			Foreign Correspondent

		      Inside Track On World News
	    By International Syndicated Columnist & Broadcaster
		 Eric Margolis <emargolis@lglobal.com>

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THE PENTAGON CAN'T WIN THE BATTLE AGAINST HUMAN NATURE
by
Eric Margolis
1 May 1997


DETROIT- A US Army drill sergeant was found guilty this week of
raping six female subordinates.  Other angry female soldiers
have flooded the Pentagon with 5,000 complaints of `sexual
misconduct.'    

In 1994, pressure from President Clinton,Congress and
women's groups forced the Pentagon to integrate women into
formerly all-male combat training units. Previously, female
soldiers were trained in separate units. Political fashion
demanded women be treated like men in this man's Army.  So
they were, and today's ugly mess inevitably ensued.

The rape conviction raises troubling questions. No acutal
force was used or threatened.Yet the military jury decided
the sergeant committed a newly coined crime, `constructive
force.'  All six white women had consensual sex with the
black drill sergeant.  However, all claimed they felt
compelled to have sex, either from fear, or to protect their
careers.    

When I was in US Army advanced infantry training at Ft. Dix
during the Vietnam War, the very mention of the name of our 
terrifying  chief drill instructor -  Sgt.Major Delmar
Creech - made even the toughest gang members from Newark
blanche with fear. Creech was king.  Generals called him,
`sir.'  If Creech ordered you to eat dirt, you would, and
yell, `Thankyou, Sgt. Major!'

So I can understand the women's complaints about authority
figure coercion.  But I also wonder, how much of this was
sexual harassment, and how much the flip side, sexual
enticement? 

The same issue surfaced in the Paula Jones case. Did she
really believe then Gov. Clinton invited her to his bedroom
to discuss her career as a $12,000 a year government drone? 
Did the female trainees have sex with the sergeant, then
turn on him out of jealously, or spite. Was he a
manipulating bully? Or was he blackmailed?

We'll probably never know.  The eternal he said/she said
battle of the sexes will rage as long as there are men and 
women. Efforts by Congress, the Pentagon, or the rape jury
to legislate demure, asexual conduct between high-hormoned
young men and women will never work.  Biology will always
out. 

We never learn from history.  Five thousand years of
mankind's collective experience teaches:  a. boys and girls
are best kept apart in school; b. women should not serve in
the military, or only in separate, non-combat support roles.
Just because ancient Greeks or Romans didn't have TV 
doesn't mean they couldn't fully understand human nature. 
They knew back in deepest BC that trouble always ensues when
you mix young men and women at close quarters.  Human nature
hasn't changed a whit since Caesar met Cleopatra.


The single most important element in warfare is unit
cohesion - the brotherhood of fighting men.  Putting women
into combat units - or even near the front - endangers this
vital bond. Mariners have always said it's bad luck to put
women among  male crews - and it still is, as the Tailhook
scandal showed.  The decision to sexually integrate was
entirely driven by politics and the media: it makes no  
military sense. 

US armed forces have been forced to sharply downsize. Yet
they have had to build expensive separate facilities and
create programs for females that have consumed  scare
budgets while degrading combat efficiency. The Pentagon
brass lack the guts to stand up to politicians  and say so. 

In an organization where obeying a superior's orders is a
do-or-die reflex,  men and women must not be mixed. The
military must remain a warrior culture whose prime mission
is to kill enemies in large numbers. This is no place for
cultivating gentle human relations, nor for social workers. .   

The armed forces are not just another government agency,
subject to politically correct behavior, or racial and 
gender preferences. The nation's sword and shield must not
be degraded by political or sociological fads. . 

copyright   eric margolis 1997

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