Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta wants to allow women to join front line combat units. What do you think?

You guys can ripe on me all you want but I see good and bad. One if they can do there job they should be allowed to prove it. 2) Women and men's mind work slightly different. We can see different answers to the same questions. 3) We can be some tricky sneaky people, just saying... might be handy...4)Have you ever seen a women with PMS... hell we might end the war quickly...lol
Bad and of course there are those also. 1) sex ( not that is is bad) but in combat worrying about that female might hinder some people more so then worring about joe. 2) sexually relationships... might be good for the guy getting some but bad for everyone elses morale... 4) unconsenting relationships... Not only on GI part but on enemys part also...just saying...5) PMS, might not be good for anyones morale . And that is just a few.

I see absolutely no problem with it.

 and it's certainly not something I concern myself with.  More fighting women might just mean more votes against gun control

Peace

With everything else going wrong ain't gon'a waster the neurons thinking about it.

Part of me says Ooh-Rah! The other part of me says...whoa, Don't know that I'd want to be the point-man, just cause, I may or may not be expendable. And like some of the other's here, I'm thinkin' that's gonna be a terrible distraction for some. You ever see a nineteen year old kid, who wasn't a horndog??? He might be so busy, lookin' at that azz, that he gets himself and his company all shot up. Maybe they should consider an all woman platoon. They would look out for each other, much the way the men do, and unless their full on lesbian, that won't be enough to distract them from their duties. That being said, the enemy would LOVE to get their hands on any or all women,
in combat. That's a whole different kind of torture, right there...

Ride Free
Tweek

Well, I don't have any issues with it, as long as there's a sound thought process behind the implementation.  It's not exactly a new concept; women have been serving in combat roles in the Israeli army for years, and it's worked out fairly well for them. And to a certain extent, it's "fait accompli" anyway- women have been exposed to combat with a fair amount of frequency in Iraq and Afghanistan.  So it could be argued that this is simply recognition of existing circumstances anyway.

I have been doing this military thing for 27+ years and still going strong. I can not remember a time when I did not have a female soldier in my section. I can say the female soldiers did just as well and in some case better than their male counter parts. I also did 2 oversea tours in combat zone with female soldiers and hell, one was my gunner. So, allowing female take part in combat roles, hell they have been for years now.

I agree with all of you. It can be a distraction. They have been in combat for yrs. They are both good and bad at things for various reasons. Nobody wants to be point man. It does cause conflict and comeraderi as well. They could go either way 1 all female companies or 2 mixed companies. Both present different challenges and benefits. I think that it is just political to announce this as being new.

Firmly believe is a woman wants the job, and can do the job as well as any male counterpart, she should have the opportunity to do so, and with the same pay and benefits.. Front line combat however does bring up some questions, and concerns... disregarding the the mental aspects (fairer sex, relationships, ect... attitudes can and do change).. but can she, and does she have the strength to pull that wounded comrade to cover? Can she carry that 50 cal. along with all her other gear and keep up with the rest of the platoon? If captured??? rape??? And hygiene concerns?? Can she sit out in the middle of some desert for maybe days during that special time without the opportunity or possibility of changing her "feminine protection"??
Women on board ship, aircraft, assault vehicles, tanks, ect, are fine, but ground troops in the front lines.. brings up too many concerns....

Good post ! My thoughts fall somewhere in the middle,yes combat roles,no to certain sorts of assignments that they may be deemed unsuitable for,and same goes for men,they will have to accept that women are better suited to certain combat roles than they are LMAO crap this brave new world stuff drives me crazy at times,me being brought up to think women in battle as being downright silly !!! Sorry ladys,yet the thought of you taking a bullet for me raises my blood temperature !!!

Several of you have mentioned women with PMS but what about a whole platoon of women "scorn", look out Al Queada!!! that's one tough unit.

^^^ mean might be a better discription...

No matter what is said and posted here, the outrage will come when, a picture of a mutilated female is posted. Male soldiers have been mutilated in actions, in the past...we have yet to see this happen to females. Thats exactly why psy-ops is called that. I know that women are equal to men. I have worked with dozens of them. But men still get defensive around them, thats natural...and that causes problems. Mr and Mrs Hometown don't want to see their daughters plastered all over the world press. It's bad enough when its a son.