Would Women make Good Football Players?

Suppose you have a winning football team.  You win almost every game.  Your players dominate other teams.  There is no need to mess with success, right?  However, there are critics who say you don't have enough diversity among your players.  The critics want to replace some of your male players with female players.  Will that make the team better?  Maybe if you had a female kicker who was particularly talented.  But in just about any other position, a female player will be smaller, slower, and weaker.  Nothing sexist there, just biology speaking.  There is a reason that men and women do not directly compete in sports; the women would get trounced.

Now let's take that to combat.  Sure, a woman in an F-16 or an attack helicopter is mostly on even footing with a male counterpart.  We have had women in these positions.  However, trekking across the mountains of Afghanistan with 60 to 75 pounds of gear is an entirely different ball game.  Hefting a wounded comrade over your shoulder and taking him out of harm's way is something that is far easier for a man than woman.  Again, no intention to be sexist, merely stating physical facts.

 

There is talk that the standards will be unchanged so that it will take a truly exceptional woman to meet the requirements for frontline combat duty.  Well, the powers that be say that now but when women constitute a tiny fraction of such combatants, there will be calls for allowing more women by lowering the requirements.  This is what is happening with No Child Left Behind; the standard is being lowered so that a greater portion of students meet the standard.

 

Let us assume that the standard is not lowered and a number of women qualify and are deployed in forward infantry combat.  The team is on a Long Range Recon Patrol and camp in the wilds.  Might there be fraternizing?  I'd put money on it.  Again, this is going to complicate things while not providing any benefit.

 

Of course, it is a done deal.  The policy was announced with no warning, at least none that I read in the weeks leading up to this change.  This is social engineering that has been adopted not to improve the fighting capabilities of the military but to satisfy the constant calls for 'fairness' and 'equality.'  It is misguided.  Our football team may still win, but we'll have more injuries and closer margins.