No matter how much we modernists pretend otherwise, women are different from men, and their roles are not interchangeable. Females are not just smaller versions of males; they are also, on average, far less aggressive and more nurturing, qualities that suit them to be good mothers but not warriors. Not only do women do all the childbearing, but the period of their lives in which they can help perpetuate the species is far more limited than men's as well. As it so happens, females' prime childbearing years -- their twenties -- coincide with the age at which most male soldiers are likely to fall in combat.
Asked about the growing risk the new rules pose to soldiers who also happen to be mothers, one retired Army colonel snapped, "What about the males who get blown away? Which is worse, to lose the father of a child or the mother of a child?" It's hard to believe he didn't know the answer to that question. As tragic as the death of a father is in a young child's life, it simply can't compare to the loss of a mother.
Nor should we be concerned only with the prospect of the ultimate separation of mother and child when a female soldier dies. What about the effects of even a few months' separation of an infant or toddler from his or her soldier mom deployed halfway around the world? The military's only concern is that the soldier has a "care plan" in place so that combat readiness won't be impaired, but a generation of military dependents may be harmed by such indifference to their well-being.
In the name of equal opportunity for women in the military, we've chosen to ignore nature -- or worse, we're committed to altering it. We may succeed in training succeeding generations of young women to become warriors, but we can't begin to know the toll our hubris will take on the individuals involved, their families and our society.