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Liz Smith | 08/23/2009 11:00 pm

Liz Smith Says Women Are Physically and Mentally Prepared for Combat

By Liz Smith

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In response to: Do you think ground combat positions in the armed forces should be open to women?

I think women have already been metaphorically in combat since God created the first woman! Women have always struggled for existence and then for position and then the right to do anything they damned pleased or were physically and mentally prepared for. Of course, women should be admitted to all aspects of military service if they want to serve and let the chips fall where they may.

Read more about: Combat, Gender, Politics, Soldier, The New York Times, War, women in combat

6 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Liz Smith, let’s agree to disagree….agreeably. The first woman, I strongly believe, like homo sapiens to homo erectus, evolved. Just type in evolution in your browser and find out HOW adult humans came to be.

Yes, I agree that woman ARE indeed….phyiscally and mentally ready for combat. Women who are pilots, they get shot down and killed. Some are single, some a mothers. War the way it is now, so very different from WW1 and 11, were about multiple countries at war with each other. The current wars are about politics as much as they are about religious culture and oil.

By Carol Harrison on 08/24/2009 12:13 am

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War, whenever and wherever, is still war. Ms. Smith is correct, women, like men, who wish to and are capable of serving in combat should be able to do so. Old ideas about "biological" (evolutionarily derived) social roles for women are simplistic, passe, and no longer supported by anthropological data.

By Mel Saldana on 08/24/2009 4:13 am

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I fully agree with all of the above, Liz.

By Carole Del Monte on 08/24/2009 9:23 am

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I have to agree with Liz. If we all the want the same $$$ as men, we are still looking for complete independence. We have to take the bad with the good. We also need to accept the we will and should see men in traditional womens jobs.

By Kay Holmes on 08/24/2009 9:40 am