The American Spectator

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p> SKIRTING THE ISSUE br> Re: Jed Babbin's Babes at Arms : /p>

Jed Babbin, as always, is right. The nation that tries to hide behind its women's skirts will not last long. Nor does it deserve to. An Army and Marine Corps full of M-16 toting Hoo-ah! babes raises some provocative questions about what exactly the hell we are fighting for, nicht? Aside from the obvious fact that women warriors are an offense to morality, honor, and good sense, there are the practical questions. I'd hope not even General Patricia Schroeder would argue against the obvious, to wit: if it takes six men soldiers to pull a stuck Jeep out of the mud, it would take 12 women soldiers to do the same thing.

p>Then there's the distraction factor, absolutely essential for the survival of the species, but a bit of a bother in combat or combat training. I don't have to wonder whether if in the combat information center of the destroyer I served on in the sixties -- had there been a lovely 19-year-old radarperson sitting knee to knee with me in the dark instead a grungy guy with "USN" tattooed on one bicep and a likeness of Miss Subic Bay on the other -- would I have had any attention left over for the blips on the screen? The question answers itself. br> -- Larry Thornberry br> Tampa, FL /p>

Please, Mr. Babbin, exercise some measure of creative restraint when writing about such hot button issues. I'm certain your tongue-in-cheek mention of "the First Amazon Division" has by now sent the television reality show writers scrambling for their keyboards. My guess is you've spawned another cultural roadside attraction along Rome's headlong rush to the big bonfire. The image of strong women in combat is no less ridiculous and less appealing now than when I last viewed it at the drive-in movie in 1959.

And, as you so aptly noted, the bedrock principle of combat squad cohesion is the issue upon which every other rests. You wrote, "There is no way of knowing whether mixed gender teams can function as well as all-male teams in close combat environment." I may not know from experience but I can venture an educated guess regarding the lack of squad cohesion caused by young women in combat dying while wearing their entrails as necklaces. I'll venture a further educated guess that this generation's young men and those of future generations are unprepared and unwilling to deal with those combat realities.

p>Regardless of social "rights" or "wrongs," women in combat will unintentionally and apart from their physical limitations put themselves and other soldiers at greater risk.

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