Did you know that since June 2014, the U.S. military has been slowly stockpiling massive amounts of mechanised vehicles from its Afghanistan operations, that are winding down, in to a depot in Kuwait near the commercial port?
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| The First Cuts Are The Deepest - British Army Reduced To Defence Force. |
This is apparently in pretty open preparation for being shipped across across the border into Iraq, or Syria, ostensibly for an 'allied offensive' against the Islamic State group.
I certainly didn't, but while this is being reported in the US press, it has not gained much coverage in the UK ... but all you anti-war coalition supporters can breath a sigh of relief, because the 'allies' being referred to, are apparently a coalition that includes five predominantly Sunni Arab countries, but which is led by the U.S. who provide the weapons, support, vehicles and the strategic coverage ... and backbone troops.
For a minute there, it looked like no sooner have we withdrawn from the wars, than we were back in them ... oh wait we are, and in Nigeria as well ... ... only this time, after the cuts, we only have a self defence force left, and even that is being turned into the girl guides by supporters of the 'women on the front-line' group of feminists.
These women want women fighting in combat regiments, even though 99% can't actually pass the current physical tests:
...... no woman can do that, heck, they can't even play five sets in tennis when being paid a million dollars, so they will have to have two tests, one for men and one for women. A wounded man will have to be left behind if serving with a woman, who can't lift him.
After that the army may as well be the guides .... useless against the Taliban, or even the Boy Scouts.
I certainly didn't, but while this is being reported in the US press, it has not gained much coverage in the UK ... but all you anti-war coalition supporters can breath a sigh of relief, because the 'allies' being referred to, are apparently a coalition that includes five predominantly Sunni Arab countries, but which is led by the U.S. who provide the weapons, support, vehicles and the strategic coverage ... and backbone troops.
For a minute there, it looked like no sooner have we withdrawn from the wars, than we were back in them ... oh wait we are, and in Nigeria as well ... ... only this time, after the cuts, we only have a self defence force left, and even that is being turned into the girl guides by supporters of the 'women on the front-line' group of feminists.
These women want women fighting in combat regiments, even though 99% can't actually pass the current physical tests:
- Men have to complete run of 1.5 miles in 12 minutes 45 seconds.
- They have an annual fitness assessment which involves carrying 25kg, plus a rifle and helmet, over a distance of just under eight miles in two hours.
- They also have to pass a battle fitness test of being able to pick up another man, with his rifle and equipment, and carry him in a fireman's lift 200 metres.
...... no woman can do that, heck, they can't even play five sets in tennis when being paid a million dollars, so they will have to have two tests, one for men and one for women. A wounded man will have to be left behind if serving with a woman, who can't lift him.
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| New British Model Army |
After that the army may as well be the guides .... useless against the Taliban, or even the Boy Scouts.
So 99% of women can't pass the physical test - is that 99% of all women or of those who apply? and how many men can't pass the test - without this figure it's difficult to make a comparison. I had a goog look but I was unable to find any figures.
ReplyDeleteWhen the ban on women serving in close combat roles is lifted and assuming that standards aren't changed to accommodate, we should just talk about the number of people who pass or fail the test, and if no women pass then no women pass, providing of course that there are no tests which are non vital to combat and exclude any applicants unnecessarily; if there are then they should be reviewed.
I wasn't clear in that statement ... I meant that 99% of women fail the standards expected for men, not necessarily their own versions of the tests.
DeleteFor reasons that I suspect are political the failure rates for men (and women) are not advertised .... but it has to be said that every effort is made to get candidates up to physical standards during basic, including Fitness Training Units training. What I was able to determine is that women generally fare less well in the general fitness tests, a fact that is simply a physiological artefact of being a female.
Currently women can apply for every role in the army, which includes everything bar serving in the infantry and the armoured corps. There is yet to be a woman strong enough to join the paratroop regiment or SAS.
The entrance level army fitness tests, involves a series of strength tests and a mile-and-a-half run. Around 90% of applicants pass the first test. The vast majority are male - just 8% of those serving in the army are women, and last year, of the 670 newly trained officers, 90 are female.
16 weeks after the the initial physical tests, and they have completed a training programme, they are tested again to see if they are now fit enough to join the army properly - this includes not only a repeat of the first test, but also a six mile march in an hour and a half, carrying a load between 15 and 25kg, and a 'single lift' test, raising a weight between 25 and 45kg up to a height of 1.45 metres (representative of the height of the back of an army lorry).
Tests include 'heaves', where applicants must stand on a chair, cling to a bar above their head and attempt to hoik themself up to meet it. Nearly all women fail this test. Other tests tests are of back extensions, static lifts and dynamic lift strengths, all necessitating standing on pieces of equipment, striking a pose while pulling or pushing weights, and holding it for the count of three. The other killer for women is jerry can carrying, which involves carrying the cans without putting them down, up to a distance of 180 metres.
The best I can find specifically illustrating the lowering of standards for women are that in Officer Selection Training the candidates must be able to do 44 press-ups in two minutes, but only 21 for a female candidate. And then it's 50 sit-ups for both sexes. Male candidates have to do 10.2 on a shuttle run beep test, equivalent to running about a mile-and-a-half in 10.5 minutes. The female candidates only have to do 8.1, equivalent to the same distance in 13 minutes.
When you consider that all all army units are only as effective as their weakest members, and if women members are that weak link in combat units, then male soldiers will inevitably die needlessly in order to accommodate female combat troops.
Incidentally the British Army is reportedly suffering a fitness failure with both the The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mail reported on Jun 22, 2014 that more than 32,000 British troops failed a key basic fitness test within the last three years, according to new figures that raise fears of an Army obesity crisis. So our societal ills are impacting the armed forces generally.