Armed Forces Training
Re “Armed Forces Training Is Too Soft, Panel Finds,” Dec. 17: Any suggestion that the Army’s basic training system is lax just because it has a double standard of fitness for men and women is preposterous. The military has made the appropriate adjustments for the rights of women to participate in combat. To ask for the same fitness standards is ridiculous on the face of it.
As women are smaller than men, it is unreasonable to expect them to be as strong or as fit. No doubt any adversary would have the same problem; so in the future when we reach a battlefield, we simply negotiate with the enemy to make sure he has the same number of female soldiers. That way, each side has an equal number of soldiers killed and maimed as a result of the incompetence of their comrades. And women get to advance in the military, which is their right. That seems fair to me.
BART BRAVERMAN
Los Angeles
* I am surprised that the best explanation for the problems with a sexually integrated military are never discussed. The No. 1 cause for violence is love. Love is pretty at first, but when it goes wrong, it can get ugly. A lot of people, especially young people, don’t yet know how to handle the negative emotions of love gone wrong, even without the incredible stresses of communal living in a boot camp.
It seems obvious that it is dangerously naive to put young men and women together in a high-stress situation where group harmony is a matter of life and death and not expect the full rainbow of country-western love trouble to play itself out, with the added benefit of access to firepower.
The purpose of the military is not to advance social agendas, provide remedial lessons in social etiquette or provide career opportunities in a fair and equal manner. Its purpose is to exercise deadly force. Let’s keep our focus on that.
BILL KONERSMAN
Pasadena
* As we are all aware, young men must register for Selective Service when they turn the age of 18. If they fail to register, there can be a monetary penalty and moreover they will become ineligible to apply for a federal loan for college.
The Selective Service system is well and very much in order. However, there is no draft at this time and certainly none in the foreseeable future.
The above having been said, is there good reason today for young women not to also register? This might serve to strengthen the argument for women’s rights in the military services.
HAL ROSS
Los Angeles
* Civil rights or no, lock up a bunch of teenagers in a single dorm overnight and for sure somebody’s gonna get pregnant; even with a book on birds and bees and a box of rubbers under each pillow.
If there is a solution for this “person’s” army other than separate dorms and a chain-link fence, let’s have it now.
NORMAN SAMUELSEN
San Pedro