Activist: Pentagon Violates Rules for Women in Combat

The Center for Military Readiness is calling on President George Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to address the improper assignment of women soldiers that has contributed to the deaths of 59 female GIs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In a memo sent to "Interested Parties," Elaine Donnelly, president of the Washington, D.C.-based organization, calls attention to an article she has written for the Washington Times in which she charges that Army officials "continue to violate policy and law on women in land combat."

Fighting units and support units that "collocate" or embed with them are required by Defense Department regulations to be all male, states Donnelly, a former member of the Pentagon's Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services.

To change this rule, the defense secretary must approve and report the change to Congress approximately three months in advance.

This requirement has not been met, "even though the Army has placed female soldiers in formerly all male support units that collocate with infantry/armor battalions," Donnelly writes in the Times.

Army Secretary Francis Harvey has claimed that female soldiers will be removed when units begin conducting combat operations. But "even if the Army had the resources to evacuate women on the eve of battle, the disruption could cause missions to fail and lives to be lost," according to Donnelly.

In her memo dated May 8, Donnelly notes that she has met numerous times with White House, Pentagon and congressional leaders to express the Center for Military Readiness' concerns about the issue.

"I have yet to hear a satisfactory explanation for what is going on," she disclosed.

Several legislators on both sides of the aisle have submitted questions about the issue to Rumsfeld, she notes, adding:

"We appreciate the efforts of these lawmakers, but regret that the Senate has not had a hearing on this issue in more than 15 years, and the House in 27 years.

"Issues of concern to women in the military deserve timely and objective consideration, not evasion, excuses and embarrassment for the armed forces whenever something goes wrong.

"The Center for Military Readiness calls upon President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to act immediately to bring the Army back into line with current regulations."

Failure to deal with the issue could have a troubling corollary, Donnelly writes in the Times.

She points out that the American Civil Liberties Union will file a lawsuit challenging male-only Selective Service registration. Until now the Supreme Court has upheld the exemption of women because female soldiers are not ordered into direct ground combat.

If women are in fact engaging in combat, the ACLU will probably win, says Donnelly, and "voters will notice when their daughters are denied college loans for not registering with Selective Service."