ELAINE DONNELLY AND OTHER WOMEN LEADERS HOLD NEWS CONFERENCE
NATIONAL AND HOMELAND DEFENSE "YES" -- POLITICAL CORRECTNESS "NO." In the War Against Terrorism, there is no room for political correctness taken to extremes. If America’s armed forces are to be truly prepared for the challenges ahead, the Bush Administration must end politically correct policies that compromise training standards, undermine discipline and morale, worsen deployability problems, hurt recruiting and retention, force women into land combat, and ultimately endanger lives in a war America must win. The Department of Defense must not permit Pentagon feminists and allies associated with the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS), to undermine the war effort. Nor should considerations of political correctness interfere with effective measures to keep potential terrorists out of this country, and away from commercial aircraft that could be used as weapons. Polls show that the women of America are now assigning higher priority to national defense and homeland security than men do. The advocates of political correctness must not be allowed to detract from the War on Terrorism. News Conference participants included: Elaine Donnelly, President, Center for Military Readiness; Nancy Pfotenhauer, President, and Charmaine Yoest, National Advisory Board Member, Independent Women’s Forum; Sandy Rios, President, Concerned Women for America; Michelle Easton, President, Claire Boothe Luce Policy Institute; and Lori Waters, Washington D.C. Director, Eagle Forum. Statement of Elaine Donnelly American women are proud of President George W. Bush and his National Security Team for waging a focused, effective War on Terrorism. Congress must support President Bush's call for increased funding for the armed forces and homeland defense. But money alone will not restore the strength and morale of America's volunteer force. During the Clinton years defense dollars were squandered on "politically correct" social engineering projects that eroded morale and readiness in the military. America can no longer afford politically correct policies that drive up costs, complicate missions, and endanger lives. For example, if our troops are to receive the best training as well as the best equipment, as the President has said, then co-ed basic training must be brought to an end. The Defense Department should also discontinue gender quotas, pregnancy policies that subsidize single parenthood and create deployability problems, incremental steps to force women into land combat, and Clinton-era social policies that undermine discipline. If this is not done, the armed forces will be less than fully prepared for challenges far greater than the perilous war in Afghanistan. The driving force behind such demands is the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, a tax-funded feminist power base within the Department of Defense. The DACOWITS is a privileged, unaccountable advisory committee, primarily composed of civilian women. The DACOWITS constantly promotes policies that would hurt the war effort by taking political correctness to extremes. Appointed members "advise" the Secretary of Defense on issues involving women, and they do so with the protocol rank of three-star generals and admirals. The DACOWITS and Pentagon feminists keep demanding that all-male, tip-of-the-spear combat units--the ones that directly and successfully engaged Taliban fighters on the ground-be made politically correct by including women. Never mind that the job of Special Operations helicopter pilot, as vividly portrayed by the real-life character Michael Durant in the film Black Hawk Down, is not just another "career opportunity." Gender integration in Special Ops helicopters would require compromises in training that could cause missions to fail and lives to be needlessly lost. At their last scheduled meeting, Clinton holdovers at the Department of Defense misused the autopen of the Secretary of Defense to appoint new DACOWITS members selected not by Donald Rumsfeld, but by his predecessor, William S. Cohen. That was an outrageous, insubordinate move by an out-of-control committee. With a war going on, Secretary Rumsfeld should not tolerate a discredited feminist committee pushing a radical agenda that has nowhere to go but over the edge. The Center for Military Readiness is aware that female soldiers are being trained in certain surveillance units of newly forming Army Interim Brigade Combat Teams. These are land combat units, designed to fight for intelligence in hostile environments like the caves of Afghanistan or the streets of Somalia. Women are not eligible to serve in these all-male land combat units, but Army resources are being misused to train women in them anyway. The policy started under President Bill Clinton, but President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld must bring it to an end. Discontinuing the DACOWITS, and the foolish policies it promotes, would send a message of support for dedicated military women who understand the realities of war. Their interests have not been well served by civilian feminists and their allies whose demands could cost lives in a war that America must win. # # # # # FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS SUBJECT GO TO CMR’S WEB SITE "ISSUES" PAGE UNDER THE "DACOWITS" AND "WOMEN IN COMBAT" SECTIONS.
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