Women in Combat: 'Wrong Policy For America'
The U.S. military has opened all combat jobs to women. Defense Secretary Ash Carter's decision ignores the Marine Corps' request to exclude women from certain front-line combat jobs.
The change means that women can now serve in the most demanding and difficult jobs, including in special operation forces, such as the Army Delta units and Navy SEALs.
The change in policy has started a national dialogue about selective service and the draft, the family unit and traditional values, qualifications and the role of feminism in society.
CBN News Producers and Reporters weighed in on the topic in a special round table discussion. Click play to watch.
But Family Research Council's Vice President, Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin (U.S. Army-Ret.), says that this is the wrong policy for America and it can negatively affect combat units.
"Some units, like infantry, Special Forces, SEALs and others, are not suitable for combining men and women. It has nothing to do with the courage or even capabilities of women. It is all about two things: the burden on small unit leaders, and the lack of privacy in these units," he explained.
"Leaders of these units must be focused like a laser on keeping their soldiers alive and defeating the enemy. It is unreasonable to encumber them with the additional burden of worrying about how they provide privacy for the few women under their command during stressful and very dangerous operations. It is not the same as being a combat pilot who returns to an operating base or an aircraft carrier after the fight, where separate facilities are available."
There have been privacy problems with men and women serving in close quarters. In June, a male sailor pleaded guilty to illegally videotaping female officers in a submarine's shower area. The women in the videos were among the first to serve on subs. The male sailor was sentenced to 10 months in the Navy brig and received a bad conduct discharge.
Boykin said Secretary Carter's order "ignores fundamental biological differences between the sexes, and the natural implications of those differences."
