European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 25, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 a the stars and stripes thursday october 25, 1990 columns Jack Smith women in combat roles simply the pits the persian Gulf crisis has raised once again the question of whether women should be used in combat. I say used rather than serve because serve is a euphemism. About 291,000 american servicemen were killed in world War ii. It is More accurate to think of them As having been used rather than As having served. In a sense the question of whether women should be in combat is moot. In the arabian desert All of it being accessible to iraqi missiles and Poison Gas there is no rear. We Learned in Panama that women in uniform Are Likely to find themselves in combat despite the Law against it. I know that in saying i am against women in combat i will be pilloried As sexist although Newsweek recently noted that Many servicewomen Are also against it. Others Are More Gung to. A i volunteered for the army a said one a not the girl  there is no question of women a courage or efficiency. In a sure a woman could Fly an f-15 in combat with As much skill and bravery As a Man whether she would do As Well in hand to hand combat with bayonets is doubtful. Of course with today a firepower hand to hand combat is virtually passe. However it May be that most women would embrace combat duty As the key to respect and promotion. A woman without combat experience is not Likely to become chief of staff. John f. Mann jr., a consulting geologist has sent me a Page from a history of a Lancashire Coal Field in the Middle 19th Century. The horrible conditions in which women worked Are described by an observer e. W. Binney a i went Down numerous pits to get drawings of the women to show How they were employed. It was astonishing and wonderful to me to see the Power which some of these women had in drawing the Corves in which the Coal was conveyed. The women went on All fours with a Chain or rope passed round their necks and under their bodies and by this Means they dragged the Corves in something the same Way As Bullocks would. A the immense Power which was developed in the limbs of some of these women was indeed wonderful. It is singular to think that it is not 30 years since in this District thousands of women were employed in such work and the greater part of the Coal wrought in Lancashire was conveyed along the Bottom of the mines by women on All  the narrator was partly responsible for Laws that put an end to a the employment of women in this degrading  however he notes Reform brought resentment from Many it sought to Rescue. One Day David Broder Binney met a woman coming from the pits and remarked that he thought it was now against the Law for women to work in the pits. A she said a no they Dunno but one gets Down on the sly. I cannot see that i am not so Well employed there As anywhere else. I cannot see Why women should not conduct themselves in pits As Well As in factories. I wish those chaps that got the women taken out of the pits would pay me the 3s shillings a week less wages which i get now a women barred from combat duty Are also denied combat pay which might be equated with the 3s a week that the 19th-Century woman lost when she was barred from the Coal mines. In any Case the lesson is that the armed forces Tell women what they can and can to do at their peril. My reason for not wanting to see women in combat has nothing to do with their abilities. It is sexist in the most Basic Way. It has to do with menus chivalry. It comes from my own experience with combat. On iwo Jima marines were being killed in such great numbers and so rapidly that our burial details did not have time to Bury them. Instead they lined the dead up on a Rise above the Beach. Hundreds of dead men Laid out in two rows for perhaps a Quarter of a mile. Their fatigues had been shredded or partly blown off. Their naked limbs were grotesquely stiffened. Their eyes stared uncomprehending by at the sky. Their skin was turning yellow. I used to have to walk past these rows on my Way to a rendezvous with a dispatch boat on the Beach. I could never look at those men. The nakedness. The open eyes. The twisted limbs. It is not uncommon on battlefields for men to crack up. It is called Battle fatigue. Men finally cannot stand what they see. It is my belief that most men have a deep seated tenderness and chivalry toward women however out of Date those sentiments May be and that they simply could not see women killed and mangled in combat and remain sane. However i doubt that most women like that woman in Lancashire wish to be protected from the pits. Los Angeles times incumbents wallets bulging face hostility of Init film \7t at it in a y a in. Get a. Burlington it. A Vermont always has struck me is the closest embodiment of idealized democracy one can find a Small Well informed electorate in close touch with its officials. Every election Campaign in be Ever covered Here has included dozens of face to face forums where politicians a from governors and senators on Down a show up and answer questions until their constituents give them leave to depart. The 1990 Campaign still has All the earmarks of healthy democracy but even in Vermont the underlying attitude has turned Corr sively negative. Voters interviewed at a shopping mall Here gave voice to the National impulse to punish the people in Power. Paul Martin of Richford spoke for Many when he said a what Burns me the most is that these congressmen Felt so sorry for themselves they voted themselves a big raise a but they wont do their  Vermont voters Are luckier than most however because they have a real contest on the ballot an Opportunity to choose who should represent them in Congress. While the democrats have defaulted by giving their nomination to an unfunded College professor advocating legalization of drugs freshman rep. Peter Smith Vermont a Lone congressman is getting a spirited Challenge from an Independent Burlington a socialist former mayor Ber Nie Sanders. He has matched Smith Dol Lar for Dollar in fund raising. Most places the Public a impatience with the incumbents will have to be bottled up again because the challengers simply Haven to raised enough Money to let the voters know alternatives exist. Early this month common cause the political Reform advocacy group reported that Only 23 of the 405 House members seeking reelection face opponents who had raised even half what the incumbents could spend. As for the rest 78 have no major party opposition 218 others have opponents who raised less than $25,000 As of sept. 30 and another 86 have challengers with More than that but less than half what the incumbent has collected. A whatever Public anger and anti incumbent sentiment May exist among citizens around the country a common cause president Fred Wertheimer said a House members Are shielded by a Wall of political Money that makes them nearly  what is worse a few Days after this report was issued the incumbents in Congress quietly moved to lock in the same advantage for 1992 by killing the last Hope that Campaign finance Laws might be re written this year. While everyone a attention was focused on the budget Battle word was passed that it was too late to try to reconcile the separate and very different Campaign finance Reform Bills the House and Senate had passed in August. What a Surprise this Deal had been concocted months ago As a cynical subterfuge that allowed democrats to say they had voted to clean up the system when the House and Senate passed a Reform measures on party line votes yet to come away with All the advantages incumbents now enjoy. Its not All the democrats fault of course. President Bush submitted some obviously partisan proposals of his own Early in the process then stiffened the spines of already recalcitrant Senate republicans against a promising bipartisan move to put a flexible ceiling so on runaway Senate Campaign spending. His was no helpt0 Biu with spendin8 limits but heart of the problem lies not in the spendthrift Senate contests but in the hundreds of virtually uncontested House at the very Start of this Congress almost two years ago minority Leader Bob Michel r-ill., broke with his party a past obstinacy and signalled he was ready to work seriously for Reform of Campaign financing. He waited. And waited. And waited. In the end his Effort at bipartisanship was scorned As democrats passed their own Bill. But that was not until aug. 3 of this year. The House did not appoint conferees to meet with the Senate for another six weeks and then a guess what a it was too late in the session to forge an agreement. The reason for the delay was essentially that House speaker Tom Foley Only one year in the Job knew that he faced a full scale rebellion in the House democratic caucus if he really tried to work out a Compromise that might become Law. Powerful committee chairmen and dozens of rank and file members accustomed to enjoying huge financial advantages Over their challengers were telling him to Bury Reform. Their argument was that 1992 poses enough problems for them a an unknown and possibly weak democratic presidential candidate at the head of the ticket in a year when redistricting will make Many of them run in unfamiliar territory. Whatever happens they told the speaker and his emissaries you be got to let us have the Money advantage once again. Washington Post writers group