A curious thread. Mike, you always seems to come up with thought provoking topics. Thanks.
Interesting the way some people think soldiers would be saying "After you..." and politely standing back from the barbed wire so that the ladies can pass first into the mine field. And all that stuff about men and women fighting side be side, feeling conflicted if a soldierix copped a bullet. Would gendered battalions solve that? And is it too controversial to ask if a platoon of Sapphic warriors would be more menacing than a phalanx of hermaphrodites?
Frankly, if we must have sanctioned fights to the death, shouldn't the sole criterion be psychopathy? "Rightio, who's the most efficient killer we've got?" I, for one, could make some suggestions.
And, of course, unfortunately, events in Abu Graib and elsewhere have revealed that at least some women, alas, can be just as depraved as many man.