You let 'em in, then you are shocked when they complain.
The Gulf War was a great military victory. It was also the event that made every female, ***, and other social misfit want to be part of the "A Team". When stealths can blow up stuff and show off good video, and only a few friendlies don't make it home, and ground wars last only 100 hours--well hell---who wouldn't want to play, right?
We have gutted the traditional macho, male warrior culture to be more inclusive and politically correct. When we are gunning muslims from AC-130s or operating without a serious air or SAM threat, while we lose some of our heroes we bring most of them home. How would a cross section of today's force held up in the Hanoi Hilton, at Inchon, or fighting in the South Pacific in WWII? Check out this video…
OLD " 666" - YouTube
My concern is not that we hurt someone's feelings, but that in the quest not to we lose the "grit" that has been the difference in so many past battles. Nobody wants a force that is mean spirited towards its own members, but an exchange (God Forbid) with the Russians or Chinese won't be Gulf 1 or anything since. It will look a lot more like the miserable days of Vietnam or WWII at times, and a lot of good men will have to kill and die before its over. Are we mentally capable of that kind of sacrifice? I know we've lost 10,000 soldiers since the GWOT, and some of them have been women. But in the quest to include everyone, we simply cannot emasculate the warrior culture. Our enemies aren't worried about hurting anyone's feelings, they are worried about winning the next battle. We need to be focused on the same goal.
And FWIW, I grow a very, very lame mustache. Its pathetic. But I always grinned and nodded at those who did grow a good 'stache, and never once went to tell the commander our TDY contest was "unfair", "hurtful", or "disrespectful". I ****, toasted the winners, and was glad to be part of the team. I saw the same "…but THEY get to do something I don't…" from non-pilots in the AF, enlisted and officer. Fact is, in the AF it IS the pilots who are leading from the front, and doing the killing and dying. We aren't all equal, and not everyone gets a trophy.
I hope we scale back the PC madness before it hurts our ability to employ in combat.