Women in the Military: Flirting With Disaster [Hardcover]

Brian Mitchell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1997

From today's sex-scandal headlines to tomorrow's battlefield disaters.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The disaster Mitchell deplores has so far been on an individual scale: a few suicides, forced retirements and discharges, and the trials of drill sergeants. This litany is hardly a bill of good organizational health, and the public policy question has thus become whether to press forward with gender integration of the armed forces--or to pause and reconsider the wisdom of the effort. Conservatives such as Mitchell take succor from second thoughts emerging from such neoliberal tastemakers as columnist Richard Cohen of the Washington Post. Mitchell, hardly a guarded writer, disputes every argument ever put forward to open the military services to women, and for evidence he reviews most of the studies and commissions that have examined the issue since the 1970s. This information underlies the claims bruited about amid sensational media flaps (les affaires Hultgreen and Flinn). Mitchell's well-researched, though opinionated, book can be balanced with a benign view of the issue, Ground Zero: The Gender Wars in the Military by Linda B. Francke . Gilbert Taylor

Product Details

• Hardcover: 390 pages
• Publisher: Regnery Publishing; First Edition edition (December 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0895263769
• ISBN-13: 978-0895263766
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #546,573 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally someone with the guts to tell the truth!, September 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Women in the Military: Flirting With Disaster (Hardcover)

A book for the ages, telling us what we have all known from the start and/or experienced first hand in combat and garrison. And something that all those special interest groups and womens rights finatics have hidden, ignored or covered up for decades. The reason this book is so important is that many of us (myself included) who have served our country in the military already know what Mr. Brian Michell is writing about. The truth that he is trying to get out from under the stone that the feninist have successfully hidden it under. If the report says no...hide it, if the report says it degrades our readiness...obsure it. If the report says we can't or shouldn't try to make this work, throw out the report and start over. Find an ear that will ignore the truth. Even at the cost of our readiness, the lives of our sons and daughters, and a reduction in our preparedness. It is shamefully clear by Mitchell that our Presidents of the past have gone along with this farse for votes. Clearly unsatisfactory. It is a masterful job of telling the world what really happens when you mix men and women in trainning and in combat. Disaster. I have seen this in a 27 year United States Marine Corps Career. Enlisted, Warrant Officer and Commissioned Officer. Thank God that Brian Mitchelle has come along to vindicate our own cries for relieve from this disaster. And thank goodness that a company would even publish it. Lives are going to be lost, and the feminist are willing to sacrifice the many for just a few. Better yet to simply push their agenda, that is not wanted by real women in America. Perhaps Saving Private Ryan will give all women cause to rethink and understand why men are opposed to this idea. A must read for any man or women who is really serious about finding out the true effect an unprecedented increase in female participation in the military will cause.

28 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars America would be lucky to have Mitchell as Secretary of Def, February 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Women in the Military: Flirting With Disaster (Hardcover)

What's more important when the two following goals are in conflict: Good of the military versus good of women in the military? Mitchell frames his argument explicitly supporting the former. As a current Air Force officer, I agree with Mitchell that, no matter where you stand with regard to women's contribution to military readiness, the military's needs MUST come first. One-armed-men are not allowed to enter Navy SEAL training. Why? Because they can not do the job given their physical limitations. Is this discrimination? You bet it is. Is it necessary to maintain efficiency of our military? You bet it is. Quotes Mitchell in his book, "there is no equal opportunity in war." Feminist proponents of "GI Jane" fantasies like to first pretend that women can do any job that men can do. Hit in the face that this is not the case, their fall back position is that most combat is now of the Nintendo, push-button-only variety. Hit in the face that this is not true either, they simply rest their case on the need for women's advancement, no matter the cost of readiness. To follow their chain of reasoning, one-armed-men deserve the opportunity to advance to the rank of general as much as women do, since being able to do the job is irrelevant. Mitchell makes a good case that we may be close to having feminists admit they feel this way (openly admitting that readiness should be secondary to careers of women in the military), if only because there is no other justification for the widely ranging roles women play in the military today. Other than opportunities for women, there is NO SINGLE SUPPORTABLE REASON for women to be permitted into jobs they are physically incapable of doing. This is why feminists NEVER frame their argument for the inclusion of women into combat positions "because it will help the service" because, no fools they, feminsts know the argument holds no water under a myriad of research studies showing the deleterious effect women have had on readiness. Mitchell shows the dearth of information available on the political left to substantiate a position justifying the need for women in combat, or in the military for that matter. Though he will no doubt be castigated as a misogynistic Nazi, he calmly asks questions that feminists and other far left leaning radicals would rather leave unasked. Bravo to Mister Mitchell; would that general officers in my service lived by one of our three Core Values (USAF)--"Service above self." If we had more, the dead silence regarding the harsh reduction in readiness caused by unthinking incorporation of women into almost all jobs in the military might have been broken, and the weakening of our national defense prevented.

15 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling, well-written study of a controversial subject, February 10, 1998

By 

Paul J. Walkowski "OperaOnline.us" (Boston) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Women in the Military: Flirting With Disaster (Hardcover)

Brian Mitchell's book deserves but, probably won't get the serious attention it deserves, due to its politically incorrect theme. Nevertheless, this book is a compelling and well-written study of a controversial policy which needs to be reviewed top-to-bottom. Once congress required the military to apply civilian "equal protection" standards to jobs in the military, the foundation was laid for an "Allice-in-Wonderland" transformation which got "curiouser and curiouser" the more it was enforced. Mitchell minces no words, and backs up what he says with enough detailed information to convince all but the most hardened that America's incomprehensible move toward androgyny is a mistake of fatal proportions. Highly recommended. A fast and troubling read.