stfuhypocrisy:

Rick Santorum has had a rough last 24 hours or so. Yesterday, the Pentagon relaxed the rules on women serving in combat. Well, women won’t exactly be serving in combat, but they will be closer. They will be assigned to battalions but in non-combat jobs. Baby steps, right? Even this news didn’t sit well with Rick Santorum, who in an interview with CNN’s John King, said that “emotions” could get in the way. Transcript from Think Progress:

SANTORUM: I want to create every opportunity for women to be able to serve this country. And they do so in an amazing and wonderful way. And they’re a great addition to the — and have been for a long time, to the armed services of our country.

But I do have concerns about women in frontline combat. I think that can be a very compromising situation where — where people naturally may do things that may not be in the interests of the mission because of other types of emotions that are involved. And I think that’s probably — you know, it already happens, of course, with the camaraderie of men in combat. But it’s — but it’s — I think it would be even more unique if women were in combat. And I think that’s probably not in the best interests of men, women or the mission.

Video here: [CLICK LINK TO WATCH]

Naturally, women became emotional (anger is an emotion) and when Santorum appeared on the Today Show this morning, he “clarified” his statement by saying that he was talking about men being too emotional. From Raw Story:

NBC’s Ann Curry gave Santorum a chance to clarify his remarks the next day.

“I meant exactly what I said,” the former Pennsylvania senator said. “When you have men and women together in combat, I think there’s — men have the emotions when you see a woman in harm’s way. I think it’s something that’s natural, that’s very much in our culture to be protective.”

“Some people might listen to that quote and think you meant you were concerned about women being emotional,” Curry noted.

“Oh, no,” Santorum replied. “No, the issue is — and certainly one that has been talked about for a long, long time — is how men would react to seeing women in harm’s way, potentially being injured or in a vulnerable position, and not being concerned about accomplishing the mission.”

Video here:

So women are too weak to protect ourselves and men are too irrational to do their jobs when women are around. Got it.

Who does he think we’re sending onto the battlefield, fucking Scarlett O’hara?  Some 50’s era housewife in a nightdress flinging herself into a spray of bullets? THESE ARE SOLDIERS in combat gear and armed to the fucking teeth, not helpless damsels in distress. It’s incredibly hard being a woman in the armed forces and you have to work your ass off to hold your own in a male dominated occupation, so sure as shit if they make it to the front lines you know they’re competent enough to handle themselves.

It would be nice, also, if you could maybe start thinking of and talking about female soldiers as just plain soldiers and stop reducing them to helpless walking pairs of breasts.