DATE: Sunday, May 18, 1997                  TAG: 9705160645

SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Opinion

SOURCE: BY ELAINE DONNELLY 

                                            LENGTH:  105 lines

WOMEN IN THE MILITARY NO IT ISN'T GOOD STRATEGY, IT'S SOCIAL ENGINEERING

In the good old days, debates about national defense were downright simple. Questions focused on hardware. How many ships, planes, tanks and missiles would it take to win the Cold War? And what share of the defense budget should be spent on training, quality-of-life benefits, spare parts and advanced technology?

Today, questions about the military are far more complicated. How many nondeployable pregnant sailors can the Navy manage before it has a pregnancy problem? When does consensual sex between soldiers become ``constructive'' rape? Should female aviators be held to the same standards in training and disciplinary matters, or does ``fairness'' require favoritism in the name of ``equality''?

Field commanders must handle all of these issues, while preparing for war. Disciplinary problems abound because sound principles are being forsaken and replaced with ill-advised personnel policies that govern the military as a model equal-opportunity employer. Equal opportunity is important, but the armed forces exist to defend the country. If there is a conflict between career opportunities and military necessity, the needs of the military must come first.

Some advocates maintain that career considerations should be given priority. In a 1994 interview, Army Secretary Togo West declared that ``one, everyone in this country is entitled to an opportunity to serve and should be given that opportunity. And two, the Army is a war-fighting entity that exists to fight and win the nation's wars.''

Inverted priorities lead to questionable policy decisions, which uniformed leaders must implement without dissent. The feminist vision of a gender-integrated military requires that women's careers be advanced at all costs, even if collateral policy changes vitiate readiness.

This is why the Navy is coping with the complications of pregnancy on combat ships. The service is even subsidizing single parenthood with generous benefits regardless of marital status. Millions are being spent to provide separate berthing for young men and women at sea, but on land, field commanders are expected to house their troops in co-ed tents.

Gender-integrated basic training programs, which were tried and declared a failure during the Carter administration, have been reinstated and redefined. The goal is to accommodate feminist zealots, instead of the realities of war.

Candor has become a casualty of social engineering. Under the theory of ``comparable effort,'' instructors must gender-norm scores and extend special concessions in training so that women will not fail. Political pressures demand that ``success'' be proclaimed at all times, because telling the truth might end your career.

The assignment of women to previously closed combat units also requires the degradation of cultural values. The nation must accept large-scale violence against women - as long as it occurs at the hands of the enemy.

And to make gender integration work, it is necessary to embrace social fiction - comparable to science fiction. Major tenets of social fiction are being imposed on the military by civilian Pentagon appointees who subscribe to feminist ideology.

Consider the belief that women are just as strong as men and interchangeable in all roles. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, some appointees and staffers keep insisting that concerns about physical strength and endurance among female soldiers are based on nothing more than stereotypes and sexism.

Social fiction also suggests that male and female trainees are being held to identical standards, and that differences in scoring systems or training requirements are justified to make the business of war ``fairer'' for women. Reality suggests otherwise, because there is no gender-norming on the battlefield.

Feminist theorists further contend that to the extent that sexuality is a problem, the ``culture'' of the military is to blame. The answer is radical cultural change. Duke Law Prof. Madeline Morris, hired to advise Secretary West, suggests an ``ungendered vision'' to eliminate rape-conducive ``masculinist'' influences in the military. Discipline rules should be expanded to create an ``incest taboo'' among male and female soldiers, who should be taught to live as a ``band of brothers and sisters.''

Finally, some dreamers believe that in the future, there will be no wars. There will only be peacekeeping missions, with military engagements conducted by stand-off technology and computers.

All of the primary elements of social fiction are constantly being promoted in major newspapers, television documentaries, popular books and even Pentagon pronouncements on the need to ``desexualize'' the military. But the harsh realities of war will inevitably collide with feminist theories that defy reality. Male and female soldiers will die unnecessarily, and national security will be threatened, but the Pentagon's social engineers will flee at the first incoming round.

In the early days of the Apollo space program, NASA lost three astronauts in a devastating fire. The men perished when the pure oxygen atmosphere within their space capsule was ignited by an unexpected spark. Instead of risking more lives by aiming for zero sparks, the mechanical engineers redesigned the spacecraft.

The military, on the other hand, is playing dangerous games with human beings in a highly volatile atmosphere, as if people can be counted on to be more perfect than machines. What will it take for the social engineers to learn their lesson? MEMO: Donnelly is president of the Center for Military Readiness and a

former member of the 1992 Presidential Commission on the Assignment of

Women in the Armed Forces. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Marine Pvt. Claudia Schmitt talks with fellow women Marines at the

live-fire range at Camp Lejeune, N.C. KEYWORDS: WOMEN IN THE MILITARY

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