ES disagrees:
Regarding your column, it hardly seems Christian to gloat and proclaim “I told you so” where the lives of so many millions of your sisters are concerned. In 2004 and 2005, I went to Iraq and Afghanistan to study the performance of American servicewomen; in both countries, was embedded with combat troops. I discovered that for many Iraqi and Afghan women, the sight of GI Jane was their first real glimpse of freedom for women. I don’t mean that they wanted to become soldiers, or even that they approved of our presence there. But they saw that women have choices other than the burqah or the brothel.
Sometimes, freedom begins when you say No to the people who tell you what your choices are. And as every good Christian knows, you do not have to genuflect before every jerk who presumes to speak in the name of the Lord.
It’s not a question of “I told you so”, especially because I didn’t. I predicted neither European post-Christianity nor sex slavery. I am, however, logically extrapolating future American trends from recent European ones, which seems sensible given the way in which the Panamerican political elite is directly imitating their European counterparts. It is a warning, nothing more. If I happen to find humor in the irony, that does not change the accuracy of the prediction. Time will tell.
The idea that being a professional soldier is freedom is a rather bizarre perspective, especially given the Founding Father’s jaundiced view of standing armies. Indeed, the “performance” of female American soldiers has been pathetic, the Private Jessica myths notwithstanding.
I daresay the ratio of GI Janes pulling off this sort of thing is 1000x or more compared to enemies killed or wounded by our brave American Amazons.