The Bigger Picture

      Nicholas Kristof, an Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times, wrote and article that was posted on cnn.com in April of 2003. The title of the article is "A woman's place." In his article, Kristof provides several arguments for re-examining the ban on women in American front-line forces. He sees three main advantages to allowing women on the front. The first argument is that, specifically in the world of Islam, even the most hateful and violent soldiers have a serious aversion to shooting and attacking female soldiers. The second argument provided is that coed military units are simply not as intimidating as a unit comprised of all males. Finally, Kristof says that military units need women to search female civilians for weapons.

     Kristof does deserve credit for providing counter-arguments posed by critics of having women in the Army. Although they aren't quite as strong, the counter-arguments assume the distorted truths that sending moms to war disrupts families, and that female captives are particularly likely to be raped. Kristof uses a slippery-slope fallacy to disregard the counter-arguments, as well as a personal story from an accomplished female Army colonel, who experienced sexual abuse while abroad, yet still argues that it wasn't that bad when given the perspective of the context. The only concerns that Kristof seems to give legitimacy are that women have the ability to become pregnant at any time during war, and that women tend to be physically weaker which can lead to difficulty carrying equipment, or heavy comrades.

     Kristof's closing statement goes as such, "Moreover, one of the reasons we go to war is to uphold values - like equality for all. We transmit that message every time our troops encounter foreigners, particularly when our soldiers have flowers in their helmets and names like Claire" (2). At face value, this article would seem very modern and open-minded. We are living in a time where the advocacy for the equal treatment of women, as well as all other under-represented "minorities" is seen as noble and morally correct, so it would make sense for Kristof's opinion to resonate so strongly with a large audience. I must admit that if I were to have a different opinion of war, I just might agree with Kristof's arguments.

      Herein lie my frustrations with this article. First of all, Kristof maintains that "wars these days are less for territory than for hearts and minds" (1). False, war is a weapon for destruction that breeds hatred, violence, and lies. What the victors can expect to gain include monetary, political, cultural, and powerful control. Kristof is working so hard to advocate for the rights of female soldiers that he is ignoring the fact that war is an atrocity unto itself. He never asks himself, Why do we need to send ANYONE to war anyway? All Kristof can truly hope to accomplish is that female soldiers can terrorize, murder, and destroy the lives of innocent people around the world, alongside their male counterparts.

     True, the American armed forces do uphold and protect the freedom's that we take for granted as citizens, but it could be argued that there are alternative approaches to "protecting" our freedom. Kristof states that "one of the reasons we go to war is to uphold values - like equality for all" (2),which is partially true, but we are not upholding those values for all. The message we are sending is more like, equality for America, and sometimes it's women, and no one else.

     Let's change our focus from social issues within the armed forces and it's reign of terror and destruction around the world, to issues that encompass positive outcomes. Nothing good comes from war, except that now some individual stands to gain billions of dollars from controlling oil reserves, but great things may come from advocating equality in other areas like the American education system, or perhaps by providing resources that would empower not just women, but all individuals to increase their standards of living. Yes, sending a mom to war does disrupt family life, but so does sending a dad. Let's keep both parents at home.

Kristof, Nicholas. "A Woman's Place." CNN. Cable News Network, 25 Apr. 2003. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/04/25/nyt.kristof/>