Tea at Trianon: Women Soldiers

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, October 15, 2010

Women Soldiers

American women are dying in Afghanistan. According to author Genevieve Kineke:

Men in their units have died along side of them on patrol, proving that they've crossed the line on a regular basis. It's a clever strategy that is meant to prove that women can handle combat stress, respond accordingly and push policy makers back home to lift the restrictions. The larger fallout, many worry, is that if the draft is ever imposed in the future, it will include both men and women.

I've written about this numerous time, each time dealing with data that trickles in beneath the radar, painting a conflicting picture about current policies. Kingsley Browne and Stephanie Gutmann have written compellingly about the problem, including the fraternisation and pregnancy rates that are causing grave problems in the field.

Patrick said...: This isn't about whether women are capable of handling combat/survival stress because the successful colonization of America and the pioneering of the Wild West prove that they are.

No. Women should not be in the Armed Forces at all, even now of their supposed own free will. This isn't about fraternization, the draft, pregnancy rates, physical strength, or any of the misnomers used in the modern conservative arguments used against "Women in Combat."

This isn't even because we need women to have more babies (there's a world-wide birth dearth in case you've missed the recent articles), but because we need men to be engaged in their societies. The traditional responsibilities of the male sex provide a great deal of energy to society itself.

If society is ever to become truly functional, it needs great men in it. If we are to ever to produce great men again, the men of this country need a goal to aspire to. Constantly undercutting them in their natural role as protectors and providers has only created an ever deepening welfare state. If men don't protect and provide, then someone has to.

Instead, today men are vilified as all being rapists and wife-beaters. The state must take action. In order to equalize the sexes to help prevent abuse, we must now accept the deaths of women. We must now accept violence against women who serve in the military. It's just so wrong-headed!; October 15, 2010 at 3:49:00 PM EDT
Julygirl said...: War is unnatural for anyone! Having our young people living the rest of their lives missing legs, having metal plates in their heads and suffering from Post Traumatic Stress is obscene. But, seeing women trudging around in combat boots packing paraphernalia of war is even more unnatural...it is bizarre AND obscene, not to mention the impact of having women soldiers in a Muslim country.; October 15, 2010 at 5:57:00 PM EDT