I was driving on the freeway today when I passed a woman with a gun, stopping a random car and giving that random car a ticket. She had no idea who could have been inside that car, driver could have tried to kill her, there could have been real combat. As a cop, she knew that when she applied for the job and so did the city that hired her. It was generally understood that women who become police officers may be involved in violence and may have to defend themselves and others. It is clearly believed and seen that they can do their job just as well as men. Furthermore, having women on the force did not seem to reduce the effectiveness of the police and she seemed quiet effective at being respected by the apprehended car and calm about giving the ticket to the driver.
Women facing combat are not unique to police, some serve in the army around the world. One such army is the defense forces of Israel. Women have been serving in Israeli Defense Forces for many years, on the front lines, with weapons, facing combat as ground troops and fighter pilots. Somehow, Israel saw that having women in combat did not reduce the combat effectiveness of the overall troops.
So it is interesting that American Armed Services had to conduct an entire study to see if women could be combat soldiers and still seem to have some kind of trepidation about having them serve in those roles. It is strange that they fear that women would affect the soldiers and combat readiness. It is interesting because unless women in the armed forces are somehow different or face a different danger than police, if our armed forces recruits are somehow worse or training is inferior that would warrant that question. Are American women somehow different from Israeli women or are our armed forces somehow different from the Israeli defense forces and police? Of course not, that question is absurd and the only thing in question is our male dominated society that has to give approval to women to do that which they, as citizens and human beings have the right to decide for themselves. It is absurd that we have to study to find out if they are fit to fight. What we should be studying is if the generals are fit to lead if they question the basic concept of freedom, free will and ability when clearly women are able, effective and capable.
That whole concept of having to study something that we clearly do and that others are doing with success is absurd, wasteful and another case of America being “funny”.
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not-rushin 