OK, I gotta say it. Women don't belong in combat.

[cer7711]

86. Talking With You Is Like Talking With You

Last edited Sun Jan 27, 2013, 10:20 PM - Edit history (1)

I'm angry? What makes you think I'm angry?

How many times have I told you, during the course of this short discussion, that you and I are in complete agreement on many, many aspects of this issue? I have called you intelligent. I have tried my best to use humor, civil language and a tone of complete and utter candor. You respond with . . . well, what you respond with.

1.) I am not "angry and disappointed"--those are your words. Mine were "uneasy and conflicted".

2.) I'm a classic internet tough guy?! Let's review, shall we? When you wrote: "Not all men are Rambos, you know. In fact, quite a few aren't," I responded with, "I'm not! Heh! I'm far from the "lean-and-mean, green killing machine" I was when I enlisted in the Marine Corps at 17. Now I'm a bookish, bespectacled, pudgy diabetic pushing 50 with a failing heart who has lived long enough to recognize that war is an obscenity and should only ever be tolerated/endured as a last-resort/necessary evil, not an idiotic bloodsport for sociopathic yahoos. But I do wince at the thought of women being thrown into the meatgrinder of infantry combat alongside men. And if we won't tolerate or socially sanction hard physical contact between men and women in the NFL . . . "

Yep, "classic internet tough guy" stuff; that self-effacing, somewhat embarassing admission of physical fraility and failing health!

But my mind still works. And my heart is still engaged in the issues. (Still waiting for an answer to the above, by the way. The sports question. I've asked you twice and you've refused to answer. Because to answer is to concede the point, yes? And you're not in the business of conceding points or allowing for any expression of doubt, are you MADem? Not when you have righteous fury and angry indignation and a complete, utter unwillingness to fairly and civilly debate an issue with someone who is on your freaking side but disagrees with you within the very narrow, limited, and defined issue of women serving in the infantry. And by "women serving in the infantry" I do not mean toting mail bags around in a building, serving aboard ships, flying helicopters and jets, driving tanks and IFVs or firing artillery. What you mistake as snark and anger is simply my attempt to communicate honestly and clearly with you.)

3.) Now as to "snark" and "pouting"--Good grief, go back and read these missives from start to finish! In every instance I have sought to communicate with you as directly, fairly and honestly as possible. I called you no names. I never impugned your motives. I engaged in no "armchair psychologizing" of your mind or spirit and I certainly emphasized, whenever I could, points of mutual agreement. You, on the other hand . . . Full-on attack mode from word one: fangs barred, venom flying. Is this how you engage in cogent, thoughtful debate? Is this your idea of rhetorical victory: simply SHOUT YOUR OPPONENT DOWN and SAY BAD THINGS ABOUT THEM until they whimper, roll over and die? We'll need a new word for that debating tactic: "MADem-esque". (Okay, that was snark.)

4.) As to your last point: of course we're both sitting in front of our computers as we engage in this--what would you call it? It's not really a debate, because I agree with you on many of the substantive issues surrounding this one carefully circumscribed and narrowly-defined sub-sub issue. You keep trying to paint me as some kind of woman-hating, knuckle-dragging chauvinist when in point of fact I stated that women deserve "full respect, full pay and full, fair consideration for promotion and recognition" that their male counterparts receive for doing the exact same jobs, according to the exact same standards. A real Archie Bunker-type I is! In your angry, politically-correct head.

5.) Why would I forward your rants to Tammy Duckworth?! I'd hate to see you embarass yourself in front of that hard-charging, hard-fighting Democratic woman who did us all a great favor by defeating Republican Joe Walsh and replacing him in Congress.

The final word is yours.