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Darrell Todd Maurina's avatar

Very sad and true, and very glad to see you saying this. Not many Reformed pastors or elders, and almost no Reformed seminary professors, have the experience wearing the uniform and the rank and retired status that you have. You speak with credibility here in both military and ecclesiastical circles that almost nobody in Reformed circles has.

We can have a debate on the role of women in modern combat operations where there is no longer really a "front line" -- but sending women into D-Day? Really? On what possible planet does that make sense?

Yes, there were cases in World War II of female partisans and female Soviet snipers, but almost no military force in 1944 was putting women into combat roles. How was what the United States did an "injustice" when it was the near-universal practice on all sides of the war?

While I agree this is likely something drafted by President Biden's speechwriters, I do think he deserves more blame than would have been due to several of our recent presidents and most of our current national level political leadership if they had said this. Unlike President Clinton, President Obama, or President Trump, President Biden **DID** have sons who wore the uniform, one of whom served honorably though the other did not. Furthermore, during his time in the Senate, Biden had a legitimately earned reputation for being a supporter of law enforcement and the military back when police unions were still a significant part of the Democratic constituency in major East Coast urban areas.

That means President Biden knew better, and if he didn't, he should have. That comment in his speech -- even if drafted by a female veteran, which is quite possible -- didn't belong in a D-Day speech. There is a place and a time to have a debate about what we can learn from the recent experience of women fighting in Israel and Ukraine, but a D-Day speech was the wrong time, wrong event, and wrong place.

(My own views are that Israel's situation is near-unique among modern nations with a demonstrated and obvious need for virtually all civilians to have military training to defend themselves and their families, and the Israeli situation is more analogous to women being trained to defend themselves if attacked in their homes or public places by terrorists or invaders, and less like a typical Western military force.)

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