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- Louis BrandeisTension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.
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Whatever Works 
Well, how’s that for a trifecta of, erm, Dinosaurs?
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How ’bout Neanderthals Sam? They had brains, albeit little wee ones.
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That sounds about right!
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…and the nuttiness just keeps going, and going, and…
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And on and on and on Don. . .
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And how about that Megyn Kelly bashing the dominant social order right-wingers? Not sure what her audience think about that!!!
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She did? OMG, will Megyn be cast out?
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Quite entertaining http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/megyn-kelly-rips-erick-erickson-im-not-emo 🙂
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Ha!!! Don’t mess with Megyn!
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As you must know, Moe, the more I have blogged the more I have found myself to be of the progressive political persuasion. But on the subject of sexual assault in the military I confess to contrary thoughts. First, let me stipulate categorically that women are just as intellectually capable and as mentally tough as men. The problem I see is that the sexes should not be mixed in the military environment, i.e., putting young men and women together in a stressful, dangerous and competitive environment which requires long absences from home and family. It seems like an obvious formula for trouble and the explosion of assault cases is prime evidence for me. So I have a suggestion. So instead of mixing, why not create single-sex units? Companies or squadrons that are all-women, ships the same. The mere fact that women are not as physically strong as men should not be a problem, given modern automation, and women also might have an edge on stamina and endurance. And let the games begin. 🙂
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I know you have experience that most of us here lack. So I respect your opinion. But how is it different in other countries that have done it? Israel, Australia, China, and European countries? They seem to be succeeding.
Games indeed – if we have single gender battleships, I think it’s best we not arm them!
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You won’t have to go very far afield, Moe, to discover that my suggestion of same-sex military units is, to say the least, outre’, but even though I offered it half tongue-in-cheek, I do think it ought to be considered. The sudden admission of women to combat ranks of the U.S. military is clearly (to me) a cultural shock which is very likely harming force efficiency and national security. Military culture goes back hundreds of years and is clearly unprepared to deal with this situation.
Your question about other countries is a darned good one, and one to which I didn’t have an answer. I googled it and came up with one article from the U.K.’s Guardian. I suspect many are having the same problems and they are being swept under the rugs. Here’s an excerpt:
The notion of some women-manned (how’s that for an oxymoron?) ships competing with the men in the U.S.N. almost makes me giddy. It wouldn’t have been practical in past decades because there weren’t enough women, but I sense that has changed. It would be interesting as all get out and I’m thinking it very well might improve morale and espirit de corps. It would only need to be applied to units which deploy for extended periods.
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The article notes that “Over the past two and a half years, there have been 53 reported rapes and 86 reported sexual assaults in the army, the navy and the air force” (at least).
We need to compare that to our 26,000!!!! reported cases last year alone (according to the Pentagon). I think our problem may have less to do with integrating military than it has to do with our overall culture. And as to that, I’ve no idea about solutions.
Got the figure here:
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Good points, Moe, but don’t discount that this just might be only the tip of the iceberg. I know military culture and I can assure you it is very easy to quash complainers and whiners. Sometimes it takes the form of an NCO giving someone a serious “talking to” – very effective, especially when one’s career hangs on a superior’s whim.
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Jim, do you think it would be correct or helpful to move any follow up outside of the ‘chain of command’????
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First let me say that if I had my druthers, Moe, women would never have been admitted to combat roles in the first place, not because they lack anything that men have (with the single exception of physical strength) but because mixing the two sexes during long family-separation deployments under very stressful conditions is a formula for the abuse we are now seeing.
Combat, perhaps needless to say, is terribly serious business and all militaries, not just ours, has been evolving strategies, rules and customs to deal with that for centuries. Now we are having a sexual paradigm shift and given the political momentum that it has, I see no turning back. That isn’t seen by anyone as possible in the political world, which is why, I submit, nobody is even suggesting it. So here we are, we must deal with it.
Historically, and most of all within the U.S. Navy, the chain of command has been sacrosanct. A warship at sea is probably the most complex mobile man/machine system yet devised, and because of that complexity it is vulnerable to accident or misdirection. Accordingly, it was determined very long ago that there can be only one boss. If confidence in that boss is lost, the ship’s efficiency and reliability invariably suffer. So if we allow appeal of any sexual abuse cases to automatically bypass the CO, I see nothing to prevent that administrative maneuver from being abused by stressed-out personnel for all manner of reasons unrelated to actual sexual assaults. Unwanted sexual touching, for example, must usually be a case of one sailor’s word against another’s. I think it would be chaos in the Navy, and probably almost as much so in the other services.
On the other hand, the old system is obviously not coping with the paradigm shift either, with CO’s themselves and even flag officers losing their careers, so something must change. This was my line of thinking when I proposed same-sex units. I can’t think of anything else.
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Moe and Jim,
One of the real dilemmas of modern civilization is the simple fact that all “men” are not created equal. In fact half of them are women!!!
There are vastly unequal atributes between men and women and between men and men, women and women , as well. Some are simply smarter than others, can run faster than others, etc.
Put 50 men and 50 women together on a single ship as “equals” and watch out. Someone is going to get “screwed” and it won’t be many of the men!!!
That seems to me like a reality that cannot be ignored, how to deal effectively with differences between individuals, in a whole variety of areas in society.
Anson
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Hey Anson, always nice to see you stop by. I think we need to make a distinction between soldiers/sailors ‘having sex’ and actual assault. People of equal rank have sex all the time, even in the military, and that’s definitely an issue for the chain of command. sometimes it’s okay and sometimes it isn’t. Married members of military live together on army bases etc, so having sex in general is okay,, unless the commander forbids it for his command or if it’s between ranks (which I think is forbidden). That stuff is properly dealt with locally within the service.
Assault on the other hand is a criminal matter. I have no doubt that there is some abuse by women/men who falsely claim rape or abuse – that’s true in civilian life too. But most of it is real, and all of it is criminal. And that stuff I think, needs to be dealt with at least outside the chain of command.
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By the way, Anson, I didn’t actually address what you were saying! Was just adding to my own thinking on the matter.
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