WOMEN IN COMBAT: Phil Carter writes:

Some have questioned the role of women in today’s military. Make no mistake about it — America’s military sends its women into harm’s way. Current DoD policy keeps women out of only the most direct of combat roles, such as the infantry. But in today’s style of warfare, those distinctions are basically meaningless. Army Lieutenant Carrie Bruhl flies Apache helicopters deep into enemy territory, further than any American infantryman save the Special Forces. Other women fly deep combat missions in the Navy and Air Force. Female MPs fight as infantry just behind the front lines, hunting down and killing Iraqi guerilla units. America’s daughters fight hard and they fight well. It’s disingenuous and wrong to say that women like SPC Johnson and PFC Lynch don’t belong at the front lines. They’ve earned the right to be there, and so far in our war, they’ve proven their ability to stay there.

Similarly, Virginia Postrel observes:

Reporters on Fox News Channel and MSNBC are displaying an exceedingly annoying habit of referring to Pfc. Jessica Lynch as just “Jessica” in news stories, the better to tug the viewers’ paternal/maternal heartstrings. But Jessica Lynch is not the little girl who fell down the well. She is a U.S. soldier serving in harm’s way. If you’re old enough to be a POW, you’re old enough to be referred to as “Private Lynch.” Even if you’re female.

I wonder if the presence of women in combat isn’t, in part, responsible for increased support for this war among women.

UPDATE: Reader Reed Snellenberger emails:

Thanks for the link to the Postrel article, but it’s already progressed beyond referring to Pvt. Lynch as “Jessica” — this morning, Katie couldn’t resist calling her “Jessie”. Also, ABC’s Diane Sawyer made a not-to-graceful seque from a comment about the rescue that was delivered in a Ma-and-Pa Kettle cornpone accent (roughly “There was some hootin’ and hollerin’ a-goin’ on”) *directly* to an interview with Ms. Lynch’s father.

I only hope that he couldn’t hear the audio feed that led up to the interview, but I suspect that he could — his first answer was quite monosyllabic.

Pathetic.

ANOTHER UPDATE: A reader emails:

I, too, got a little riled this morning at the talk about “Jessica” and “Jessie.” Isn’t the little girl-soldier cute? I don’t know if the same tone would be used were she from Manhattan. I just moved to Kentucky for the year to clerk on the 6th Circuit, and I’ve really had an education in the red state/blue state divide. My friends from D.C. think everyone here is a hick/hillbilly/cornpone. In fact, they’re some of the nicest, most educated, and free-thinking people I’ve met in a long while. Yes, we’re hootin’ and a-hollerin’ down here at the rescue of Private Lynch — but over email with *real* computers!

A not-uncommon sentiment.