Women in the Military

I am in the active the Army right now as an Artilleryman. However, I have been able to do a wide range of jobs since I joined in 2001. I have worked in personnel administration, various military intellegence roles, as well as being on the frontlines during combat in Iraq. I have nothing against women and firmly believe they have an invaluable place in the military today. I also believe that one day women will serve on the frontlines next to men. The only thing about the whole scenario that concerns me is the fact that women should be held to the same standard as the men they are serving with. Throughout my vast experience in the military the saying "you are only as strong as your weakest link," holds very true. If a female can handle the same physical and mental stress a male combatant can, then more power to them. It's just all going to take time.

Damned if you do; Damned if you don't...

The war in Afghanistan is finally getting what it needs, more troops. There is only one problem with this that I can see. It’s the fact that the vast majority of them are ours. I had come to think that terrorism is affecting the world as a whole. When the war on terrorism started eight years ago the majority of the free world was behind us. It seems as the war went on country after country started to back out due to political pressures even though it was clearly stated in the beginning that this wasn’t going to be a short war. So the burden on America grew greater and greater as we took care of the slack that everyone else has left. The problem with this is that as more and more countries denounce terrorism in one hand, they then turn around and in the other condemn America for being world wide bullies. I would like to see what will happen when we finally withdrawal combat forces from Afghanistan. Terrorism isn’t going to go away and without western infidels in their back yard to fight, they are going to travel abroad. When that happens I want to see what the world as a majority will say about the U.S. Why didn’t we stay and finish the job, why did we lose the war in Afghanistan, why did we let terrorism spread across the globe unchecked. It will definitely be interesting and it looks like that will be starting within the next few years. So let’s see what plays out, are we going to be world saviors or the western Satan.