DACOWITS’ Mission Accomplished, Time to Say Goodbye

(Washington, D.C.): Today marks the deadline for the Pentagon’s leadership to decide whether to continue the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS). For reasons illuminated in a Center for Military Readiness (CMR) press release issued today by Elaine Donnelly, CMR’s formidable President, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz should resist the intense pressure from the “politically correct” to perpetuate an organization that long ago saw its raison d’tre fulfilled: the fullest sensible integration of women into the armed forces.

Unfortunately, DACOWITS has in recent years become a vehicle for a very different agenda — a radical feminist view that would require every military occupation and combat arms position opened to females, irrespective of physical limitations or other considerations that may impinge upon the good order and discipline of the armed forces and degrade their ability to perform their mission.

The Center for Security Policy strongly concurs with Mrs. Donnelly’s view that the Bush Administration should not re-up DACOWITS. Rather, in keeping with Secretary Rumsfeld’s determined and laudable effort to reform the Pentagon and reduce its unneeded overhead, he should thank its members for their past service and see to it that issues related to women in the services are addressed by other, still-needed and appropriate Pentagon organizations.

The Center for Military Readiness

PRESS RELEASE, 28 February 2002

Elaine Donnelly, President of the Center for Military Readiness, disputed claims made by Rep. Heather Wilson, (R-NM), who met with Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz yesterday to promote renewal of the charter of the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services. (Washington Times, “Panel on Military Women in Peril,” Feb. 28) Donnelly recommended that the two-year charter of the DACOWITS not be extended beyond its expiration date, which is today, February 28:

“Congresswoman Wilson is out of line in threatening the Deputy Secretary of Defense with strenuous opposition’ in the middle of a war. Military women who are serving their country well don’t need the civilian women of DACOWITS to go outside the chain of command’ to express their concerns. It is condescending to suggest that they do.

“Many things have changed since 50 years ago, when DACOWITS was founded and women numbered fewer than 2% of the military. In many cases women in leadership positions are the chain of command. They are fully integrated and serving well, have earned three-star rank in all the services, and are being promoted at rates equal to or faster than men.

“Most women in uniform, especially enlisted personnel, do not favor combat assignments on submarines or multiple launch field artillery, as recommended by the DACOWITS. The committee’s radical agenda would not change if new appointments were made, especially if they mirror the views of Rep. Wilson. In 1993 Ms. Wilson participated in a 2-hour Firing Line’ debate on women in combat, and she was on the team of ultra-liberal then-Representative Patricia Schroeder (D-CO).

“Even if Bush Administration appointees opposed the extreme agenda promoted during the Clinton years, they would constitute only one-third of the membership, and be outvoted 2-1. This is because last year Clinton holdovers misused the autopen of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to ratify appointments made by his predecessor, William S. Cohen. With a serious war going on, Secretary Rumsfeld should not retain a discredited, insubordinate feminist committee pushing a radical agenda that has nowhere to go but over the edge.”

Donnelly added, “If Rep. Wilson agrees with DACOWITS that women should serve in Special Operations helicopter pilot positions, then she is at odds with combat experts who have repeatedly explained why such assignments would needlessly complicate missions and cost lives. The mostly- civilian members of DACOWITS seem to think that piloting a Special Operations helicopter is just another career opportunity.’ They ought to consider the fate of real-life pilot Michael Durant, whose injuries in Somalia in 1993 are graphically portrayed in the film Black Hawk Down.

“Adoption of the DACOWITS’ high-priority recommendations would hurt the war effort by taking political correctness to extremes. If the committee’s charter is allowed to lapse, a sigh of relief will be heard at military bases worldwide and on all the ships at sea.”