More on soldierettes

From George Neumayr of The American Spectator comes the latest in distaff force projection.

Over the objections of George Bush's military, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Cal.) passed an amendment to a defense authorization bill on Wednesday that would prevent the Army from placing female soldiers in "direct ground combat" units. Bush's military has been forming the beginnings of a coed front line, placing women in these forward support units, which is a violation of the law. Unable in private to persuade Pentagon officials to observe their own stated prohibition (which they cannot change without congressional approval), Hunter had to resort to legislation to codify it, reports the Washington Times.

The San Diego congressman deserves kudos for resisting the military's accelerating political correctness. Since George Bush hasn't shown any real interest in this problem (he passively said in January that "as far as I'm concerned," "no women in combat," which makes it sound as if the matter is out of his hands even though he is the commander-in-chief of the military), and Donald Rumsfeld doesn't appear to care either (his spokesman told the Washington Times that women in forward support companies "is not an issue he has delved into a lot"), Hunter's legislation is critical.

One would think that George Bush might feel alarm, or even a little embarrassment, at the sight of his Army officials this week joining forces with Democratic feminists like Loretta Sanchez (D-Cal.) to oppose Hunter's legislation. His Army's condemnation of it sounded like something Hillary Clinton could have crafted. "The proposed amendment will cause confusion in the ranks and will send the wrong signal to the brave young men and women fighting the global war on terrorism," wrote General Richard A. Cody, the Army vice chief of staff, in "a letter of protest for use by Rep. Ike Skelton, Missouri Democrat," reports the Washington Times.

One of Bush's improbable legacies may end up being a military more feminized than Bill Clinton's. As of this spring, 17,000 female soldiers had been dispatched to Iraq and Afghanistan, many of them serving in de facto combat roles, thanks to his military's fudging of the line between combat and noncombat positions. Could the ban on women in combat be abolished altogether under a Republican president? Yes, and if it does, it will be one more irony of American history showing that momentous cultural transformations often take place under "conservative" presidents who lull their constituents into a sense of complacency.

It is hard to imagine conservatives sitting on their hands if Bill Clinton's military had begun embedding women in combat brigade units. Or if Clinton, as Bush's military did recently, began handing out "combat" awards to women in technically noncombat roles. Bush's Pentagon is giving female soldiers in jobs like truck driving "Combat Action Badges," a sign that it has fully accepted, and celebrates, the concept of women in combat.