David Frum’s Truf About Women in Combat, Cont.

I recently posted my thoughts on David Frum’s argument that women shouldn’t serve in military combat. Reviewing a book with which he seems to wholeheartedly agree, Frum asserts that men are hard-wired not to accept female authority. I noted that, leaving aside the psychological naïveté of this assertion, it clearly has no standing in the US military where hard-wiring is not an excuse for undesirable behavior. Case in point from the Uniform Code of Military Justice (emphasis added):

Article 99—Misbehavior before the enemy

“Any member of the armed forces who before or in the presence of the enemy—

(1) runs away;

(2) shamefully abandons, surrenders, or delivers up any command, unit, place, or military property which it is his duty to defend;

(3) through disobedience, neglect, or intentional misconduct endangers the safety of any such command, unit, place, or military property;

(4) casts away his arms or ammunition;

(5) is guilty of cowardly conduct;

(6) quits his place of duty to plunder or pillage;

(7) causes false alarms in any command, unit, or place under control of the armed forces;

(8) willfully fails to do his utmost to encounter, engage, capture, or destroy any enemy troops, combatants, vessels, aircraft, or any other thing, which it is his duty so to encounter, engage, capture, or destroy; or

(9) does not afford all practicable relief and assistance to any troops, combatants, vessels, or aircraft of the armed forces belonging to the United States or their allies when engaged in battle; shall be punished by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct.”

…

(5) Cowardly conduct.

(a) That the accused committed an act of cowardice;

(b) That this conduct occurred while the accused was before or in the presence of the enemy; and

(c) That this conduct was the result of fear.