RICK ARBOGAST: Keep women away from Bouncing Betties

A "Bouncing Betty" is an anti-personnel mine. It is buried in the ground and, when triggered, launches a grenade three or four feet into the air, where it detonates. Shrapnel is blown in all directions to a distance of about ten yards.

It was recently announced by Secretary of Defense Carter that women would now be allowed to serve in combat assignments among the infantry. The reasoning is that women are just as capable as men in all situations.

I do not doubt this.

My problem is with the cost.

Do we really want more of our sisters, daughters, wives and mothers coming home in flag-draped caskets? The dead may be the fortunate. Those who survive the hell of going to the place where the killing and dying takes place will never be the same. They not only witness but participate in the horror and inhumanity. The injuries to the bodies and minds of these women will last a long time, if not forever.

I believe that Secretary Carter and President Obama did not make this decision without the influence of those I will call the feminine theorists -- influential people who believe this change will advance the cause of equality.

Ideas mean more than flesh. I wonder what those theorists will be doing when that cold, wet, tired young woman steps on a Bouncing Betty. Perhaps they will be enjoying dinner or a show, but maybe they'll just be relaxing at home. They won't feel a thing.

RICK ARBOGAST

Ocean Springs

This story was originally published December 19, 2015 at 6:46 PM with the headline "RICK ARBOGAST: Keep women away from Bouncing Betties ."