Maybe this is a tad obvious, but women who VOLUNTEER to serve in the ALL-VOLUNTEER force are volunteering to serve in the military service of choice. Most understand this. Many who have not served get it, too.
But not everyone is trackin’. Recently, a column in the Washington Times newspaper portrayed female servicemembers as victims of the big, bad military conspiracy.
In “Leaving Home and Hearth for Battle: When Women must Fight, America’s Families Lose,” Suzanne Fields wrote, “… some of them are victims of military bureaucrats and high-ranking policymakers who are blind to the values of our culture and deaf to the ancient call of history.”
Huh?
Yeah, we thought Phyllis Schafly, too. Fields used a recent report of a soldier facing legal action because she could not deploy. Her family care plan had fallen through. Actually, her mother brought the child back cross-country and reneged on her promise. While details of this soldier and her unit’s circumstances have been well-publicized, it seems there may have been more going on here with Spec Alexis Hutchinson, a single mother and Army cook, than reports conveyed. (But we digress.)
The Army treated Hutchinson who declined to deploy to Afghanistan with her unit like it would any other soldier. Fields (and it seems most news outlets) found this an outrage, because Hutchinson happens to have a child. (It seems no consideration was given to her fellow soldiers who would have to suck up her workload.) Hutchinson’s story is the basis of Field’s argument that “Motherhood Trumps Military Commitments Every Time.”
Fields seems to argue that women with children be removed from the armed forces. The ancient call of history seems to be that of motherhood. In fact, back in the olden days, parents and grandparents could not fathom a mother serving in any capacity other than mother. (We really can’t fathom she believes this. This post-World War II ideal is not accurate.)
The author drags in the deaths of women (not just mothers) in theater and blames a wink-wink, nudge-nudge agreement between Congress and the Army. Similarly she blames the swell of female servicemembers (Read: Lambs led to slaughter.) on this deal with lawmakers. (There has been no significant increase in percentages of females serving in the past decade.)
Eat More Chicken … Discharge all Moms. You will be doing America a favor.