Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta Lifts Military Ban on Women in Combat

Lt. Colleen Farrell, U.S. Marine, with the Female Engagement Team, 1st Battalion 8th Marines, Regimental Combat Team II stands in formation during a ceremony for the 235th birthday of the Marines at Camp Delaram in Helmand province, Afghanistan on Nov. 10, 2010. (Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior defense officials say Pentagon chief Leon Panetta is removing the military’s ban on women serving in combat, opening hundreds of thousands of front-line positions and potentially elite commando jobs after more than a decade at war.
The groundbreaking move recommended by the Joint Chiefs of Staff overturns a 1994 rule prohibiting women from being assigned to smaller ground combat units. Panetta’s decision gives the military services until January 2016 to seek special exceptions if they believe any positions must remain closed to women.
A senior military official says the services will develop plans for allowing women to seek the combat positions. Some jobs may open as soon as this year. Assessments for others, such as special operations forces, including Navy SEALS and the Army’s Delta Force, may take longer.
The official said the military chiefs must report back to Panetta with their initial implementation plans by May 15. The announcement on Panetta’s decision is not expected until Thursday, so the official spoke on condition of anonymity.
Panetta’s move expands the Pentagon’s action nearly a year ago to open about 14,500 combat positions to women, nearly all of them in the Army. This decision could open more than 230,000 jobs, many in Army and Marine infantry units, to women.
In recent years the necessities of war propelled women into jobs as medics, military police and intelligence officers that were sometimes attached – but not formally assigned – to units on the front lines.
Women comprise 14 percent of the 1.4 million active military personnel.
This post has been updated.
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Comments (154)
ranepowel
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:52pmwoohoo!! grats women!!
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NavET-SS
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 4:17pmFor all you women that enjoyed a special place in the hearts and minds of men, I’m sorry. For the rest of you, I guess you have brought on yourselves what you deserve. There used to be a consideration for women that we would take the hard, ugly, horrible jobs on ourselves, and save women from the horrors of war. But then, many so called women don’t want us to consider them a thing of beauty, better than ourselves, and worthy of our adoration. Again, you get what you deserve.
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deskjockey
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 4:36pmI predict that the end of this will be less women in the military. Women, like doctors, who enlist in order to pay for their medical school will now not enlist for fear that this will lead to an insistence on combat. I mean what is their end game? Women’s choice?? I doubt it. This will drive women out of the military.
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neverending
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 4:43pm@NAVET-SS – couldn’t agree with you more!!
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SquidVetOhio
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 4:58pmDisgraceful. We are now going to send our mothers,wives, and daughters into combat? How long until they start to make 18 girls enroll in the draft? God help us.
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soybomb315_II
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 5:26pm@Ranepowell
Here is the information you were looking for earlier today….
http://thenewamerican.com/usnews/crime/item/13263-fbi-celebrates-foiling-its-own-terror-plot-again
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=41403
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Independent4233
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 6:16pmOld banana nose hasn’t served even five minutes in the military and has ALWAYS lived in a protected, privileged caccoon sheltered by the real world.
With his acceptance of homosexuals….now this….he’s done more to reduce military effectiveness than all the flakes, oddballs and kooks in the Clinton administration even came close to doing.
But it’s all for naught. The more they invoke their social agendas and the more they continue with huge debt to GDP ratios…… printing money based on nothing…… the sooner this financially shaky multicultural pigsty is going to crash and burn.
I pointed out ten years ago that mass rapes would occur the closer women worked with men in the military, and that’s exactly what is occurring right now. It will get worse.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/the-womens-blog-with-jane-martinson/2012/oct/29/rape-military-shocking-truth
“……. a female soldier in combat zones is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire, over 20% of female veterans have been sexually assaulted while serving in the US army…”
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barber2
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 6:24pmOdd. So gays and women now get top face combat. That should be interesting.
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rangerskippy
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 7:37pmShow me one military leader or politician who can stand up with out lying, and tell the American people that this decision will increase lethality, drop the current rise in sexual assaults and rapes, and how it will also be cost effective to the American People?
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rangerskippy
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 7:38pmSo the outgoing secretary of defense declared today that the ban on women serving in combat has been lifted.
This same day, an air force general declared that from 2011 to 2012, they have seen a 30% increases in sexual assaults and rapes.
This year, the Army fired more brigade commanders, than at any time in US Army History. The majority of them were relieved for morality issues.
Go figure, we drop DADT, and instead of calling it a moral issues, the leaders called it a leadership and respect issue. Sorry dudes, my moral compass does not change direction because of the results of an election. My ethics, morality, and knowledge of right and wrong are tied to the Bible, not to the opinions of Madonna, Obama, or Oprah. What was wrong twenty years ago, is wrong now.
The modern day military is so beat down and castrated from the laws of political correctness, not a one of them can step up to the mic, and unleash truth.
When we placed women much further to the front that ever before, and mixed them in with the combat units, we saw this rise in sexual assaults never seen before, but none of these educated so called “leaders” can seem to figure out why.
Morality has been traded for popularity. Officers are now more worried about the thoughts of Jon Stewart, than the words of John Adams. They have traded the character from the likes of George Washington to George Marshall for the lack of character of Lady Ga Ga, Bill Clinton, and Rosie O’Donnell.
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9111315
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 8:48amGood point SQUIDVETOHIO.
I don’t think we should fear Selective Service Registration for woman, we should demand it.
If both are to be equal, it must be such all the way. Vote NO on Pro Choice for Selective Service.
(Maybe they will wake up)
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Centralsville
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:52pmWomen get their cake and eat it too. They won’t ever be drafted for combat, it will always be voluntary. They love to fall back on the weaker sex routine when it is to their benefit. Constant commercials about women victims of domestic violence at the hands of evil men. You know a man has to be arrested at every call now to the police for hitting on a weak woman. Yet they are man enough to go to combat, the most masculine thing we do as humans. Of course, they won’t be expected to carry their weight, they never are, always different standards. It doesn’t matter anyway. Modern feminism has neutered the American male. They don’t dare stand up to women. Men have been pushed by the courts completely out of the American family. We are a nation of feminists, neutered men and homosexuals. We will never win another war anyway, we are too weak in the minds. Women don’t get strong in a society, men just get weak by comparison. Our enemies from male cultures will eventually destroy us, I guarantee it.
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Mil-Dot
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 4:16pmCentral,
I work at a large defense contractor. The women around here have had so much smoke blown up their asses that they walk around just waiting for some poor sap to get out of line. They walk right down the middle of the aisles just daring some guy to try and alter their path. The guys jump out of the way like fricking Kangaroos. I am dead serious. You are right, the male has been beaten down like dogs.
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Fubared
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 4:51pmVal gal has a different outlook. Odd Panetta-head would do dis.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/jarrett-if-theres-one-thing-we-should-all-agree-its-protecting-women-violence_697566.html
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dumbgrunt33
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 6:41pmCall me a dumb grunt but uh, they should have to sign up for Selective Service and then see the outcry of “Don’t kill our women” rise up….. What is wrong with you America?
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Supah_Patriot
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:45pmY’all hate America, it sounds like. Maybe you should move to Texas!
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Fubared
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:47pmWaiting for the rainbow coalition of Cair to start recruiting. Plans and such. Why so angry Supah Dupah?
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Cavallo
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:52pmPop quizz, fascist: How many women joined and then completed the special forces training when it was opened up to them?
Oh, you fail!
2 joined and both dropped out, one after less than 2 weeks.
Unless the quality of women has changed since the early 90s, when I went to Airborne School in a Co-Ed training company, this will be a hilarious fail.
But please, go ahead. I’ve quit expecting the military to defend my rights a long time ago.
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RANGER1965
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:59pmHe’s angry because he’s a liberal and conservatives run rings around him in the intelligence department. His teachers promised him this wouldn’t happen.
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Fubared
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 4:04pmAside from asinine supah dupah, the 160th just started accepting in various roles; as they do get shot at often, we will see how bright that was.
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TIMEBOMB
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 4:05pmAh yes supah pops up to prove it’s idiocy,look I know you want me in power for life but as your magnificent gay Marxist ruler I command you to stop making stupid comments. All my supporters are brain dead but you’re really making my base look bad,have you no shame? I’ve given O phones by the millions and millions of my pawns are on welfare,I was forced to marry my beard to make it look like I was normal and I’ve sacrificed so much, so just stop for the love of me,stop.
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Supah_Patriot
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 4:05pmI’m not angry. I just enjoy wasting your time. I garner hella responses from you conspiracy theorists!
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thegreatcarnac
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 4:44pmCavallo…..I see your side of things but what makes you think they will make these women do the same physical tests as males???Remember “affirmative action”???? It doesn’t matter if a minority is qualified or not……the government just wants him in the position. Same with these women in combat. They don’t care if women can do the same…just put them in.
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Fubared
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 7:27pmAsk ’65 how many will do a 32 mile forced road march with a 110 lb ruck and combat load of 400 rounds and weapon… (0) Ditto on jumping; it ain’t tactical because they whistle.
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Centralsville
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:45pmDon’t worry, the men will carry their gear and take care of them in combat. I know they changed the physical requirements for the women training for combat. That’s okay, tell the enemy to go easy because we have women over here.
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HumbleMan
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 11:42amRight. It should be obvious the purpose of this is to weaken our military. My liberal acquaintances (I don’t count them as friends anymore) all laugh when I say this administration is intentionally destroying our country. “Why would they do that?” they say.
I originally thought I had read in the goals for the CPUSA recorded in Jan 1963 congressional record that a goal was “feminization” of the culture and military”, but apparently this was added afterward. Nonetheless it’s clearly intended to contribute to the downfall of our society.
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barber2
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:45pmI think I know why Panetta asked the Pope to pray for him recently.
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Techcon
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:44pmAfter Basic Training, I went through the U.S. Army Airborne School (as an 11 Bravo w/ Ranger contract): the women ran (were put) in front to keep the pace slow so as not to be left behind.
This move will WEAKEN our military. Isn’t that the point?
And for you idiot LIBERALS (sorry for being redundant), the Joint Chiefs is about as POLITICAL as you can get—hello, can you spell COLIN POWELL?
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Witness1974
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 4:20pmA friend of mine really wanted to be a fireman. He volunteered for a long time but the fire department kept hiring women with less experience. He related to me that one time he was partnered with a woman to work as a team to fight a fire. He ended up dragging the hose up the hill by himself because she was doubled over puking after a few minutes in the heat. I’m all for letting women do work for which they are suited. If they can pull their own weight and keep up with their co-workers, then great; Equal pay for equal work. But getting a job because of your gender–no!
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Cavallo
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 4:20pmDon’t forget those “girl” pullups they got to get away with. When I was at Ft Benning, they also got extra bathroom breaks, but that wasn’t policy, just the blackhats being soft on them.
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tweetybird
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:44pmThere are some jobs a woman shouldn’t do. This is one of them.
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Mil-Dot
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:56pmI agree. Many women are beautiful, smart and capable for most things. But not combat . Sorry ladies, but that is a joke. The only reason they are doing this is because many progs thinks woman are being discriminated against. Combat vets advance in rank faster than support troops. This is the real reason. And, they are going to get a lot of guys killed.
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JeffersonBible
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:43pmIn terms of the physical ability to carry out combat activities, I wonder who, on average, is more fit for the front line: women or internet commenters?
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crazyrightwingmom
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:42pmOkay, I’m just thinking of a few words:
PMS, menstruation, deserting children, urinating during battle, sex, flirting, favoritism……
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GhostOfJefferson
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:42pmGreat thinking. The general reason women are excluded from combat in most societies isn’t that they’re “inferior” or “weak”, it’s that if you lose a large percentage of women in battle you lose the ability for the society to perpetuate after the war. You only need one man to impregnate ten women, but one woman can only get pregnant by one man. The math says, if you wipe out a bulk of your breeding aged women (which is the general age of folks in the military) in actions that involve a draft of all able bodies, such as, say, WWI (where entire cities of men across the West vanished in battle), then you have nobody reproducing to numbers sufficient to keep your society viable even if you do win the war.
Some places you have to have women doing this (Israel comes to mind) due to being sheerly outnumbered. We don’t have that constraint, so there’s no reason for this at all here.
Bad move. But hey, Progressives are all about wiping out Western civilization.
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progressiveslayer
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:53pmOur only problem is we’re over populated with progressives,I propose a war with all progressives in America vs. the Chinese. Since progressives have an aversion to firearms we’ll arm them with soap bubble guns not unlike the one Beck displayed,problem solved. What say you?
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Cavallo
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:56pmNot to mention the statistics of pregnancy in the units. Take a gander sometime at the rates of pregnancy on aircraft carriers.
Co-Ed units typically have lower morale. But, hey.. they’ll be less capable to turn themselves on the American people when their combat readiness is decimated.
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Sgt_Rock
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 4:16pm@cavallo – saw your post above, had to respond…it gets worse brother, Women in Ranger School, soon.
http://weaponsman.com/?p=2814
How much you want to bet that 70% attrition rate goes bye-bye as well?
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flyarmy2009
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:40pmSo I guess there’s going to be a female standard that’s different from the male standard in the special ops community. That ought to go over very nicely. We’re living in the fricken twilight zone man.
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00100111
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:39pmThis is getting ridiculous. Our military is not a social experiment.
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Cavallo
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 4:11pmIt is now! Welcome to the new Amerika!
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soybomb315_II
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:38pmat least they no longer have to worry about our soldiers mixing with civilian prostitutes at FOBs
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pll
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:37pmOpening up combat positions to women is reverse discrimination to men.
Reasons: Women cannot pack as much gear.
Women have more hygiene problems which takes them out of service.
Women get pregnant which takes them out of service for six weeks; men don’t get six
weeks maternity leave.
I could probably think of more reasons why this is a stupid idea. I am a female veteran; I should know.
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BlueStarMom
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:57pmMy son is a Marine Infantryman. He just did a year in Afghanistan. He is 6’2″ 220lbs, works out 3 hours a day. He broke his ankle climbing off an MRAP. He said the vehicles are so big he had to jump for the bottom rung of the ladder to climb on. Their armor weighs 60 lbs. Their packs weigh 80 lbs, not including water, weapon, and ammo. They have to be able to carry a wounded soldier off the field. The strongest woman could not do what the weakest Marine can do in the field. Not to mention the social fracturing of the unit that contains a woman. This is just another progressive step on the road to destroying our military.
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Sgt_Rock
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 5:02pmBluestarmom… you tell that Devil Dog of yours that we appreciate and are grateful for his service, and thank YOU for raising a great American! That goes out to all the Blue Star Moms out there and most especially to the Gold Star Moms and Dads…we will never be able to pay that debt. God Bless You All.
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TASS50
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 9:34pmI agree, I am a female veteran and just retired from the Army. I don’t think the military will get alot of female volunteers to go to combat. There was a poll taken about it. Most of the young females want marriage and children and that physical stress on their bodies will tear down. A Marine Cpt went thru that and now she cannot have children.
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barber2
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:33pmHere come the problems and the lawsuits. The lawyers will be thrilled. Just another obstruction in the military success of America. Just another ” change” brought to you by the Chicago Radical so-called Democrats. Alisnky and Ayers must be doing high fives and cartwheels. Unfortunately, not in the same place. ( Can you imagine what the military brass must be thinking of this so-called Commander-in-chief with old Bite Me at his side ? )
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Joss
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:26pmNow it’s time to drop the maximum and minimum age requirements as well as the physical disability bars to enlistment. Let’s go all the way.
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Mil-Dot
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:34pmRight on Joss,
This kind of crap is going to get a lot of our guys killed. That is what they want to do anyway. So they can’t fight here when we will need them. They want as many of our guys wasted as possible. All part of the plan. Women in combat is a joke. Just another quoto system with watered down physical requirements.
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Chuck7884
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:25pmDoes this mean Women have to register for the draft?
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progressiveslayer
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:41pmCurrently we don’t have a draft but when the government starts it up again parents of females will know who to thank when they do.This regime makes feces smell good.
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Sgt_Rock
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 5:15pmWell… we still have mandatory selective service registration for males over the age of 18. It’s time the ladies had to fill out the card as well. If you’re a male and you fail to do it, you can’t get gov’t tuition loans etc. The girls shouldn’t skate on that by any means. If we are going to do this, we should go with the Israeli model, at least as far as signing up is concerned. Although, a draft might leave us with a better more enlightened class of citizen in the long run.
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B-Neil
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 12:23pmWell this all came about becouse John Pincild-ck(Pennta) was watch TV. He seen a 98lb woman kick the crap out of two or three 300lb men so he told his wife; hay hunny, we can put thes women in combat units. I agree with Pencild-ck, those hard core women need to be sent off to combat leaving the real woman back here for me to date. God Bless America.
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Fubared
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:25pmEncinom
Get on down to the recruiter before the LGBLT crowd takes all the slots.
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Supah_Patriot
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:25pmUh oh, conservatives will not like this one bit. They dislike women.
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toiletclogga
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:28pmWomen are not combatants! Women are combative! Feminization of the American military will destroy out capabilities. I wouldn’t expect a self-loathing military hater like yourself to understand that. There is a limit to what woman are capable of!
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Cavallo
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:29pm@Supah, You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Although, you do know that Rush Limbaugh suggested they allow women in combat years and years ago and has ever since. All female combat units.
You do know that Israel attempted to have co-ed combat units. They found it to be an unmitigated disaster. Yes, they had real combat mission tests.
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00100111
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:36pmSo you’ve gone back to derping?
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Mil-Dot
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:38pmCav,
I agree with Rush. If they want to be in combat, then let them fight in all-female units. That way they will just get their own asses killed instead of expecting the guys to do all the real dirty work while they get equal credit. You want to fight, then fight and stand on your own.
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encinom
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:38pmIsrael doesn’t seem to have a problem with women on the front line.
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Fubared
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:50pmEncidiot
The Israelis have to, they are surrounded (look at a map). That and most of the wankers they face are a lot like whack job OWS members, like yourself. 2nd graders could do that for the most part.
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RANGER1965
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:57pmYour comments reveal your ignorance, and inability to think critically. You should takes some classes or somthing.
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Supah_Patriot
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 4:08pmRanger, I should “takes some classes or somthing,” you say, eh? Really? I’m the one who should take classes? What’s “somthing?” And, I think you used the incorrect form of the word “take” there.
Look who’s talking!
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RANGER1965
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 4:16pmI didn’t mean to upset you. I think if you were to take some classes, and read some books on critical thinking; it would do you some good.
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toiletclogga
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 4:20pmDon’t worry about Ranger’s grammar! You don’t want to know his “something” and you can’t handle his “something.” Well, maybe anally, but not cranally!
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Supah_Patriot
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 4:32pmRanger with the incorrect usage of a semicolon. Man, you’re really blowing this whole education argument of yours.
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Fubared
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 4:56pmSupah Dupah is the hero of Fallujah 2. Entertain us with that story again WangDupah.
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ranepowel
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 5:19pmHere comes people spouting off lies and nonsense again.
Unisex combat unit from Israel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracal_Battalion
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Crushedandadone
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 1:33pmWhat about the “liberals” hatred of men?
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soybomb315_II
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:24pmi guess the females will be sleeping in the same quarters as the men? Are they really going to have separate sleeping areas for the 1 or 2 females in a unit?
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Chuck7884
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:40pmThey do in the Navy and have there own bathrooms and showers!.
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soybomb315_II
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:56pmHey – why have their own bathrooms and showers? Arent they equal now?
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dylan
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:24pmThis is a BIG mistake! I think most know why Panetta is still a traitor for his part in Bebghazi.
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blanco5
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:23pmThis isn’t going to turn out well.
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progressiveslayer
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:22pmIt’s weird how every member of this Marxist regime F’s up everything they touch.
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barber2
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:35pmPOR: I think it is because the Radical Left’s goal is to ” change” ( wink, wink ) capitalism . Translation: destroy the American economic system and military.
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progressiveslayer
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:43pmThat is their goal Barber2 and they’re doing it.
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barber2
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 6:26pmPOR: I agree with. AND they are getting away with this destruction.
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civilwarcometh
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:22pmOf course he did…..http://weaselzippers.us/2013/01/23/gop-rep-paul-broun-obama-upholds-the-soviet-constitution-not-this-one/
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justangry
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:22pmScrew political correctness, this is STUPID!
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Welcome Black Carter
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 9:33pmNow what to do with this man’s army…
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Welcome Black Carter
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 9:42pmNo offence ladies, but this is all about the weakening of the military in The US.
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