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Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has announced the Pentagon will lift the ban on women serving the military in combat roles.
The latest move opens up military specialties — and promotions — long denied them.
In our view, the question of assigning women (or anyone else) in increased roles in combat has a simple answer:
Any person, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, should be assigned to whatever duties in our armed forces for which they volunteer as long as they are mentally and physically qualified to perform those duties.
Whether it be an assignment to flight training, submarine duty, Army Ranger training or the grueling Navy SEALS, each candidate must be able to pass the tests.
The suggestion has been made by those who object to the assignment of women that standards will be lowered to accommodate them. Our support for opening up all roles includes the requirement that established standards not be reduced to an unacceptable level in order for women to gain entry into programs. Legitimate mental and physical standards to engage in any form of combat must be sustained across the board for all military personnel.
Simply stated, anyone assigned to combat must be able and willing to fight and prove it in training programs before being so assigned.
But when anyone so proves their ability through rigorous testing, let them serve.
Opinion
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Discussion
Our View: Let them serve
- Opinion
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Other Views: Conflicts in SEC
Money talks. In the continuing dispute over the all-too-cozy relationship between the people who create and sell financial products and the people who rate their risk, the money says: Shut up and let us do what we want.
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Phill Brooks, columnist: Missouri Senate did what Founding Fathers had in mind
George Washington once described the Senate as being like a saucer in which you pour coffee or tea.
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Our View: Fixing failure
Some 1,200 injured workers will finally get the payments they are owed. In its final week in session, Missouri’s General Assembly, through bipartisan efforts, passed a solution to address the insolvency of the state’s Second Injury Fund.
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Herb B. Kuhn, guest columnist: Delaying Medicaid reform could hurt rural Missouri
The Missouri Legislature missed a rare opportunity in the just-ended session to transform Medicaid and make a real difference in the lives and health of hundreds of thousands of our neighbors. Rural Missouri has the most to lose from the legislature’s failure to act.
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Kevin Wilson, guest columnist: When fear wins out, so do the terrorists
I’m going to make a bold statement that’s sure to draw a lot of comments, but hear me out before reaching for the keyboard to type a rebuttal.
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Sandie Morgan, guest columnist: Unions benefit workers more than they may know
In a recent guest column (Globe, May 14), Elliott Denniston made the case for Missouri not to become a right-to-work state, and he made this case very well.
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Marta Mossburg, columnist: Maybe government is tyrannical after all
Less than two weeks ago President Obama stood in front of graduates from The Ohio State University and told them to reject those who warn of government tyranny.
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Our View: Spying on us
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
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Our View: Pass on the legacy
Forty hungry members of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry began gathering corn at the Rader farm near the village of Sherwood when they were ambushed by a guerrilla band of about 70 Southern sympathizers.
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Our View: Big Brother looms large
The federal government, working under the cloak of secrecy, has been having a heyday at the expense of all Americans.
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