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General Softens Pregnancy Ban
Dec 22nd, 2009 | 15 responses
Last week I bookmarked a story from MSNBC that reported the Army general of U.S. forces in northern Iraq threatened to court-martial and jail personnel who became pregnant or impregnates another service member, including married couples assigned to the same unit.
I was too busy to pursue the story, expecting an outcry from my sisters in journalism. Wrong. Not much of a peep out of them.
This man’s army is not like the one my father, uncles and cousins served. They were subjected to explicit training films on the ravages of venereal disease. Until this order by Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo, the gender-integrated military debate focused on the “Don’t Tell” policy involving gay and lesbian personnel.
The general’s orders Nov. 4 was first reported by the military newspaper Stars & Stripes and quoted Col. David S. Thompson, the inspector general for all soldiers in Iraq, that the edict was legal and no cases had been filed. He said it was the first time he could recall pregnancy being prohibited.
Several days after the original Stars & Stripes article, four female and three male soldiers were disciplined but not court-martialed for violating Cucolo’s orders.
The four female soldiers were given letters of reprimand that will not be in their permanent military file, Cucolo told the Stars and Stripes military newspaper late Monday. So were two of the male soldiers. The third male soldier, who is married and impregnated a subordinate, was charged with fraternization and given a permanent letter of reprimand, Cucolo said.
One of the female soldiers declined to say who impregnated her and the unit “let it drop,” Cucolo told Stars and Stripes, adding that he had no plans to further investigate paternity. “I’m in a war zone,” he said. “I don’t have time for that.”
Cucolo commands some 22,000 soldiers, and nearly 1,700 are female.
“I can’t tell you how valuable my female soldiers are,” Cucolo said. “They fly helicopters. They run satellites. They’re mechanics. They’re medics. Some of the best intelligence analysts I have happen to be female.”
“The message to my female soldiers is that I need you for the duration,” Cucolo said. “Please think before you act.”
I appreciate Cucolo’s problem of personnel attrition but his solution was rather Draconian. To order people in their late teens and early twenties to think before they act in war time conditions is the same as placing a wad of bubble gum to plug a leak in a dam.
One thing you can say about our military is that historically they are a virile lot. During World War II the Brits accused our G.I.’s of thinking between their legs rather than their brains. In postwar Japan, our troops impregnated thousands of natives in which their offspring were ostracized.
Somewhere in Gen. Cucolo’s chain of command must be a quartermaster who can procure condoms for his personnel.
15 Responses to “General Softens Pregnancy Ban”
Perfectly lawful orders. Perfectly reasonable to give such orders. These young people are not idiots, they know what a condom is and how to use it. Not using it is an irresponsibility. Not using it will get their arse in trouble and rightly so.
Since when does procreation come under lawful orders? Is it not a “god” given right? Not to be denied by any government nor institution of?
1. Since the Constitution.
2. No.
3. There is no god.
Young (and not so young) men and women are going to get it on, especially in a war zone. There's no getting away from it.
Pregancy is the natural side effect of this. Not preferrable, and certainly there are means to stop it, but biology is destiny. I have the kids to prove it (ahem).
Better to put all soliders on some form of birth control. What about that male pill?
No one wants me to say anything about Bush-era funding for abstinence-only education, right?
/sarcasm, promise, sarcasm
The tenor of the comments suggests a misunderstanding of the character of military personnel and the nature of life in a combat zone. Soldiers in a war zone are expected to exercise self control, in some cases to the point of making instantaneous life-and-death decisions. There is nothing inevitable about military personnel being sexually active in a war zone, especially given that there are already strict rules against cohabitation of male and female soldiers. As I understand this story, this is not a restriction on military personnel on domestic soil, but in a combat zone where a number of freedoms (i.e., freedom to move outside the walls of a compound, certain freedoms of association, freedom to consume alcohol) are already restricted for purposes of discipline, cultural sensitivity, etc. (BTW – I am speaking from the experience of being a male in my mid-twenties who lived with these restrictions for a year.)
I heard an extremist from NOW on the radio today (mischaracterizing this as an attack on women as well as expressing outrage as though she was mentally ill — naturally, she ignored the role the men were playing and the penalties they have faced) and rolled my eyes. However, much of the ridiculous reaction by losers about this isn't so much related to radical feminism, but more general, something else — it's a toddler-level-or-less entitlement mentality that some are choosing to expose (blatantly).
The issue here is (obvious) discipline, reasonably expected behavior (some of us don't even need to have it explained to us, which no doubt may anger losers, too), and being told “No” to what is wrong.
It's beyond narcissism and being like two-year-olds. Some people really do expect to be truly anarchic.
Really? How astute.
Then they shall be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the UCMJ.
With my liberal blessing.
Exactly.
Many of us have experienced these restrictions. Only that during Vietnam the restrictions extended to stateside as well. Getting pregnant could get you charged at the same time you were being kicked out for getting pregnant. I guess the military takes a more liberal view nowadays. Conservatives always adopt liberal philosophies. It just takes them longer to comprehend them.
[...] General Softens Pregnancy Ban – The Moderate VoiceLast week I bookmarked a story from MSNBC that reported the Army general of U.S. forces in northern Iraq threatened to court-martial and jail personnel who became pregnant or impregnates another service member, including married couples assigned to [...]
What a joke the U.S. military has become in its quest to be a politically correct “employer,” rather than a task oriented war machine. The simple fact is that pregnant soldiers can't fight. If a soldier can't fight, unit integrity is degraded. In other words, the task at hand is less likely to be completed, or the remaining members of the unit have to pull the dead weight of the absent pregnant soldier. The comments in here regarding rights to procreate are particularly ridiculous. Soldiers have virtually no rights. They sign those away. That is why they go to jail if they quit. It ain't a job flipping burgers. Soldiers certainly don't have the “right” to take family leave or a time-out to have a baby in the middle of war. If a woman wants to have babies, then do something else. Don't sign up to be a soldier. If they lack the discipline to keep from getting pregnant, or from getting a fellow soldier pregnant, then they are piss poor soldiers that can't follow orders and ought to be punished and/or discharged. Men have been punished for getting venereal diseases in the miltiary since God knows when for the very same reasons. A sick soldier can't fight. The fact that the general is backing off of his order because civilians want to have a kinder gentler military will hurt morale, and ultimately degrade the force. The bare fact is that its unmilitary, and doesn't speak well of the ability to get the job done. I am glad I got out.
[...] General Softens Pregnancy Ban – The Moderate VoiceLast week I bookmarked a story from MSNBC that reported the Army general of U.S. forces in northern Iraq threatened to court-martial and jail personnel who became pregnant or impregnates another service member, including married couples assigned to [...]
There is the suspicion that the women are getting pregnant to get out of their deployment. Then the women can refuse to develop a child care plan and be chaptered out of the Army.
Since the Army is supposedly not using an individual replacement program so that every unit that loses a pregnant woman is just short an individaul.
Better to put all soliders on some form of birth control. What about that male pill?
Beautiful, Vera.
Abstinence works great! Except when it doesn't.