美国有线新闻 CNN 2013-02-01

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Tonight, how politicians who oppose women serving in combat, reconcile their position, with the facts about women serving in combat, you can hear for yourself and you can decide for yourself.

Today Defense¹ Secretary Leon Panetta announced the military will let women serve in frontline combat unit, including infantry², armour³, artillery⁴, even potentially special forces.

"Our nation was built on the premise⁵ of the citizen soldier, and our democracy, I believed it is the responsibility of every citizen to protect the nation."

Well, the policy came together after more than a year's effort by Secretary Panetta and Joint⁶ Chiefs Chairman Martin Demspey. With the heads of each service signing off, the branches will have until May to submit plans for intergrating women. They are also be able to make the case that certain specialties⁷ should not be opened to women's speical forces, for instance, now earlier reaction, was mixed. Ryan Smith, a retired⁸ marine⁹ infantry man, said the men and women side by side in combat would be distracting, awkward and harmful to unit cohesion¹⁰.

"Combat is a very hard game, I think people are being awfully¹¹ cavalier about this restriction¹² being lifted. You know, combat is a life or death game, and if we get this wrong, the loser dies."

Republican Senate James Inhole sounded alarm bells as well, warning that the Congress might have to put brakes on the idea. And social conservative groups, such as the Family Research Council also weighed in against the idea. The FRC asking on its home page tonight, how much National Security is our president willing to forego to promote this kind of progressive familism.

"Keep them honest", though, not every conservatives feels this way, House Armed Services Chairman Buck¹³ McKeon for one said he welcomed today's announcement. In addition, people on both sides of the aisle¹⁴ acknowledge the idea of women in Combat is totally normal if you speak German or Hebrew, Dutch, French, Finnish, Polish. The arm forces in all those countries, plus Canada, Australia, Romania, Norway and Sweden allow women in combat units. In addition, there is an inescapable fact in the modern warfare¹⁵, the frontline can be blurry¹⁶, meaning troops in nominally¹⁷ non-combat roles can wind up in combat.

"In fact, in 2003, when I got to the Bagdad, as the commander of the 1st Armored Division, my first foray out of the forward operating base, I hopped¹⁸ into the up-armored Humvee, and I asked the driver, you know who he was, where he was from? I slapped the turret¹⁹ gunner on the leg, and I said, who're you? She leaned down and said, "I'm Amanda." I said,"OK".

And there was Tammy, Lieutenant²⁰ Colonel Tammy Duckworth lost her legs from RPG fire piloting a Black Hawk²¹ chopper in Iraq. Now Congresswoman Ducthworth looks at today's decision and sees it a part of the long tradition of reform and resistance.

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