printOh dear, some industrious Army general in Iraq wants to limit the wages of whoring in the military. Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo III, quite reasonably, reports ABC News, issued a policy on Nov. 4 “forbidding pregnancy among his soldiers.”
His policy statement said violation of the rule could be punishable by court martial, and that it would also apply to the men who get female soldiers pregnant, even if the couple is married.
Pregnant soldiers are immediately redeployed out of combat zones to bases where they can get comprehensive medical care.
“The true purpose behind this is to cause them to pause and think about, ‘Okay wait a minute. It was written in the order and I’m going to leave my team. I’m going to leave an outfit shorthanded,'” Cucolo said.”
[SNIP]
NO MORE MAKING Whoopy In The Military? What next? Leaving Iraq for lack of recreational outlets? We can only hope.
Anyone with a brain cell knows that the military, other than being an arm of the state, subject to all the malignancies that entails, is one of the Biggest Whore Houses around.
The authority on the subject is “Stephanie Gutmann, a Jewish woman out of Manhattan,” as Fred Reed forthrightly fingers her. Reed writes the following about Stephanie’s apolitical “reportorial” effort, which,
[D]escribed perfectly the fraud and double standards used to make women look successful in the army. Much of it would be hard to credit, except that I had seen it from outside … In the course of events I met Steph a couple of times, chatted on the phone, and lost contact with her. The book got few and bad reviews because it was not what the media wanted to hear. It was a fine book.
As is “Steph’s” Other Book. Read about it here. (I too have had a pleasant exchange or two with this lovely lady.)
Update (Dec. 23): To the distracting diversions in the Comments Section, including my responses (by necessity), let me repeat: The Posting Policy of BAB states: “Please note that ‘Barely A Blog’ is private property. Posts are published at the proprietor’s discretion.” Apparently this requires explanation, as participants prefer the fun of expressing themselves without the discipline of acquaintance with the philosophy espoused here.
THE CONFUSION about this statement demonstrates even more the need for participants to become “vaguely familiar with the political philosophy championed on this forum and the Mother Site, ilanamercer.com. Accordingly, there is no such thing as absolute free speech; there are only absolute rights of private property. Speech is circumscribed by private property rights. I’m afraid you may deliver a disquisition in my virtual or tangible living room only if I let you so do.
Hard to say where to start with this story – since I have a load of questions:
1. WHY are there UNIFORMED military that are primarily civilians in uniforms like Air Force dentists? (The military is fill of obvious non-combatants like “Major” Hasan). Who should care if a procurement clerk or lawyer is pregnant, blind or overweight?
2. WHY do we maintain over 100 troops stationed in 30 countries (as of 2005) with over 500 each in 19 different countries?
3. WHY are women serving in combat and combat-support positions in combat zones?
4. WHY are we fighting in countries that have not attacked us … and over 8 years after Bin Laden and Zawahiri LEFT Afghanistan?
5. WHY do we have military and pseudo-civilians collecting pensions for 50 years AFTER “retiring” in their early 40’s when most other career professionals have 401 k’s and retire in their 60’s or later?
However, don’t worry – the great combat warriors Boxer, Shaheen, Gillibrand, and Mikulski will get the pregnancy policy reversed! Be glad that there wasn’t any gay sex! …. And that we don’t have a flood of Iraqi war brides with babies coming to America. [Hasan II – The Next Generation!]
No more whoopie in the Military? What a pile of yak dung that idea is. It’s like throwing a stack of juicy pork chops into the swamp and telling the alligators they can’t take a bite. If there’s one thing the military is not short of it’s juicy pork chops.
General Macarthur said that a smart officer will not issue an order he can’t enforce.
Well, the general didn’t tell them not to do the nasty. He just told them not to get knocked up. Science has invented a cure for the common person. 🙂
During World War II, it might have been cheaper to give women military pay for clerical duties because military pay was quite low. Under today’s pay scales, meant to attract volunteers, it would probably be cheaper to hire civilians for everything but combat arms. Now that we have no civilized enemies, it’s patently absurd to deploy women to combat zones, but the politically correct notion that men and women are interchangeable prevails.
About the current makeup of the Armed Forces: this gender crisis is all caused by 50 years of Women’s Lib and Social Justice. So for those who ascribe to the notion of “Equal Pay For Equal Work,” or “Women Can Do Anything A Man Can Do, then you have no one to blame for what’s going on in the military but yourselves. [See comment below, and do try reading the linked article, “Barack Against The Boys,” the Just-War, and Gender and feminism archives on this site.–IM]
Okay you military haters, you non-combatants, you who preach on you pedestals bathed in the blood of those who gave you the opportunity…
JUMP IN!!!
oh please.
[Passions aside, you clearly have not bothered to read some of the work of the host, a vague familiarity with which is generally required for coherent participation. A look at the BAB “Posting Policy” for length would also help.–IM]
I sort of agree with the beginning of Bassett’s remarks in general, although I don’t know why he sets up BAB readers as “those who ascribe to the notion of “Equal Pay For Equal Work,” or “Women Can Do Anything A Man Can Do” etc. so he can smugly “blame” them for anything in particular. Why does he assume that’s the audience here at all?
Oops, I see now that the parenthetical comments I commented on belong to the host and not neccessarily to Mr Bassett. My mistake, although I still don’t appreciate the intent of the comments and I have to stand by my remarks.
[Which proves even more the need for participants, present company included, to become familiar with the host’s views, which comport with the ethics of private property. See comment above.–IM]
Interesting.
One of Major Hasan’s victims was a pregnant Latina. http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/fort_hood_shootings/Fort_Hood_shooting_victims.html
But what do you expect of the Pentagon?
They’ve now ramped up a gun-registration edict at Fort Hood. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6776025.html
I now realize the elites live in a bubble.
It’s known as inside the Beltway.
I wish to focus not on the sex/”equality”/pregnancy issue but another point that Mike Bassett implied with:
“Okay you military haters, you non-combatants, you who preach on you pedestals bathed in the blood of those who gave you the opportunity…”
(1) Our rights come from Nature/Nature’s God/God …. These rights belong to us and they do not “come” from government, the Bill of Rights, the Supreme Court, or the military.
(2) One might make the argument that resisting expansionist empires like the Nazis and Communists protected our liberties. However, it is harder to argue that intervening in Vietnam, Panama, Somalia, Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. had/has anything to do with guaranteeing freedom of speech or other liberties.
(3) Neither of the above two points prove or disprove whether most soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen are honorable people.
Sadly, the military, like most government employees, have been indoctrinated to believe that humankind would fold up if not for them. Without public schools, we would all be schnooks. Without Social Security, and Medicare, everyone would die at age 65. Without meat inspection, we would all be poisoned. Without the National Science Foundation, we would be living in caves – etc. etc.
Myron should have taken his argument to the next level.
It’s unpatriotic to criticize the (fill in the blank) military, president, elites, war, etc.
How many times has he heard this line in the last 9 years?
As for non-combatants, George Bush intentionally skirted his military obligation other than the brief times he spent flying jets.
It was more like “big toys for big boys” with Jorge Arbusto and his jets.
And speaking of patriotism, why no mention of Jorge celebrating Cinco de Mayo in the White House and “flying” the Mexican flag on the White House website?
Why does Mike Bassett ignore all of this?
Patriotism does not mean fealty to the elites.
It means love of country.
I can only add, with my now muzzled words, that I was utterly surprised by the unavailability of differences of opinion here. I see now that I must totally agree with the discussion at hand lest I be filtered by those who appear here. As far as the statements made, I stand by them. As far as my opinion concerning “classical liberal” conversation goes…er…I don’t see the difference here between what just happened to me and what the current government does to those who differ in view. That being said, I am a little confused that any discourse other than that assigned by the commentator is virtually forbidden. This is, of course, a private blog, and my failure to comply with its format is regrettable but has certainly been informative.
[If you can’t see the difference between private property and its prerogatives vs. government force — then you’re concept of liberty is extremely limited and certainly at odds with that of the American Founders, who were classical liberals. You were asked to familiarize yourself with the philosophy of the host, as this is a moderated forum devoted to principled discussion, not rants. There are plenty forums out there—neoconservative mainly—where you can post indiscriminate rants and rah-rahs, etc. Besides, if you read through the enormous archives of comments on this site, you will see that “muzzling” is minimal, especially of readers who bother to READ. The Posting Policy explicitly states that misrepresentations (borne of a refusal to read) will not be posted. Military men should know a thing or two about limits, rules and discipline.–IM]
Naturally, it was bound to happen. The army just backed off from the pregnant policy
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091224/ts_nm/us_iraq_military_pregnancy