Fabius VI.

This is coolbert:

Demographics?

First read my previous blog entry on the Russian "Legion of Death".

Then consider, this current blog entry. The Israeli military, while not admitting it publicly, is responding to a long-term, unfavorable demographic shift??

From the September 18, 2007 issue of the Chicago Tribune:

“Equal opportunity for combat”

“An Israeli army panel is expected to urge opening all front line positions to women”

“JERUSALEM - - An Israeli arm committee is recommending that ALL combat jobs be opened to women, a security officials said Monday, a change that would dramatically remake the front line infantry, tank, and special forces that are the military’s last male bastions.”

“Israeli’s army has drafted men and woman since 1948, when some women fought alongside men in irregular units during the war with Arab countries that tried to block the formation of the Jewish state.”

“The commission, formed by the army’s human resources department and made up of officers and academics, proposes that women no longer be barred from any unit because of their sex”

“a small number of Israeli women fired artillery, served on naval vessels and flew combat sorties as pilots and weapons system operators” [during the 2006 fighting in Lebanon!]

“in recent years the army also integrated women in Border Police and anti-aircraft units as well as some field intelligence detachments.”

“About 1,500 women have combat jobs” [at this exact moment!]

“Some Orthodox Jews protest the mixing of the sexes, saying it flies in the face of religious rules on chaste behavior.”

NO real details of how this “noble” experiment is to be carried out are given.

* Are there to be combat arms units mixed by gender?

* Are there to be combat arms units segregated by gender?

* Is assignment of women into combat arms units to be voluntary or compulsory?

Etc. “Noble” experiments period for some reason are quite often difficult to implement, even with the best of intentions and effort!!??

Israeli women ALREADY DO SERVE IN SOME COMBAT UNITS, IN A VERY LIMITED MANNER!!

Serving in:

* Air defense units.

* Artillery units.

* Military aviation [combat??]

With regard to the incorporation of women into air defense and artillery units, these are combat arms assignments WITH A DEFENSIVE COMBAT ROLE!! Combat units operating from a FIXED POSITION, NOT MOBILE, NOT INTENDED OR CAPABLE OF OFFENSIVE ACTION.

[those artillery units appear to be 155 mm self-propelled howitzers operating out of a fixed-fire-base, NOT mobile!! I have to hand it to those young women, the shell for a 155 mm howitzer weights nearly 100 pounds!!]

Some major mis-conceptions DO EXIST concerning the role of women in the Israeli military. Major mis-conceptions such as:

* Israeli women have ALWAYS served in a combat role.

[NOT, according to the Israeli military historian, Martin van Creveld, since the SECOND DAY of the Arab-Israeli war, 1948. After the massacre/mutilation of a mixed gender platoon on the FIRST DAY of the Israeli War of Independence, the order was given, “NO women into combat!!”]

* Military conscription in Israeli is total. 100 % of draft age youth, men and women, are conscripted into military service. NO shirking, exemptions, draft-dodging period!! ALL serve, willingly, MAYBE even eagerly.

[this too is no longer correct. It may have been true in 1948, but NOT in 2007. An ever growing percentage of Israeli youth desire and GET religious exemption from military service. Young men and women from the ultra-orthodox segment [haredim] of the Israeli populace DO NOT feel an overwhelming obligation to perform military service as does the rest of SECULAR Israeli youth!!]

Could it be that the recommendation of this commission to allow women to serve in combat arms units is in part a recognition that the available manpower pool of HIGHLY CAPABLE Israeli young men willing to perform military service is dwindling??!!

[recall that the Israeli military takes the top 10 % [top 10% physically and mentally] of draftees and places them in tank battalions. The most capable draft age youth is put into combat arms positions where they can contribute the most where it counts the most!!]

Demographic numbers alone do not tell the story? A more nuanced understanding of the demographic numbers is required.

coolbert.