated' until the combat unit is engaged or about to be engaged in a direct combat mission. The breathtaking assumption here is that women in these units can be pulled out before the battle starts."
• Stealth Plan for Women in Combat, by Elaine Donnelly, Washington Times, 8 May 2005. "Noting many parents teach their sons to protect women, the questioner respectfully asked Gen. Schoomaker if such an upbringing can be reconciled with the Army's current policy of sending women into hostile circumstances to kill or be killed. Admitting he hadn't thought about the questioner's moral reservations, Gen. Schoomaker seemed to equate them with conscientious objectors, or with people saying 'men and women can't even share the same tornado shelter in Oklahoma,' whatever that means." Also here.
• Collocating Coffins, by George Neumayr, American Spectator, 18 March 2005. "Political correctness in the U.S. military did not end with the Clinton administration. President Bush's military is also pushing an ideology of "equality" at the expense of military effectiveness. For the sake of an absurd feminist experiment, the Bush military is willing to sap its strength, expose women to torture and death and mar the lives of children and families."
• GI Janes, By Stealth, by Mackubin Thomas Owens, National Review, 27 December 2004. "The U.S. Army is quietly making a radical change in its personnel policy that may well see the 3rd Infantry Division redeploy to Iraq early next year with mixed-sex support companies collocated with combat units."
• Report Leans toward Women in Combat, by Rowan Scarborough, The Washington Times, 13 December 2004. "Internal Army documents advocate changing Pentagon rules on mixed-sex units in a way that critics say will risk placing female soldiers in ground-combat situations."
• Army Betraying its Women ... and Men. By Elaine Donnelly, Center for Military Readiness, 17 January 2005. "Some officials have claimed that female soldiers will have to make up for shortages in male combat soldiers for the Army’s new land combat teams. To the extent the problem exists, gender-based recruiting quotas are to blame."
• Get pregnant, or get sent to Iraq?. We congratulate Christie Oliver for her decision to be a mother, and we hold her up as an example to be followed by all married women who are now in the military.

"A woman being brutally killed alongside men is a long-awaited feminist dream of equality." —Kate O'Beirne, Women Who Make the World Worse

• Time to Rethink Women in Combat. By Col. James W. Revels (ret), DefenseWatch, 10 March 2004. "Dressing women in battle dress uniforms does not make them soldiers. Calling them soldiers does not mean they possess the requisite skills required of warriors."
• An Equal Opportunity to Die. By George Neumayr, American Spectator, 2 July 2004. "Under the insane cultural conditioning of the left, Americans aren't supposed to blanch at the brutalizing of women soldiers in captivity. To do so is chauvinistic."
• Equality Equals Death. By George Neumayr, American Spectator, August 2004. "Military programs were instituted to teach male soldiers how to accept in stride females brutalized in captivity."
• Where Were Their Leaders? By James H. Webb, Jr., former Secretary of the Navy. A speech given at the Naval Institute Annual Conference in 1996.
• Mothers in Combat Boots. By Mackubin T. Owens at the Naval War College. A "must read" article!
• Will Bush Do The Right Thing On Women In Combat? By Mona Charen (21 July 2001). "One of the most demoralizing things to happen to the military on Bill Clinton's watch was the endemic dishonesty that became part of normal operating procedure. The dishonesty concerned women. Everyone in the military knew and knows that double standards prevail everywhere. Everyone knows that women are given special breaks. Yet no one is permitted to say so out loud for fear of having his career destroyed."
• Cultural Destruction in the Military. By Paul Craig Roberts (18 Nov 1998). "Comradeship, essential to a military culture, has been chased out by the double standards that have accompanied the imposition of quotas to achieve gender equality. Experienced pilots are required to qualify preferred trainees regardless of whether they meet established standards. Other experienced pilots are denied deserved promotions in order to achieve ... gender balance."
• Criminalizing Masculinity. By Paul Craig Roberts (17 Oct 2001). "What makes it possible for extreme irrationality to run roughshod over fact, not only in academic zoos but also in society's most disciplined institution, the military?" Also here.
• Defense: Recovering From a Tailspin. By Jack Kammer (REASON, January 1994). "The picture that emerges is one of people whose commitment to military preparedness is dubious but whose fixation on sexual politics is unquestionable."
• The Military Ethos and The Politics of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'. By Mackubin T. Owens, at the Naval War College (Providence Journal, 31 Dec 1999). This article is focused upon the problem of homosexuals in the military, but its application to the problem of women in the military is very clear. "In the military environment, fairness is crucial ... Favoritism and double standards are deadly to ... cohesion, morale, and discipline — elements of the military ethos that are absolutely critical to the success of a military organization." Also here.
• Gender Equality Has Weakened, Paralyzed the Military. By Jon Barrett III (Defense Watch, 6 February 2002). "After years of social experimentation in the U.S. military, fueled by societal trends towards 'gender' equality, a disturbing situation has emerged: The sexes are still unequal! How did this happen?"
• A Woman's Place Is Not In Combat. By J. David Galland (Defense Watch, 29 May 2002). The U.S. military is "hobbled by equal-opportunity regulations and programs for women that undercut both morale and combat effectiveness."
• The Feminization of the American Military. By Walter A. McDougall. "One need not be a caveman to argue that objections may be made against women in combat on some basis other than bias, for instance: common sense; the empirical evidence of the past twenty years; and the universal experience of the human race."
• Boot Camp or Summer Camp? Restoring Rigorous Standards to Basic Training. By James H. Anderson. "Today, threats to good order and discipline come not from the bitter aftermath of military defeat, but from those who would impose a politically correct agenda on the military."
• Boot Camp Goes Soft. By Mark Thompson (TIME magazine, Aug. 4, 1997). "Empathetic drill sergeants make basic training easier, but the recruits may not be ready for war."
• The Sara Lister Case: Unit Cohesion and feminization of the U.S. military. Collection of newspaper articles from 1997.
• Zarqawi Targets Female 'Soldiers'. By Rowan Scarborough, Washington Times, 1 July 2004. "Terrorists in the Abu Musab Zarqawi network in Iraq are specifically trying to kidnap an American female service member to further horrify the U.S. public."
• Women in Combat—A Time for Truth. By Albert Mohler, 14 May 2004. "Christian moral teaching holds that military service is for men—not women. The Bible presents a comprehensive pattern of differentiation between men and women. Men are to protect women, even as women bear a special responsibility as nurturers—as wives and mothers."
• Jessica Lynch's Story is about a Girl, not a Soldier. By Kathleen Parker, 19 November 2003. "The feminist argument that women can do anything men can do is so absurd that it seems unworthy of debate. That some women are as able as some men in some circumstances hardly constitutes a defense for girling down our military - and putting men at greater risk - so that the Jessica Lynches can become kindergarten teachers. Lynch is not so much 'a symbol of Bush administration propaganda,' as Frank Rich wrote in The New York Times, as she is a victim of the PC military career myth sold to young women through feminist propaganda."
• Jessica Lynch Reality Shatters Amazon Myths. Press release from the The Center for Military Readiness, 10 Nov. 2003.
• The Twists And Turns Of The Jessica Lynch Story. By David Huntwork, 18 Nov. 2003. "It is ridiculous that we have allowed 105-pound females to be captured, beaten, raped, and sodomized in the name of social experimentation and equal opportunity. It is bad enough that we have male soldiers blown apart and killed. Do we really want to have our wives and daughters returned to us in body bags or with the often devastating physical and mental scars of war? What does it say about our society that we send women to fight our wars for us?"
• Forum on Women in the Military, at Vision Forum Ministries. A collection of essays by Doug Phillips, R.C. Sproul, Jr., Phil Lancaster, Jennie Chancey, Rus Walton, Cort Kirkwood, Doug Phillips, and Jane Chastain, plus the text of resolutions passed by the Reformed Church in the United States and Messiah's Congregation, Brooklyn, New York. "Many women's rights advocates claim that Christians have long since abandoned the issue of women in the military. Sadly, far too many pastors and politicians were embarrassingly silent on this issue in the days leading up to the war against Iraq. In this special forum of key theologians and Christian thinkers, we throw down the gauntlet..."
• When Mamma Wears Combat Boots. By Mrs. M.L. Chancey. "...the Church at large has remained strangely silent. I believe this is because we have already sold our birthright and no longer have the foundations upon which to build an argument against placing women in combat."
• Are they coming to draft your daughters? By Doug Phillips at the Vision Forum. "Where are the pastors with the courage to preach on what God says about sending women into combat? (Answer: For too many, the girls of their congregations, if not their daughters, have joined the National Guard to the applause and fanfare of these same pastors.) Show me one leading Christian magazine which has been willing to call the problem of women in the military what the Bible specifically calls it—an abomination." Also here.
• Transvestitism, Egalitarianism, and Women in Combat. By Darrell Dow.
• Why Christian Women Should not Join the Military: A Plea from a Woman Veteran. By Mrs. Richard Downin (25 June 2003). "The military requires that you become like a man. You must do what the men do. This is not the place of any woman, but it is especially important that women who profess the name of Christ avoid all such situations."
• Babes at Arms. By Jed Babbin, The American Spectator, 29 April 2003. "It has taken less than a month for poor Jessica Lynch, the West Virginia gal captured by the Iraqis and rescued by the spec ops guys, to be captured again, this time by the feministas. That PFC Lynch has neither participated in — nor apparently even consented to her new role — is irrelevant to those who want to finish the job Billy and Hilly began: feminization of the American military, without regard for the effect on its ability to fight."
• Using Jessica Lynch. By Col. David H. Hackworth, WorldNetDaily, 26 August 2003. "There's nothing they won't stoop to spin. The Army needed a female hero to boost female recruiting and PR efforts, so they went and invented one."
• Military women slaughtered by Congress? By Jane Chastain, WorldNetDaily, 1 May 2003. "These women never should have been assigned to a war zone. They were there because of the timidity of the men who have served in the last eight United States Congresses, men who failed their responsibility to provide proper oversight of the military. These men were willing to sacrifice enlisted women like Piestewa rather than stand up to a small number of radical feminists among their colleagues ... When she was divorced two years ago, Piestewa joined the Army — not to be a warrior as some have suggested — but for security. Like a lot of young mothers of modest means, Piestewa looked forward to the training and educational opportunities the military would provide. It would give her the opportunity to provide a better life for her children."
• Did Feminist Bias Distort Washington Post Story on Jessica Lynch? Press release from the Center for Military Readiness, 24 June 2003. "The Washington Post remains responsible for one of the most unprofessional, propagandistic news stories in recent history ..."
• Fighting Wars with Women. By Mona Charen, 1 July 2003. "Have you heard of Army Sgt. Casaundra Grant? Probably not, because her story has been largely ignored by the press. She's a 25-year-old single mother who lost both of her legs during the Iraq War when she was accidentally pinned under a tank. Her 2-year-old son 'prayed for her legs' the first time he saw her stumps ..."
• The Navy's Poster Girls. By Richard Grenier, Washington Times, October 14, 1997. "America's military services now habitually grovel before congressional feminists."
• What Did You Do in the War, Mommy? By Matthew Rarey, Chronicles Magazine, 28 July 2003. "Although Private Lynch may be an especially apt emblem of the Iraqi war, it is painfully obvious that she is no hero. The 'heroics' for which she has been commended—namely, getting injured when her Humvee crashed during an ambush and then spending ten days as a POW under the care of Iraqi doctors until her mock 'rescue' from an unguarded hospital—are as spurious as those MIA WMD."
• G.I. Jane. By Christopher Check, Chronicles Magazine, Feb. 2000. "It is immoral for a nation to send its daughters, wives, sisters, and mothers to war. We have forgotten that it is immoral because we have been convinced that it is something other than an act of killing. We should remind ourselves before we are reminded."
• Fleischer: Rape of POWs 'not worth mentioning', by Les Kinsolving (WorldNet Daily, 25 March 2003)
• Female POW Is a Result of Clinton-era Pentagon Change, by Martha Kleder (Concerned Women for America, 26 March 2003).
• Women in Combat, by Robert H. Knight (Heritage Foundation, June 14, 1991). Also here.
• Women in Combat. A Resolution From the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.
• Women in Combat Units: It's Still a Bad Idea. By Anna Simons, in Parameters (the U.S. Army War College Quarterly), Summer 2001, pp. 89-100. Also here.
• How does one define honor for women in combat? By Maggie Gallagher (27 March 2003).
• Female prisoners of war: feminism's triump? By Rich Lowry (28 March 2003).
• The Case Against Women in Combat. By William P. Hoar, in New American, Vol. 9, No. 3 (February 8, 1993).
• Women in Combat. By Dr. Gerald L. Atkinson, CDR USN (Ret.). A collection of pungent essays on the issue of women in combat and the feminization of America's armed forces. See also Atkinson's articles about the Jessica Lynch affair in The Jessica Lynch Corner.
• Female Trouble: Women in war face worse risks than men. By Elaine Donnelly. National Review Online, 27 March 2003. "Advocates of women in combat often talk about 'sharing the risk' of war, but the truth is that women face unequal and greater risks. The vulnerabilities unique to women can and probably will be exploited by enemy captors in this and similar situations as the war on terrorism continues."
• Gender Warriors. By Douglas Wilson, in Credenda Agenda, Volume 10, Issue 3. "A nation defended by her women is a nation no longer worth defending. When women are placed in the front line of defense, every Christian man should walk away from the cause of that nation as being beneath contempt."
• Rescue effort for Bliss unit left 9 Marines dead, 8 missing. By Diana Valdez, El Paso Times, 31 March 2003. "U.S. Marines were sent to rescue members of the 507th Maintenance Company on March 23, the day the Fort Bliss unit was attacked in Iraq, but nine of the Marines who took part in the rescue effort were killed and eight others are missing."
• Women In Combat: Facts From A Closet. By Fred Reed. This and other articles on Reed's site describe a problem well-known to everyone in the military. Women simply can't do the work.
• Women In Combat: An Indispensible Army 21 Component Or A Simple Case Of Equal Opportunity? By Major Alex Tan Tuan Loy, in the quarterly journal of the Singapore Armed Forces, Pointer Vol. 27 No. 4 (Oct-Dec 2001). Based upon Brian Mitchell's Women in the Military (Regnery, 1998).
• Women Warriors: Can They Hack it in a Real War? By Ted Sampley, U.S. Veteran Dispatch, August/September 1996.
• Warfighting G. I. Jane and Her 'Scholarly' Supporters. By Robert A. Lynn. Campus Report, February 1999. A mordant review of Women Warriors by David E. Jones.
• The Sad Types Who Glorified Jessica's Darkest Hour. By Miranda Devine, The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 April 2003. "With so much at stake it is inevitable that Jessica Lynch will be immortalised as the invincible female warrior princess, her heroics exaggerated for feminist propaganda. The ramifications for all women are profound."
• Spin behind Jessica Lynch story? By Diana Lynne, World Net Daily, 6 May 2003. "Donnelly suspects 'Pentagon feminists,' who she says have actively pursued the advancement of women in the military beyond the dictates of common sense and at the cost of military effectiveness, are behind the unsubstantiated report of Lynch's valor and erroneous report of her injuries. She suspects the information given to the Post was part of an attempt to tip the long-simmering debate about women in combat in proponents' favor and possibly dampen the potential public outrage over any future reports of torture."
• Debunking the Israeli 'women in combat' myth. By Jon Dougherty. "it is a common misperception that Israel allows women in combat units. In fact, women have been barred from combat in Israel since 1950, when a review of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War showed how harmful their presence could be. The study revealed that men tried to protect and assist women rather than continue their attack. As a result, they not only put their own lives in greater danger, but also jeopardized the survival of the entire unit." Also here.
• Tailhooked: 'Bring Me Men' No More. By Gerald L. Rowles (30 March 2003). "The allegations launched against the Air Force Academy remain just that, allegations. Not one case has been tried, not one 'rapist' identified. But just as in the Tailhook disaster of twelve years ago, 'The brass (has) allowed themselves to be bullied into a capitulation to feminists on procedural and policy issues, at the expense of legal safeguards and sound military policy.'"
• Serving Up The Lives Of Soldiers, All For A Jessica Lynch Photo Op. By Lowell Phillips (8 April 2003). "To feminists, the demonstrated ability to die was reason enough to open combat support and direct combat roles to women. We could also roll a wheelchair bound grandmother into a war zone. She could easily be killed. But her death would be of little relevance in measuring fitness for combat duty."
• The Unwitting Victims of Feminist Ideology. By Phyllis Schlafly. "The simultaneous news coverage of our war in Iraq and the Air Force Academy rape scandal exposes again the double standards and hypocrisies of the feminists. They loudly complain about sexual harassment by American men, but if it's done by ruthless enemy men the feminists applaud progress toward their goal of a gender-neutral military."
• Women Should Not Serve in Military Combat. By Phyllis Schlafly (2003). "The push to repeal the laws that exempt women from military combat duty must be the strangest of all aberrations indulged in by the women’s liberation or feminist movement. The very idea of women serving in military combat is so unnatural that it almost sounds like a death wish for our species."
• Fake Feminist "Equality" in the Military. By Phyllis Schlafly. "The feminist demand for equality in the U.S. military is a sham based on quotas and gender norming (which means faking the test scores)."
• The Feminization of the U.S. Military. By Phyllis Schlafly, 11 August 1999. "It's no wonder that the services can't fill their recruitment goals for a feminized military. Dumbing down the physical and psychological requirements so that Clinton's political appointees and the medaled brass can continue to tell us that women and men are performing equally is destructive of morale for many reasons, not the least of which is that it is a lie."
• Who Pays for Feminist Policies? By Phyllis Schlafly, May 2003. "What is the matter with the men of this country — our political and military leaders — that they acquiesce in the policy of sending mothers of infants out to fight Saddam Hussein?"
• Equality For Women In Our Military. By Phyllis Schlafly, Eagle Forun, 19 May 2004. "Social experimentation in the military includes generous subsidies to induce single mothers to enter and remain in the military. That's why we have had the shameful incidents of single mothers of infants being killed or taken prisoner, a byproduct of the Iraqi war that the feminists describe as equal opportunity for women."
• Turning women into cannon fodder. By Robert Knight, WorldNet Daily, 11 April 2003.
• The next battle for Pfc. Jessica Lynch. By Jane Chastain, WorldNet Daily, 10 April 2003.
• Prisoners of political correctness. By Jane Chastain, WorldNet Daily, 3 April 2003.
• What Kind Of Nation Sends Women Into Combat? By R. Cort Kirkwood. "The ridiculous spectacle of rescued POW Pfc. Jessica Lynch, the feisty, ballyhooed warrior of the Army’s 507th Maintenance Company, which was butchered early on in Iraq, occasioned the usual war whoops. Yet no one asked a simple question: What in heaven's name was a hundred-pound girl, barely out of pigtails and high school, doing in a combat zone?"
• Women in the Military. Chapter 25 from Issues Tearing Our Nation's Fabric, edited by D. James Kennedy (Coral Ridge Ministries, 1997). "Is this progress for women? Is it what women want? And is combat, or even close ground support, the role God envisioned for those He created to nurture the next generation?"
• The Warrior Cult - Why Women Cannot be a Part. By Cpt. John F. Luddy, USMCR. Marine Corps Gazette, December, 1994. "Not long ago the Marines stopped calling for 'a few good men,' not because they, or for that matter the other Services, no longer need them, but because it is no longer politically correct to define the military service in masculine terms."
• U.S. babies in a war zone? By Jane Chastain, World Net Daily, 19 June 2003. "The military's policy on women service members is broken and must be fixed! Last week's disclosure that a Marine staff sergeant gave birth on the USS Boxer — an amphibious assault ship stationed in the Persian Gulf — should set off alarm bells .. the fact that her commanding officers looked the other way and allowed this woman to stay aboard ship should not come as a big surprise."
• Moms March to War. By R. Cort Kirkwood, 12 February 2003. "Who are the military morons who think this is a good idea? Then again, given that many mothers dump their kids in daycare to pursue careers anyway, perhaps this is the next logical step."
• Gender-Norming Update and Race and Sex in the Military. By Walter E. Williams. Two short articles from 1997 and 1998 describing the double standards being used to artificially increase the number of women in the military for political reasons.
• G.I. Janes: Trojan Horses in Battle Dress. By Darren Boch. "The military has long been viewed by career feminists craving another social trophy as the ultimate challenge. Their contempt is based on the belief that the military is the last of the great male bastions; an archaic, hierarchical boys club ripe for the plucking."
• Women in Combat: Exploring Some Issues. By Leroy E. Vogel, retired U.S. Navy chaplain and professor emeritus at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.

The Iraqi Prisoner Abuse Scandal

• Let's Pretend! By Jane Chastain, WorldNet Daily, 13 May 2004.
• S&M Soldiers: How Sexual Politics Has Undermined the U.S. Military. By Rev. Aris P. Metrakos (Orthodoxy Today, 30 May 2004). "Sexual integration of the military has yielded the expected results: promiscuity and a breakdown of discipline."
• Thelma and Louise in Iraq. By George Neumayr, The American Spectator, 5 May 2004. "The image of that female guard, smoking away as she joins gleefully in the disgraceful melee like one of the guys, is a cultural outgrowth of a feminist culture which encourages female barbarians. GI Janes are kicking around patriarchal Muslims in Iraq? This is Eleanor Smeal's vision come to life."
• So much for a kinder, gentler military. WorldNet Daily, 6 May 2004. "For decades feminists have speculated what war would be like if women were in charge. The pictures from Abu Ghraib of male Iraqi prisoners stripped naked, demeaned and sexually humiliated by female soldiers blows the lid off the theory of a kinder, gentler military."
• Abused Prisoners and Gender-Based Promotions. By Tom Marzullo, 4 May 2004. "In examining the failures of leadership in the case of this politically sensitive and volatile debacle, the question of whether our past and current promotion policies have systemically degraded our military capabilities, by promoting gender over competence, must be frankly asked — and fully answered."
• US Army Report on Iraqi Prisoner Abuse. Complete text of Article 15-6 Investigation of the 800th Military Police Brigade by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba. "During the course of this investigation I conducted a lengthy interview with [Brigadier General Janis] Karpinski that lasted over four hours, and is included verbatim in the investigation Annexes. BG Karpinski was extremely emotional during much of her testimony. What I found particularly disturbing in her testimony was her complete unwillingness to either understand or accept that many of the problems inherent in the 800th MP Brigade were caused or exacerbated by poor leadership and the refusal of her command to both establish and enforce basic standards and principles among its soldiers." Also here.
• The Feminist Road to Abu Ghraib. By Angela Fiori. "The Abu Ghraib scandal, more than any U.S. military scandal in recent memory, has exposed the utter depravity of allowing women to enter the armed services."
• Torture Scandal Fingerprints. By Donald Devine, Washington Times, 12 May 2004. "A military investigation in late summer 2003 of the 800th Military Police Brigade under Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski by Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller found a breakdown in discipline at the prison. When told that her troops were not even saluting, the general refused to order them to begin doing so. Central Command, concerned about the breakdown but apparently worried about disciplining one of the highest ranking female Army officers in Iraq, devised a compromise bureaucratic solution to hand control of the critical central interrogation prison at Abu Ghraib to the military intelligence unit questioning the prisoners."
• No Preservatives: Abu Ghraib is the Fruit our Culture Has Spent a Generation Preparing. By Joel Beltz, WORLD 19/20 (22 May 2004). "What boneheaded decision-making did it take to fall back on the politically correct policy of assigning any young woman ... the task of serving as a guard in a prison holding hundreds of Islamic men?"

Organizations Opposed to Women in Combat

• The Independent Women's Forum. See especially the Testimony of Anita K. Blair on Gender-Integrated and Gender-Segregated Training, a transcript of Mrs. Blair's testimony to the Subcommittee on Military Personnel of the House Armed Services Committee on 17 March 1999 (also here), and the article, Sink the Notion of Women on Submarines (also here).
• The Center for Military Readiness. This is an independent educational organization formed to promote "sound military personnel policies in the armed forces." One of the statements in its charter reads, "The armed forces should not be used for political purposes or social experiments that needlessly elevate risks, detract from readiness, or degrade American cultural values." See the site's Issues index for online articles relating to Women in Combat, Co-ed Basic Training, Social Policies (e.g., Gender quotas, Double standards, Sensitivity training). Many in-depth articles in addition to these are also available to subscribers.

Organizations Promoting Women in Combat

• The Minerva Center. "A Nonprofit Educational Foundation Supporting Study of Women in War and Women and the Military." Publisher of the feminist military journal, Minerva: Quarterly Report on Women and the Military.
• The Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services. This advisory body is, as one critic describes it, "a tax-funded feminist power base within the Department of Defense." Primarily composed of civilian women who have no experience of military life, it took political correctness to extremes during the Clinton years. Appointed members 'advise' the Secretary of Defense on issues involving women. In the Spring of 2002 most of the Clinton appointees were replaced, but there are indications that the new appointees intend to conduct feminist business as usual.
• The Alliance for National Defense. This outfit, which bills itself as "a voice for military women," is a lobbying organization led by some of the most doctrinaire advocates of Clinton-era social engineering in the military.

Books about Women in the Military

• Brian Mitchell, Women in the Military: Flirting With Disaster (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 1998). ISBN: 0895263769. Read a description of this book here.
• Carleton H. Freedman, Manhood Redux: Standing up to Feminism (New York: Samson Publishers, 1985). ISBN: 093598500X.
• Stephanie Gutmann, The Kinder, Gentler Military (New York: Scribner, 2000). ISBN: 0684852918.
• Martin van Creveld, Men, Women and War: Do Women Belong in the Front Line? (London: Cassell & Co., 2001). ISBN: 0304359599.
• Kingsley Browne, Co-ed Combat: The New Evidence That Women Shouldn't Fight the Nation's Wars (Sentinel, 2007). ISBN: 1595230432.

Online Bibliographies

DISCLAIMER: I was astonished to discover that the (female) research librarians who have compiled bibliographies on this subject for various branches of the armed forces could not resist using their assignments as an opportunity for advocating the use of women in combat and for disgruntled feminist polemics in general. The bibliographies listed here reflect that attitude and purpose in various ways, though they do notice some articles written by sensible military men who are opposed to women in combat. I have excerpted some titles and descriptions in the select bibliography which follows.

• Women in Combat: An Annotated Bibliography. Compiled by "a member" of the Combined Arms Research Library, Command & General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Although ostensibly "created for use as a resource document in the event the US Army is sued by a Plaintiff challenging the legality/constitutionality of the Army's policy excluding women from assignment to combat military occupational specialties," this generously annotated bibliography is in fact either compiled or revised for the purpose of aiding such plaintiffs.
• Women in the U.S. Army: An Annotated Bibliography. By Beverly C. Harris and Zita M. Simutis, US Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, 2002. Another "advocacy" bibliography.
• Bibliography of Women in the Armed Forces. Compiled by Diana Simpson, Bibliographer at the Air University Library at Maxwell AFB, March 1998. Very extensive, but without annotations. Consists largely of titles which indicate a feminist point of view.

Select Bibliography of Articles on Women in Combat

Marc I. Alderman, "Women In Direct Combat: What is the Price for Equality?" Monograph. US Army Command and General Staff College, School of Advanced Military Studies, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1992. Argues that allowing women in direct combat assignments in the US Army will adversely affect unit cohesion and, as a result, degrade combat effectiveness.

Arthur J. Corbett, "Women In Combat: The Case for Combat Exclusion." Rpt. Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island, 1993. Documents the differences that occur naturally in the sexes which justify exclusion of women from combat units. The differences between men and women are examined from biological, philosophical, and other scientific perspectives.

Martin Van Creveld, "Why Israel Doesn't Send Women Into Combat." Parameters 23.1 (Spring 1993): 5-9. Debunks the often-heard argument that Israel has successfully used women in combat. No Israeli woman has served in combat since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. In fact, Israeli women have never deliberately been exposed to the risks of combat, not even in the most desperate situations. Experimenting with women in combat is a luxury Israel simply cannot afford.

Gene A. Deegan, Major General, USMC. "Women in Combat: A View From the Top." Marine Corps Gazette 76.9 (September 1992): 42-44. Extracted from General Deegan's statement to the President's Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces on 25 June 1992, and from remarks made to his staff and subordinate commanders at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island. Argues that a mixed-gender rifle company would not have the same cohesiveness as an all-male rifle company, that the most important ingredient for success on the battlefield is the "heart and gut" of those soldiers or Marines who must attack and kill the enemy, and that women could not cope with the brutality, terror, fatigue, filth and Spartan conditions of infantrymen in war.

Mark L. Dembert, Captain, USN. "Women Shouldn't Serve on Submarines." U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 121/8/1,110 (August 1995): 72. The author (a Navy psychiatrist) presents psychological facts which strongly indicate that women should not serve on submarines.

John F. Luddy II, Captain, USMCR. "On Women In Combat." Marine Corps Gazette 78.12 (December 1994): 55-57. The promotion of diversity and sensitivity in the military have little place in a profession that places a premium on group cohesion and the need to destroy the enemy. Those who would send women into combat are simply ignorant of the realities of war.

Paul H. Maubert, Major, USMCR. "Women, the Military, and Political Correctness." Marine Corps Gazette 77.9 (September 1993): 39. Argues that impartiality in combat decision-making would be severely compromised by the presence of women in combat units.

Mackubin T. Owens, Colonel, USMCR. "Women in Combat - Equal Opportunity or Military Effectiveness." Marine Corps Gazette 76.11 (November 1992): 32- 35. Opposes women in combat on physical, psychological, and legal grounds, and points out that although Congress has lifted the ban on women flying combat aircraft, it has not mandated such assignments. Congress left the decision to implement any changes to the Department of Defense, but if the politicians were not willing to bear the full blame for the consequences of opening combat specialties to women, the military should not take the burden upon itself.

John W. Ripley, Colonel, USMC (Ret). "Women in Combat? A Marine Veteran Says, Simply, No." Marine Corps Gazette 76.11 (November 1992): 36-37. Excerpted and condensed from testimony given by the author on June 26, 1992, to the Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces. Argues that women do not belong in combat, including flying combat aircraft, because they lack the combination of physical strength, courage, and suppression of emotion that is required on an hourly basis in combat. Moreover, in the event of capture they will be subjected to rape and other brutal treatment at the hands of barbaric enemies.

Alexander F.C. Webster, Chaplain (Captain), "Paradigms of the Contemporary American Soldier and Women in the Military." Strategic Review 19.3 (Summer 1991): 22-30. Argues that feminism in the armed forces will have a negative effect on the military profession as a whole. The advancement of women in the military can only proceed under a "paradigm" of "military careerism" which downplays combat skills and readiness.

Government Documents

Gender Issues: Information on DOD's Assignment Policy and Direct Ground Combat Definition: report to the Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support. General Accounting Office. Washington DC, 1998. Reviews various issues pertaining to the treatment of men and women in the armed forces, focusing on the numbers and types of positions that are closed to women and the associated justifications for their exclusion.

Gender Issues: Trends in the occupational distribution of military women: report to the Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support. General Accounting Office. Washington DC, 1999. Information on the trends in the occupational distribution of military women, focusing on all occupations women were in during fiscal years 1990 and 1998.

The Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces, Report to the President, November 15, 1992, U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC. Presents a review of laws and policies and the commission's recommendations for the future assignment of women in the Armed Forces.

"O ye subverters of all decency, who use men, as if they were women, and lead out women to war, as if they were men! This is the work of the devil, to subvert and confound all things, to overleap the boundaries that have been appointed from the beginning, and remove those which God has set to nature. For God assigned to woman the care of the house only, to man the conduct of public affairs. But you reduce the head to the feet, and raise the feet to the head. You suffer women to bear arms, and are not ashamed." —John Chrysostom (AD 344-407), Homily on Titus.