Yes we have heard this song before, and it is no sweeter referring to women in battle than it was referring to gays in combat or to a woman in the Oval Office. As Jon Soltz recounts it at HuffPo (and the video is embedded, so please do hear it from the horse’s mouth), this is Santorum’s take on female troops in combat roles.
Santorum Insults Women Who Served in Combat
Rick Santorum has no idea what’s happening in our military.On CNN, asked by John King if he agreed with a recent Pentagon decision that would formally open up front-line roles for women in combat, Santorum said, ” I think that could be a very compromising situation, where people naturally may do things that may not be in the interest of the mission, because of other types of emotions that are involved.”
*SIGH* Where to begin? New Hampshire, 2008, Hillary Clinton mists over for a moment talking about why she has taken on the punishing task of running for president, and we hear charges that a woman is too emotionally unstable to lead the country. Iowa, 2012, Newt Gingrich chokes up á la John Boehner (pick a day and issue), and it is fine.
We heard plenty of “what ifs” in the run-up to the repeal of DADT. OMG! You cannot put gay troops in the trenches much less the barracks and the (Heaven forefend) showers with straight troops! Chaos will surely ensue!
So now we have a prospective Commander-in-Chief suggesting that trained female combatants might act differently from the way their male counterparts do based on … um? Emotions?
I do not hold the honor of having served in the military, but I know this. Troops act upon orders – not upon head or heart – upon orders, and those orders in turn are given by those with the rank and training to make battlefield decisions. Troops act in tandem as teams. It does not matter if your teammate is male, female. straight, or gay. There is a job, and your team is under orders to do it.
What Rick Santorum is thinking is way beyond my ability to imagine, but Soltz brilliantly explains exactly how and why female troops are especially valuable in the field given the cultural medium within which our military is currently operating.
We have a volunteer military. It is the best in the world. We all should be proud of every single one of those who choose to serve. I have never had a moment of trepidation that sexual issues would interfere with action in combat. Santorum should be ashamed.
It’s the same argument that kept women from voting, driving, entering the workforce, and doing much of anything independent of their fathers, brothers, or husbands for decades. I wish it would just die off already, but it keeps resurfacing every time someone whats to take the words “gender equity” at face value. So glad Mr. Santorum is looking out for all the fragile females in the country. Obviously, we’re far too emotional to make career decisions for ourselves. I mean, one could break a nail and simply resolve into a fit of tears.
How would the world survive if women serve a larger role in the military?

(Ann E. Dunwoody, America’s first female four-star general.)
Or the financial sector?

(Christine Legarde, head of the IMF.)
Or the corporate world?

(Ursula M. Burns, first African American won CEO of a Fortune 500 company and first woman to succeed another woman as CEO of a Fortune 500 company.)
Or diplomacy?

(The current Secretary of State with UN Ambassador Susan Rice.)
(Madeleine Albright and Condoleezza Rice)
Or politics?

(Barbara Mikulski, longest serving female senator.)
(Marcy Kaptur, longest serving woman in the House of Representatives.)
Yes, I know many of you don’t like her, but she is still the first woman to serve as the Speaker of the House. Sorry.

Dear god, what if they ran countries?

(Angela Merkel, German Chancellor and first female chancellor.)
(Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian President and first woman to be elected president of an African nation.)
(Margaret Thatcher, first female Prime Minister of Britain.)
Answer – the same way it survives right now. Mr. Santorum needs to drop his antiquated ideas. Not every woman aspires to be June Cleaver.
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Oh Heavens! If those are pictures, I am simply too tired to make them all visible, but I DO appreciate your response and evidence. As always, thorough!
Santorum – did HE ever serve? I think I saw comments on that. Well, even if not, he MUST know that a team is not necessarily homogeneous. N.B. The Giants!
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Yeah they’re pictures and I put captions so that you wouldn’t have to bother with them unless you wanted to.
Regarding the former Pennsylvania senator and military service, no, Rick Sanctimonium never served in the armed forces.
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((( 😀 ))) ROTFL!!! The NAME! Better than Tony Soprano’s “Senator Sanatorium.”
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Check out this article. Our men in uniform are as disgusted as our women in uniform. And yes, some of them make note of the fact that Santorum never served in the armed forces. http://storify.com/jilliansed/santorum-s-issues-with-military-women-draws-outcry
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