O'Beirne: Fighting wars "a job for men, not women"

Summary: On American Family Radio's Today's Issues, National Review Washington editor Kate O'Beirne asserted that "fighting our wars, engaging the enemy in this uncivilized thing we call war is a job for men, not women," then suggested that having women serve in the military was the equivalent of "a man send[ing] his wife or daughter to check out" a noise that "sounds like a break-in."

During the March 15 broadcast of American Family Radio's Today's Issues, National Review Washington editor Kate O'Beirne asserted that "fighting our wars, engaging the enemy in this uncivilized thing we call war is a job for men, not women," then suggested that having women serve in the military was the equivalent of "a man send[ing] his wife or daughter to check out" a noise that "sounds like a break-in." She said that "internationally that's just what we're doing by sending our daughters and our sisters to fight America's enemies."

During an interview about her book Women Who Make the World Worse (Sentinel, December 2005), O'Beirne also maintained that "good men protect and defend women in the face of physical threat," and told host Jeff Chamblee, "I, for one, do not believe that America's defense rests on the shoulders of teenage women and single mothers."

From the March 15 broadcast of American Family Radio's Today's Issues:

O'BEIRNE: I, for one, do not believe that America's defense rests on the shoulders of teenage girls and young single mothers.

CHAMBLEE: Thank you.

O'BEIRNE: And yet, an awful lot of them have been deployed to Iraq. I have two fundamental problems. The most fundamental problem, to me, is my conviction that good men protect and defend women in the face of a physical threat. This in no way offends my sense of equality, because I think fighting our wars, engaging the enemy in this uncivilized thing we call war is a job for men, not women. Think of it on the domestic front. You know, if you hear a sound in the middle of the night coming from downstairs and it sounds like a break-in, what poor excuse for a man sends his wife or daughter downstairs to check out the noise?

CHAMBLEE: Yeah.

O'BEIRNE: And yet on a grand scale, internationally that's just what we're doing by sending our daughters and our sisters to fight America's enemies.

—R.M.