Frum: The Case Against Women in Combat (Iraq, soldiers, Brown)

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The Truth About Women in Combat - The Daily Beast

As usual, that notorious commie ******* David Frum comes up with something interesting, in this case a digest outline of a new book on the topic of women in combat: Kingsley Browne, Co-ed Combat: The New Evidence That Women Shouldn't Fight the Nation's Wars.

Among the explosive revelations (sorry) which Frum digs out of the pages of this book: bomb-throwing, or to be precise, throwing the standard-issue US bomb, the M67 antipersonnel fragmentation grenade, which has a blast radius of 15 meters and weighs just under a pound.

Male recruits are required to demonstrate the ability to throw this bomb 35 meters; female recruits only 25 meters, which obviously cuts the margin of safety for the gurl-grenadier slightly. But as Browne points out, in practice many women in uniform can't actually throw a one-pound grenade that distance, illustrating the point with the story of Sgt Leigh Ann Hester and squad leader Timothy Nein who came under attack somewhere in Iraq:

Hester gave her grenade to Nein because he "had the better arm." She did, however, throw one about fifteen yards, which, depending upon cover, may be a little close for comfort …. Even if two men had been involved, of course, one might have given a grenade to a comrade with a better arm, but the soldier with the better arm in a mixed-sex pair will almost always be the man. If both members of the pair are women, their ability to throw a grenade where it is needed will be substantially limited.

Both soldiers survived their fight and came away with Silver Stars. Working his way through Browne's argument, Frum provides a number of other instances, amounting to a case against women in combat roles which should probably be taken seriously.

But of course, no one really trusts a commie-******* like Frum, so it probably won't be. Now, maybe if Michael Moore made a movie....