Mama Gotta Gun

I'm reading an article from the Sunday Washington Post magazine about women in the combat arms of the military. Its a pretty liberal article (in keeping with the paper's general slant), so it continually makes the point that this might not be a good idea. At times, I have to stop and take a breath, because it gets a little thick. At one point, a woman is quoted as saying that if you've risked your life giving birth, you shouldn't have to risk it protecting that life; at another, another says that anything can drive a truck in the military, but 'a child needs his mother'. Getting a little deep.

They make good points, though, noting that the attitudes toward women in combat stems from feelings about what the appropriate roles are for men and for women, and that the attitude toward whether its reasonable has done a one-eighty in the last twenty years.

My feeling is, I don't want my daughter killed. I wouldn't want my son, if I had one, killed either. But if thats what they chose to do -- or were drafted to do (and I hope that if we do get a draft again, its unisex) -- then I'd support them in it. Be scared as hell if they were near combat, but I'd support them.