Women in War

I'm clearly not politically correct, because my male heart grieves that our nation has put women in war situations. It breaks divine order. I believe we're inviting God's judgment.

It's interesting how little specific attention has been paid to the fact that women soldiers have been killed or seriously wounded in Iraq. Consider this New York Times report (from a Vision Forum newsletter):

"A homemade missile launcher propped up in an apartment window let forth a volley, and an American soldier lay moaning and bleeding, grasping for her life. The scene repeats itself so often in the Iraqi capital these days that it hardly goes remarked upon, particularly when the soldier, like nearly 4,700 other soldiers since combat operations began, is only wounded.... The wounded soldier writhed in her own blood and shrieked, her voice climbing and ebbing suddenly as if she had run out of breath.... Later in the day, a spokesman for the First Cavalry Division said the soldier had suffered shrapnel wounds to her leg and that she had lost her right arm from the forearm down. He did not give her name."

It's demonstrably bad military policy to have both genders working in active units in combat theatres, even if only for guard duty. Ten percent of the ground troops in Iraq are women. Pregnant soldiers have had to be evacuated from under-fire situations, putting many soldiers at additional risk. Soldiers are conceiving babies while serving in war theatre.

Kathleen Parker writes about the political correctness that has drawn us into this era.

What should we do?

There is no political solution to this mess. A series of decisions were made to bring us to this point, and there is simply not the political will in this country to undo those decisions and stay the course.

There is a spiritual solution.

We serve the God who can do more than we can ask or imagine -- I can imagine a military without women. How God could accomplish this I do not know, but I know He can.

On a family level, let us purpose as fathers and husbands to see that our wives and daughters and granddaughters do not enter the military.