You gotta hand it to Heather Mac Donald; she's not afraid of walking into the line of fire. She's a softer version of Ann Coulter. That is, she's a conservative commentator, but not made of sharp glass pieces.
You might remember Ms. Mac Donald (not McDonald) the last time she made national news. She tried to give a speech at some small college on the Left Coast, only to be shouted down by the usual "progressives" who are more interested in the label than actually thinking through an argument, debating it, and moving to the right conclusion, as God gives us to see the right. That is, to progress.
And after cowardly "leaders" of the college canceled her speech, she was allowed to give it at a more enlightened facility, and have the presentation piped in to the original college via the Internet.
You can find Heather Mac Donald by flipping channels or flipping pages. She's all over. We found her on both mediums earlier this week, after she wrote a column for The Wall Street Journal and wound up defending it on some cable shout show Monday night. The essence of her column: Women don't belong in combat units.
Essence? That was actually the headline of her guest column. And once again the usual suspects were, ahem, up in arms.
Like most commentators these rambunctious days, Ms. Mac Donald may have gone too far. Some of us don't have a problem with women in combat units--if they can do the job.
If a woman--excuse us, drill sergeant, a female--can drag a bag simulating a wounded Marine the required distance, and shoot the required score, and pull herself up a mountain side, and arrive on the other side of the obstacle course with enough grit and energy to write an op-order and plan a mission, for goodness sakes, put her in the infantry. There are enough young men in this country today who can't be counted on to do that kind of work, so allow qualified women all the opportunities they can get.
But don't lower physical standards. A Taliban unit isn't going to cease fire because an American woman is running up the hill.
Unfortunately, not everybody sees things this way, including the woman debating Heather Mac Donald on that shout show Monday night. Which might prove the point that no matter how crazy somebody on the right seems, the left can get crazier. This woman, when not talking over Ms. Mac Donald or the host, suggested, well, many things. Including that infantry jobs were stepping stones to better promotions in the military, and therefore physical standards should be lowered for women. As if the Army or Marines were job banks or employment agencies.
The fact is that most women won't be able to pass advanced infantry training, just as most women won't be asked to NFL training camp. That's okay. Neither will most men.
But women have proven themselves again and again in this nation's battles, from piloting high-speed, low-drag jet aircraft to working aboard submarines.
Let them serve.
Them that can handle it.
Editorial on 01/17/2019