Militarizing Feminism

WIVB (that's Channel 4 to those outside the area) had a story on Sunday (May 1^s 2016) on the draft and should women be drafted.

They of course gave the two sides – yes they should and no they shouldn't – and all that blah.

There are feminists (and I work with several) that believe that women should be subject to the draft and that there are women that can handle everything that a male recruit can do. And better. No need to cut down on the requirements, etc.

The real question to me is “Why?”

Why would women need to be drafted?

And why do they need to be in combat units/situations?

I get all the GI Jane, Special Forces, Virginia Military Institute, West Point, etc.

Why – and the answer came to me during my sleepless Sunday night.

Empire.

The US military is stretched to breaking point and the Iraq, Afghanistan, and (soon to be) Syrian conflicts are making a bad situation worse. Add North Korea to the mix and you have a headache that Excedrin(TM) won't fix. (Neither will any of the various migraine medications that are out on the market.)

The military is broken from all the Middle East ground wars and they need a way to patch up the holes that all those wars have created. And drafting women and opening combat roles to them is an easy way to fill the gap.

And the propaganda from female pilots bombing Daesh (aka ISIL/ISIS/whatever they are calling it today) and other small stories about women passing the Army Ranger training is just the way to ease the acceptability of women dying in corporate America's wars.

Now I have nothing against women in combat and serving in the military. I can pull out stories from WWII about women fighting the Nazis in the former Soviet Union and other nations. And they were just as capable as the males that were fighting. Especially in the guerilla war that was going on. And then there is what the Viet Cong and other forces did in the various wars of independence in the 1950's through present age.

The difference is the purpose of the women fighting. These women were fighting for their freedom. And granted – it could be argues that female soldiers in the US military could be doing the same thing. The big issue for me is that in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and wherever else the US military gets its nose (actually whole body) stuck fighting, the rights of women deteriorate rather than improve.

Look at Afghanistan – it's no better off than when we invaded 13 years ago.

In Iraq women had it better under Saddam than under the new regime (from what I have heard and read). It appears to me that women's rights in that country have taken a step backwards if anything because of all the repressive religious rules that have been implemented.

Syria is a basket case. Nobody is safe there.

Libya isn't any better.

So we have the talk about women being drafted and being put into combat situations.

If it is to preserve the American Empire – then feminists and socialists must fight against it.

Look at the track record.

It speaks for itself.

And a bullet doesn't care who it hits and injure or kills.

And the only person impressed by a dead body is the person that pulled the trigger.

So, what are feminists really fighting for?

The equal opportunity to do what?

Clarification - This just hit me - Living under the dictatorships was bad and I would not want to live under any of them.
What we've done is make a bad situation worse.
And that is my big concern - That women will get involved in combat for a "noble purpose" and make a bad situation worse.

What the women in those countries need is an active revolutionary socialist party that removes the dictator from power and keeps the capitalists out.