It's not so much that, but as a Pashtun dishonoring a woman is pretty much the worst thing you can do. It's like child rape to us (which, to them, while frowned upon, not as big a deal).

The thing about women in the military is that once you get over it, the whole thing seems kind of silly. There will never be many women in the infantry, but those that are make damned good soldiers. I don't want to sound like a holier than thou Canadian, but one thing I've noticed about working with US troops is they have a huge hang-up about it.

My friend Anna, who before transferring to our current trade was an infanteer, went on an exercise in the states where she was one of two females, both Canadians obviously. They gave them separate tents, drove them out of the field every night to shower, their officers gave big speeches about leaving them alone, etc, and alot of them couldn't wrap their heads around the idea of a female combat soldier. Well, of course female soldiers aren't going to work if you treat them like that.

No female soldier I've worked with wants special treatment, those that do are shitpumps, but they're no different from any male shitpump I've ever worked with (and there seems to be more of those). Treat them like any other soldier, that's what they'll be. In the CF, in garrison female soldiers won't share a room with males, and there are separate bathroom facilities. That's all.

Nah, you don't. I do agree with you that it seems kind of strange to me to think that our military has been dragging its feet on this. The reason really does seem to be cultural more than empirical fact, and that's something I have no time for. But I am sure it will change...I'm old enough to remember when people doubted women belonged in theaters of war at all.

Also:

http://afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com/200...fghan-mission/

They can lift me out of a hot LZ any day... :D

I do know that the Columbians use female drug intrediction pilots with their blackhawks. The reason that these women keep their jobs is the fact that they are damn good at them flying lower and faster than what most of their male counterparts are willing. Now as far as ground combat goes...women are already seeing ground combat as Hadji is attacking out support units. As far as I am concerned if a woman can physically meet the same standards as a man then let the woman have the job.