Brian 48nav (#115),
Thank you for taking up the cudgels on my behalf, but you do not need to worry: in my 95 years I've developed a pretty tough hide. You are right in that this Thread has become a bit waspish. Yet vituperation can never replace reasoned argument. It is sad if it appears here, whereas on my "home turf" ("Pilot's Brevet"): "No harsh word is to be spoken".
As to the matter in hand, I suppose it is a generational thing. To my Neandertal mind, there is a case against having women in the fighting services at all (unless, as was in 1916) the nation has simply run out of manpower.
The argument has two legs: the first is logistical: your "Penny Bun costs Twopence" - you have to double up on quarters, ablutions, uniform designs etc. (In peace there is the retention problem - young marriages ensure you do not, on average, give the same length of service). In WWII there was a gag going the rounds: "The WAAF is more of an administrative nuisance than she is an operational asset". Discuss on one side of foolscap".
The essence of the second is the ethical argument, illustrted well by Cazalet33's Israeli Major (#63), and developed by me in my (#85):
"IMHO this applies with even greater force to the female. Is it "Right" to ask a woman (the giver of human life) to do this ? What is the "Right" and the "Wrong" in this case ? I find Kant's "Categorical Imperative" ("what would happen [to the human species] if everybody did this all the time ?") gives the best answer: Clearly, you must protect your breeding stock at all costs, to secure the next generation, whereas the males are expendable".
Whether a woman can fight hand-to-hand as well as a man, whether she wishes to do so (which nowadays constitutes an automatic "right"), whether the Government has the right to ask her to do it, is quite irrelevant. She has an overriding duty (dirty word) to stay out of harm's way to produce the next crop of human beings.
Having: "Stated my case - of which I'm certain", I'll retire from this Thread. I doubt I will convince many. As I said: "It's a generational thing" - and my generation will soon be history.
"The Past is another country - they do things differently there".
Danny.