No one should be doing the fighting for the United States of Everything. We need a Department of Peace so that we can start learning something from all the wars we've been in.
Hoa Binh

The suggestion that it's not okay to put women in combat situations with the tacit assertion that it is okay to put men in combat situations is completely sexist-- against men.

When a war is just, everyone is honored to serve. When a war is unjust, no one should undertake the indignity of service. The mechanization and automation of military conflict means that physical strength and size are no longer significant factors in military service.

Sending anyone off on an illegal war or fool's errand, whether they're male or female, is nothing but abuse.

It's really pathetic that we equate enhanced status and power with masculinity, and masculinity with being aggressive and warlike. So women who want to achieve equality, ultimately have to embrace these "masculine" values and behaviors in order to prove their equality and worth. This is why it's so hard to achieve fundamental change: the oppressed and the less powerful have to adopt the attitudes and behaviors of the oppressor in order to achieve "equality", and it goes on and on and on . . . . . .

jp: thank you! Years back I argued with MS magazine that wasting pages on showing that women could play basketball or prove themselves in the same GAMES WITH BALLS was a waste of the power that's long been undervalued in women: intuition. The entire range of right brain sentience has been shut down, demonized, devalued for centuries. When women emulate men, they supposedly prove themselves, establish identities and win all these awards and titles; but there are TWO sides to our brains, TWO genders, TWO strands of DNA, TWO equinoxes and it's about time mankind began to explore the Divine feminine side of this life-equation... since following Mars, god of war, to macho displays of conflict, and the WASTE of this nation's treasure on war, killing and destroying whole natural ecosystems ensures only one thing: mass extinction. Gee, you've come a long way baby. It's like only ONE oar has been allowed in the water navigating our shared vessel... no wonder it circles, HIS-STORY repeats. It's time to engage the other oar, gentlemen, and women who think arriving means measuring yourselves on a phallic/linear yardstick. We are built with circles inside, so that we are made to feel everything and realize there are no lines, no divisions, EVERYthing is connected! That forms the basis for empathy and a world based on caring for others, not destroying anything unlike one's familiar protoype.

Interesting that the author supports his point with examples of women killed in action. A Marine was once asked if he would recommend Marine Corps service to others and he famously replied: "No. The Marines are a little too proud of their casualty list." Sgt. Kindlon, you seem to be a little too proud of that as well. "Our beloved country"? This country is beloved? Who could love the country that has disgraced every ideal it ever had? We trash the UN charter, we violate the Geneva conventions, the Nuremburg Rule, the US constitution, engage in torture - the list goes on. So women are "competent" in military matters? And somehow that is good? I am thoroughly ashamed of our beloved country, a country that apparently was just a myth.

It is not "brave" to go to war, it is barbaric, weak, and dishonorable. This article is full of disgustingly sexist language towards the male sex. There have always been violent women, always women who abuse children, animals, and their male partners; always women who supported war and all that leads to it but sat back and insulted members of the opposite sex who had more consciousness than to go out on a killing spree. There is nothing inherently divine, gentle, or nonviolent about the feminine, and until people acknowledge that, actual sexism (i.e. not the fake kind where only women are victims) isn't going to end.

My parents, now in their late 80s, are still incapable of understanding why I am ashamed of going into the Army in 1965. They don't get it when I say that, if I had had the courage, what I would have done is stand tall and say, "Hell, yes; I'm a coward and proud to be one; I ain't going." Well, I was lucky. I spent 3 years in the Army during the Vietnam war, all stateside. Order were cut sending me over 3 times, but a fortuitous combination of luck and playing the system kept me out of harms way (though no one in the military is ever completely out of harms way).

Because I was against the war from the beginning, I used to seek out those who had just returned, take them out drinking, and listen to their stories. Believe me, a true picture of the Vietnam war has never been written or filmed. They all fall short. Some of the stories I heard were so nighmarishly sick and sickenly hilarious that they surpassed even my ability to grok them -- and that takes some doing.

For anyone who wants to hear the case case for heroic cowardice made convincingly, I recommend the movie "The Americanization of Emily" with James Garner and Julie Andrews (yes, Mary Poppins). It has a strong Paddy Cheyevsky (however the hell that's spelled) script, one of his fiercest, and makes the case for saying it loud I'm scared and proud better than anyone has before or since. It's on DVD now, after years of being unavailable. I highly recommend it.

As a former woman Marine and disabled veteran, I appreciate Mr. Kindlon's defense of women who choose to serve in the military and the value of their contribution. As he states, the idea of war being the arena of men is both archaic and historically inaccurate. Throughout human history (which is, unfortunately, replete with conflict and violence), women have played an essential role; from fighting at the doorstep of their home to protect loved ones and essential food stores from marauders, to providing supplies and life-saving medical care on battlefields (remember Molly Pitcher, who, in the heat of battle, suddenly found herself going from rendering first aide to loading and firing a cannon when the soldier manning it fell?). Ideological, political and religious conflict have always been a part of the human story. This is not a brag, just a simple statement of fact.

While I agree with Ron's anger and disgust with the current administration's ideology and obvious distain for wartime conventions designed to safeguard not only our own soldiers, but our humanity, I am somewhat disturbed by his disparagement of Mr. Kindlon's expression of love for his country. I, too, am ashamed of what this administration has done in my name. But there is much to love about this country and her people. Has she ever lived up to her lofty ideals? In many ways, no. Is there hypocrisy, corruption and malfaiscance in American government, now and throughout our history? Absolutely. And yet, there has rarely been a system of government wherein citizens have been more empowered to both expose these wrongs and bring about change for the better...through speech, through the pen, through the power of the vote; even, in the most dire of times, the power of revolution.

I also agree somewhat with Iolellity. Hatred, prejudice and violence are not merely the privue of men. There are many men of peace (Gandhi, Martin Luther King) who have brought about tremendous changes without ever raising their hand to an enemy. Their example demonstrates that words, unshakable ideals and peaceful, determined action can be as powerful as bullets and bombs, and that death and destruction are not the only means of effecting change.

A lot of people enjoy training in the military because that is their calling.
People have a right to do what they want if that is their choice.
I could never understand why my uncle wanted to go to Nam after the Korean war. He enjoyed it much the same as people enjoy work of some sort.
He was totally lost and amiss in the civilized world, hated small talk conversations and a nice home never impressed him.
People should do what they enjoy.

A woman can't win in the media in this country. An article talks about how women are not good enough to fight (why anyone would want to fight for a corporate empire is beyond me, but that's why they're brainwashed) -- and the MEN cry sexism. Are you clowns kidding me? Get real. Young women are being raped by their male counterparts over there -- and you see this as sexist towards men? There is no such thing as sexist towards men in western culture. Get a clue.

Responsible journalism MUST take issue with this writer and ultra-reverence for military personnel at all levels, not just his opportunistic gender-babble about the Iran farce which had nothing to do with gender.
Britain was eaten alive at the Ristorante Propaganda, get over it.

I don't want to hear or see another smug bozo in uniform saying, war is what we are, it's what we do. We go wherever we're sent and do harm to whoever we're told is the enemy.
Ooops, some civilians. Too bad. Kids? oh dear. Oh well.
Yet when they get themselves whacked instead, it's such a nasty surprise, against the rules somehow.

Have these people no brains at all? Don't they ever glance at history books?

There's a faint line between their thinking or lack of it and the murderous mercenary scum (oops.... "contractors"..) working for Blackwater around the world.
Contractors aren't in Iraq and Afghanistan doing sidewalks and air-conditioning, you know.
They're killing people with impunity and being well-paid for it by their pocket-politicians.
I suspect it's an arrangement they both enjoy.

The Greeks, who looked to the heavens and recognized the wisdom of DIVERSE gods and goddesses attributed powers and personalities to these forces which shape human destiny, "As above, so below" style. Interesting that the great cosmic clockmaker placed earth right between Mars, legendary red planet & warrior world, and Venus, legendary love planet and world of peace. Mankind is intended to learn to balance the energies of these two hypothetical states... Mars is tantamount to the human ego and self interest. Its energy generates around sex (to perpetuate the species) and self-preservation. It can be aggressive, taking on the fight of flight syndrome. It is very similar to Freud's depiction of the human ego. Mars represents Aries, the time of spring when life forms (at least in the Northern hemisphere) spring to life all over again. The energy is immense and instinctive. In Hindu mysticism, Mars is the first chakra and very primitive. Most mystics see 7 chakras and these can be aligned with different components of human personality, including higher states that our masters have reached, but few ordinary persons attain. There are only 2 equinoxes, the one for spring/Aries/Mars and its DIVINE counterpart, that of autumn/Libra/Venus. These two principles are set to naturally counterbalance one another, and where Mars relates to aggression, Venus relates to negotiation, peace initiatives and diplomacy. SHE rules Libra, the sign of law. The very concept of "law of war" is an oxymoron, with war being THE supreme crime. Every human being is a composite of COSMIC DNA, so that we do find aggression in women and capacity for diplomacy and art in men. Besides, as mystics before me, I believe in reincarnation and each of us is more clearly an interior congress of competing voices (the sanest among us have a relative amount of harmony among these traits or personality tugs) than one singular BEING. If I say to you, "How are you?" You will answer in the singular. "I am fine." (Or otherwise) But if that question was addressed to your nervous system or circulatory system or gastrointestinal system, etc each might answer differently. Even on a biological scale, our outer singular garment belies the complexity of separate systems operating within. Jesus chose 12 disciples, Abraham founded 12 tribes and the zodiac, which predates patriarchal religion also recognizes 12 original archetypal personae. WHEN all come together and each voice is heard, we do not have to live with the consequences of a world currently under MARS rules. My best argument for this is the obscene amount of wasted resources dedicated and devoted to carnage. The military is too much with us, and it compromises everyone's humanity. We think of Mars as a fiery planet, red with passion and hate... and the earth becomes HOTTER in part as metaphor, too many people have lost their sense of VENUS, beauty is leaving our world (at least in the US where every where I go, I see trees taken down for "development," and often beautiful areas stolen to build yet another church when nature/Venus/great MOTHER EARTH is the ultimate "church") and the result: battle scars, cancers, live mine weapons, depleted uranium the "gift" that keeps on giving, agent orange and children without limbs, and wives without husbands and we argue for this? we pretend safety comes from this? The Gods are crying... if people don't get IT soon, the slate may be washed clean again, another great flood, another fallen Atlantis... if technology is made to serve hatred and religions teach divisiveness rather than UNITY among tribes (and here, for all the violence thrown at "heretics" over the centuries, we support the CIRCLE model which has no sides, transcends the ism divisions that have cost mankind throughout history) than woe unto U.S.