Well, I believe that I'm coming to understand your concerns, Jon, Richard, and those of you who agree with them.

A thought flashed though my mind (shush Grandpa!!! ) as I read your posts ..... and it's this:

"The moments for war do not wait for equality of the sexes to be fully in place, therefore we must do what's most effective for the time of war."

... In other words, to be effective, we need to be realistic and try to do away with every risk of potential failure possible ... the mission, and lives, depend on it. Until ALL men and women of a mission see each other NOT as men and women, but as individuals with tasks to perform (missions and lives depend on success) then yes, I can see that any mission with mixed genders can be blown by viceral responses like ... "ignoring the mission to save and protect the woman". Or a woman, nurturer that she is, might knee-jerk sacrifice a mission by rushing to the side of a hurting or scared soldier rather than doing what needs to be done to save the mission.

Yes ... sad but true I fear. We are not equal yet ... not until we, as men and women, can view each other and treat each other objectively, especially in crucial moments. Then we can work together and not fail our team-goals because of gender conditioning.

Having said all that, I wish we were gender-blind now ... but we aren't. We must accept the realities of what actually works within the context of what we're actually capable of, for what is actually necessary.

If I'm a woman soldier on the front lines with you man-soldier, and you see me as a woman first ... I fear for all of us.

Bummer