Monday, July 7, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Israeli suspects confess to murdering Palestinian teen
CBS/AP July 7, 2014

JERUSALEM - An Israeli official says three suspects in the vigilante-style killing of a Palestinian teenager have confessed to the crime.

The official says the suspects on Monday were re-enacting the killing of Mohammed Abu Khdeir for authorities. The 16-year-old Palestinian was abducted near his home last week, and his charred remains were found in a Jerusalem forest. Preliminary autopsy results found he was still alive when he was set on fire.

Israel on Sunday announced the arrests of six Jewish males in Abu Khdeir's death. Their identities have not been released, and the official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing.

Abu Khdeir's death triggered several days of violent protests in Arab areas of Jerusalem and northern Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu phoned the Abu Khdeir's father to say he was shocked by the boy's abhorrent murder, and promised justice.

Leaders of the Jewish state appealed for calm amid signs the death was revenge for the recent killings of three Israeli teenagers.

"We will not allow extremists, it doesn't matter from which side, to inflame the region and cause bloodshed," Netanyahu said in a nationally televised statement. "Murder is murder, incitement is incitement, and we will respond aggressively to both."

The region has been on edge since three Israeli teens - one, Naftali Fraenkel, a U.S. citizen -- were kidnapped while hitchhiking in the West Bank last month. Last week, the teens' bodies were found in a West Bank field in a crime Israel blamed on the militant group Hamas.

In East Jerusalem, Mohammed Abu Khdeir's cousin, 15-year-old Palestinian-American Tariq Abu Khdeir, was welcomed back home after he received a brutal beating and four days in detention. The assault, he says, happened when he was caught up in the middle of last week's riots.

"They picked me up and dropped me on my head, and started beating me, brutally," Khdeir told CBS News correspondent Alex Ortiz. He described his face being kicked and punched.

"They didn't stop. They were carrying me and still kicking me and punching me, even when I was unconscious."

Khdeir also talked about his murdered cousin, Mohammed: "I can still remember his voice in my head. It's like he's still here. Just that like nobody can see him."

Tariq's parents said they plan on returning to where they live in Florida with their son on July 16.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that "if the investigation is concluded promptly, Mr. Khdeir should be able to return to Florida as planned with his family later this month."

Other cousins of Abu Khdeir are still imprisoned, he said. He said he believed they are still detained because they -- unlike Abu Khdeir -- are not American.

The State Department said it is "profoundly troubled" by Tariq Abu Khdeir's treatment while in custody, and has called for a speedy investigation and "full accountability" for those involved.

Adding to the tensions, Gaza militants have been bombarding Israeli with daily rocket fire, drawing Israeli airstrikes in retaliation. Early Monday, the Hamas militant group said a total of nine militants were killed in fighting, including seven Hamas members, making it the bloodiest day of fighting so far. The group vowed revenge.

Palestinians immediately accused Israeli extremists of killing Mohammed Abu Khdeir in revenge. And on Sunday, Israeli authorities said the killers had acted out of "nationalistic" motives.

He said police had located a car used by the suspects. During the investigation, he said, police learned of an attempted kidnapping the previous day of a child in the same neighborhood and concluded the cases were linked. Israeli TV showed pictures of the 9-year-old boy with red marks around his neck.

Abu Khdeir's family said that the arrests brought them little joy and that they had little faith in the Israeli justice system.

"I don't have any peace in my heart, even if they captured who they say killed my son," said his mother, Suha. "They're only going to ask them questions and then release them. What's the point?"

She added: "They need to treat them the way they treat us. They need to demolish their homes and round them up, the way they do it to our children."

Abu Khdeir's death triggered violence in his neighborhood, as angry crowds destroyed train stations and hurled rocks. The unrest spread to sections of northern Israel over the weekend.

On Sunday, the situation in east Jerusalem, home to most of the city's Palestinians, appeared to be calming down, as businesses and markets reopened, and roads that had been cordoned off were reopened to traffic.

Top Israeli officials expressed concern that the charged atmosphere of recent days had led to the boy's killing.

After the Israeli teenagers were found dead, several hundred Jewish extremists had marched through downtown Jerusalem calling for "death to Arabs." Social media sites were also flooded with calls for vengeance.

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said her ministry is investigating some of the anti-Arab incitement seen on Facebook last week.

"These things need to be cut when they are small," she told Channel 2 TV. "At this moment, everybody's job should be to lower the flames."

Cabinet minister Jacob Peri, a former head of the Shin Bet security agency, said he had met with Arab leaders in northern Israel to calm tensions. President Shimon Peres, a Nobel peace laureate, also was in contact with Arab leaders.

About 50 people were arrested in several days of demonstrations following Abu Khdeir's death, and 15 police officers and two civilians were injured, authorities said.

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu phoned the Abu Khdeir's father to say he was shocked by the boy's abhorrent murder, and promised justice.... "We will not allow extremists, it doesn't matter from which side, to inflame the region and cause bloodshed," Netanyahu said in a nationally televised statement. "Murder is murder, incitement is incitement, and we will respond aggressively to both."

“Abu Khdeir's family said that the arrests brought them little joy and that they had little faith in the Israeli justice system. "I don't have any peace in my heart, even if they captured who they say killed my son," said his mother, Suha. "They're only going to ask them questions and then release them. What's the point?" She added: "They need to treat them the way they treat us. They need to demolish their homes and round them up, the way they do it to our children."

“After the Israeli teenagers were found dead, several hundred Jewish extremists had marched through downtown Jerusalem calling for "death to Arabs." Social media sites were also flooded with calls for vengeance. Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said her ministry is investigating some of the anti-Arab incitement seen on Facebook last week.... 'These things need to be cut when they are small,' she told Channel 2 TV. 'At this moment, everybody's job should be to lower the flames.'"




Both sides have justifiable anger, but this war in the city streets of both countries is leading to a breakdown in civilization. As Justice Minister Livni said, the only right thing to do is “lower the flames.” It's disturbing to see the article against Facebook for manipulating its users' emotions also in today's blog. Facebook is lots of fun and a means of keeping in touch with people, but it is subject to misuse.

I will say, there is a great deal of political stuff of all kinds on Facebook. I find it stimulating and informative, but we aren't having a war in the streets here. I wouldn't be surprised for some countries to close off their Internet service to Facebook. I understand China has limited the things that the people there can see. Censorship may seem justified to some people, but to me the loss of public speech is a greater problem than the spread of certain information. I would hate to see that in this country. Likewise, I do hope that we don't degenerate as a populace to the point of a religious or race-related war here. Sometimes it seems like there are people on both the right and the left who would like to see that. Luckily they are few in number, and most people would hate to relinquish their peace and freedom.





Is the surge of illegal child immigrants a national security threat?
By LINDSEY BOERMA CBS NEWS July 7, 2014

While lawmakers harp over potential military action to stem escalating sectarian bloodletting at the hands of an al Qaeda-inspired insurgency movement in Iraq and Syria, another issue on the national security front has surfaced after lurking for years in the bowels of U.S. foreign policy concerns: the staggering influx of undocumented minors at the U.S.-Mexico line.

Indeed, experts agree, Central Americans who are deluging the southern border with tens of thousands of their children are breeding not only a humanitarian crisis, but a serious national security threat to the United States.

"We should certainly consider this surge of drugs and weapons and, now, these kids, to be a national security issue," W. Ralph Basham - U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) commissioner from 2006 to 2009 and now a founding partner of the Command Consulting Group - told CBS News.

Basham echoed recent comments from Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, the head of the U.S. Southern Command who's headed to Guatemala this week with Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to talk to officials about the issue. Kelly argued that in the grand scheme of protecting the U.S. border, the resources allocated him have been unrealistically inadequate to curb the flow of migrants out of Central American countries like Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, where amid thriving crime and poverty, a growing number of parents have dispatched their children to the United States in a blind shot at a better future.

"In comparison to other global threats, the near collapse of societies in the hemisphere with the associated drug and [undocumented immigrant] flow are frequently viewed to be of low importance," Kelly told Defense One over the weekend.

"Many argue these threats are not existential and do not challenge our national security," he said. "I disagree."

This year, more than 52,000 unaccompanied minors and 39,000 adults with small children - the bulk of them hailing from Central America - have been apprehended at the U.S. southern border, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Federal law dictates that undocumented immigrant minors from countries other than Mexico must be detained ahead of their appearances in immigration court; meantime the United States is required to provide their health care and basic needs before releasing them to relatives or foster parents.

"It's a situation that really has reached crisis proportions," said Christopher Wilson, senior associate at the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. "The vast increase in numbers of these migrants have outpaced the U.S. infrastructure and ability to process them. Now many, many children are in these detention centers, and the Department of Homeland Security is being forced to sort of push them into conditions that really aren't OK. The capacities of these facilities are just really overwhelmed."

But to classify such a migration surge as a significant danger to the United States, CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske told ABC News on Sunday, is a stretch that dehumanizes the Central Americans who are looking for legitimate refuge.

"These are family members - these are not gang members, these are not dangerous individuals," he said. "I think that we all need to work through this problem together as Americans."

CBS News Senior National Security Analyst Juan Zarate made the case that the flood of young migrants has merely drawn attention to real national security threats that have bedeviled the United States for years.

"I don't think necessarily the surge of children should be seen as a national security threat," he said. "But without question it's shed some light on the growing strings of drug cartels, these criminal networks - things that administrations both current and prior have been trying to deal with."

In an election year fertile with opportunities for immigration debate, it's an issue rife with partisanship. Republicans have blamed President Obama's flaccid approach at securing the southern border, while members of both parties have faulted the GOP-led blockade of an immigration reform bill that would strengthen border security. Nearly everyone seems to agree that the children must be treated humanely and ultimately sent back to their home countries - but they butt heads on who's to blame.

Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, said he warned the administration as early as 2010 about the problem of minors showing up at the border, but his warnings fell on deaf ears: "I will tell you they either are inept or don't care, and that is my position," he told ABC's "This Week" Sunday. "I have to believe that when you do not respond in any way, that you are either inept, or you have some ulterior motive of which you are functioning from."

Perry charged earlier this week that the administration might even be complicit in encouraging those countries to send children north, and he doubled down on that criticism Sunday.

"I don't believe [the president] particularly cares whether or not the border of the United States is secure, and that's the reason there's been this lack of effort, this lack of focus, this lack of resources," he said. "The president has sent powerful messages time after time, by his policies, by nuances, that it is OK to come to the United States and you can come across and you'll be accepted in open arms. That is the real issue."

Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, told NBC's "Meet the Press" the American people were "frustrated" by the surge of undocumented immigrants because "they feel that this administration is doing nothing about border security."

The Homeland Security secretary defended the administration's response Sunday on NBC, blaming a misinformation campaign from smugglers for swelling the number of undocumented children bound for America, and saying the U.S. would eventually "stem the tide": "The criminal smuggling organizations, are putting out a lot of disinformation about supposed 'free passes' into this country that are going to expire at the end of May, at the end of June," Johnson said.

He pushed back on those who have blamed the smugglers' misinformation that the administration's "deferred action" program, which was signed in 2012 and allows the children of some illegal immigrants to remain in the U.S.

"The deferred action program is for kids who came to this country seven years ago," he explained. "It's not for anyone who comes to this country today, tomorrow or yesterday. And the legislation that the Senate passed, which provides for an earned path to citizenship, is for those who were in this country in 2011. It's not for those that are coming here today."

Still, as CPB scrambles to manage the incursion of Central American minors, Basham argued, its core purpose is becoming clouded.

"The challenge for has always been to protect the borders from all threats, which would include terrorists or drugs or illegal trafficking sorts of things," he said. "I think we're almost being distracted, somewhat... pulling resources away from these agencies' traditional mission to focus on these kids coming over the border.

"I personally think we should bring in additional resources to deal with this problem - these agents and their facilities - whether it's holding cells or more boots on the ground like they tried in the Bush administration," Basham continued.

Last week, Mr. Obama announced he was seeking more than $2 billion to field the migrant surge; a request widely seen as a welcome sign for overburdened border patrol agents and the workers caring for the underage immigrants once they cross the threshold into U.S. Custody.

"It's just a very, very difficult situation," Basham said. "These parents to desperate measures to protect their children; they truly believe the United States is their safe haven, and they're willing to take that risk. The question is: Where, how do you balance that?" There's no "good answer," Wilson cautioned.

No short-term fixes for flood of unaccompanied child immigrants

"I think that unfortunately all the different risks at the [U.S.-Mexico] border are inflated into one risk that we call 'border security,' and we think there is one answer," he said. "But each one has its own set of solutions. It may be an immigration reform; boosting the capacity of the [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] so they can better dismantle weapons trafficking networks in the United States; greater cooperation with the governments of Central America to deal with corruption and organized crime.

"...Do I think this problem could have been prevented had Congress done something about this immigration reform bill that's been sitting on the backburner? No," he went on. "Do I think this crisis would have been lesser if we had dealt years ago with the issues of organized crime with the governments of Central America? Yes, I do."



“...Another issue on the national security front has surfaced after lurking for years in the bowels of U.S. foreign policy concerns: the staggering influx of undocumented minors at the U.S.-Mexico line. Indeed, experts agree, Central Americans who are deluging the southern border with tens of thousands of their children are breeding not only a humanitarian crisis, but a serious national security threat to the United States.”

Speaking of things that could cause war, this invasion by more immigrants than we can handle is likely to involve the US in polemics between us and these Central American countries. We do need to be actively involved there to reduce the organized crime that is crippling their governments so that they can't maintain social order. That is the only thing that will stop these parents from sending their children here, except possibly a stronger control by the Central American governments. Detecting and arresting the coyotes who are bringing the people out would help, too. One thing is clear. We must send them back to their countries of origin for now. They can't be allowed to think they can stay.

W. Ralph Basham of the Command Consulting Group “echoed recent comments from Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, the head of the U.S. Southern Command who's headed to Guatemala this week with Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to talk to officials about the issue. Kelly argued that in the grand scheme of protecting the U.S. border, the resources allocated him have been unrealistically inadequate to curb the flow of migrants.... 'Many argue these threats are not existential and do not challenge our national security,' he said. 'I disagree.'”

Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, said he warned the administration as early as 2010 about the problem of minors showing up at the border, but his warnings fell on deaf ears: "I will tell you they either are inept or don't care, and that is my position." Perry blames Obama for the lack of security at the border and his allegedly open policies toward the flow of immigrants. He even states that the President may have ulterior motives for that. I can't see what that would be unless he is assuming that they will all vote for Democrats.

The Homeland Security Secretary blames “a misinformation campaign from smugglers... 'The criminal smuggling organizations, are putting out a lot of disinformation about supposed 'free passes' into this country that are going to expire at the end of May, at the end of June,' Johnson said.” I do think the smugglers are basically responsible. The parents pay them a fee to carry the children up near the US border and leave them, so they make more money the more kids are sent up. Neither local or international law is catching them and putting them in prison or worse. They remain free to operate as they wish. Gen. John Kelly and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson will hopefully be able to make some headway at working with the Central American governments to stop these problems. There should be some news about that soon.





Second girl dies after dresser falls on tots
CBS NEWS July 6, 2014

PITTSBURGH - A 3-year-old girl died Sunday, two days after a dresser fell on her and her little sister, killing the younger girl outright, CBS Pittsburgh reported.

Ryeley Beatty, 3, died Sunday afternoon, the Beaver County Medical Examiner's Officer confirmed.

Ryeley's sister, 2-year-old Brooklyn, died Friday after the dresser toppled onto them.

The incident happened at a home in Pittsburgh suburb Aliquippa around 11 a.m. Friday.

"The dad, he said he was running bathwater and he heard a boom," said neighbor Joseph Sheppard. "And he ran in there and I guess he lifted it up (the dresser) and (brought) them outside."

Mayor Dwan Walker and the Aliquippa Police Chief had just returned from a Fourth of July parade in Midland when the the chief got the call. They rushed to the home, where Walker says several police and firefighters tried desperately to save the children, giving them CPR.

"They immediately started going to work," Walker said. "They did everything they could."





This is the second news article I've seen about the improbable seeming event of a large and presumably stable piece of furniture having fallen on a small child because the child climbed on it. The prior article said that parents of small children should get straps for tying down furniture to the wall or the floor. I looked on the Net and found that Lowes is offering several kinds of furniture securing straps for under $50.00. It's a bargain!





Five indicted in Pakistan over pregnant woman's stoning death – CBS
AP July 6, 2014

ISLAMABAD - The father of a pregnant Pakistani woman who was stoned to death and four other men have been charged with killing her after she married against the family's wishes and their trial was set to begin on Monday, police said.

Farzana Parveen, 25, was killed May 27 before a crowd of onlookers near a downtown courthouse in the eastern city of Lahore. A mob beat her with bricks and killed her as she was on her way to court to contest an abduction case her family had filed against her husband.

A Pakistani court indicted her father, two brothers, a cousin and a man who claimed he had been married to Parveen on charges of murder and torture on Saturday. All five men pleaded not guilty, according to Mian Zulfiqar, the police investigator.

The trial will begin on Monday when the court has called on prosecution witnesses to appear, said Zulfiqar. He said police and doctors who conducted the autopsy of the victim would be among those testifying. "We have a strong case against the suspects but it is up to the court how to take view of our investigation," he said.

The case has brought international attention to violence against women in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where hundreds of women are killed by relatives each year in so-called "honor killings" carried out by husbands or relatives as a punishment for alleged adultery or other illicit sexual behavior. Arranged marriages are the norm among conservative Pakistanis, and Parveen's family was angry she married Mohammed Iqbal for love.





Here again in an Islamic country is a case of a woman being stoned to death for the crime of following her own heart rather than marrying some old and ugly man – but presumably rich – that her father would have picked for her. This is called “honor killing,” and is performed at the instigation of her own father. It's too primitive for words. At least the authorities have arrested them and charged them with murder. “A Pakistani court indicted her father, two brothers, a cousin and a man who claimed he had been married to Parveen on charges of murder and torture on Saturday. All five men pleaded not guilty.”

Mian Zulfiqar, the police investigator said, “'We have a strong case against the suspects but it is up to the court how to take view of our investigation.'... The case has brought international attention to violence against women in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where hundreds of women are killed by relatives each year in so-called "honor killings" carried out by husbands or relatives as a punishment for alleged adultery or other illicit sexual behavior.” I hope I find the followup article to this story to see how the court judged.





Journal responds after controversial Facebook emotion study – CBS
By DENISE CHOW LIVESCIENCE.COM July 4, 2014

A scientific journal that recently published a controversial study about how emotions can spread across social networks issued a note to address the uproar caused by the contentious research.

The study, published June 17 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), was conducted by Facebook researchers to investigate a phenomenon dubbed "emotional contagion." For the study, the researchers altered the types of posts that could be seen in the news feeds of more than 680,000 Facebook users -- making fewer positive posts visible for some individuals, and limiting the number of negative posts that could be seen by others.

The researchers found that emotional states can spread across social networks, but when the findings were published, the research sparked furor among individuals who felt the study violated personal privacy. [The Top 10 Golden Rules of Facebook]

Facebook conducted the experiment over one week in January 2012, and the company said the 689,003 participants were randomly selected. Furthermore, the researchers said Facebook's Data Use Policy constitutes informed consent for the study.

Facebook users must agree to the company's Data Use Policy before they are able to set up an account on the social media site. But, critics say the policy should not be used as part of blanket principles of informed consent, and that the study researchers did not adequately allow for users to opt out of the social experiment.

In a response to the uproar, Inder Verma, editor-in-chief of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said the decision to publish the research was deemed appropriate, based on the information provided by the study authors.

"Obtaining informed consent and allowing participants to opt out are best practices in most instances under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Policy for the Protection of Human Research Subjects," Verma wrote. "Adherance to the Common Rule is PNAS policy, but as a private company Facebook was under no obligation to conform to the provisions of the Common Rule when it collected the data used by the authors, and the Common Rule does not preclude their use of the data."

Still, the editor-in-chief said the Facebook study represents "an important and emerging area of social science research that needs to be approached with sensitivity and with vigilance regarding personal privacy issues."

"It is nevertheless a matter of concern that the collection of the data by Facebook may have involved practices that were not fully consistent with the principles of obtaining informed consent and allowing participants to opt out," Verma wrote.



http://www.pnas.org/content/111/24/8788.abstract


http://www.livescience.com/46609-facebook-emotions-contagious.html

Facebook Emotions Are Contagious, Study Finds
By Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer
June 30, 2014

Joyful proclamations or angry rants on Facebook may put other users in a similar mood, a study finds.

Could reading a cheerful or depressing post on Facebook influence your own mood? Apparently so, according to a new study conducted by the social networking company.
When Facebook removed positive posts from the news feeds of more than 680,000 users, those users made fewer positive posts and more negative ones. Similarly, when negative posts were removed, the opposite occurred.

The findings provide experimental evidence that emotions can be contagious, even without direct interaction or nonverbal cues, the researchers say. [The Top 10 Golden Rules of Facebook]



It seems to me that the most harmful thing that Facebook did here was to manipulate the users publications and therefore their emotions, and especially without notifying any of the people at the time. The news article said that Facebook did this “to investigate a phenomenon dubbed 'emotional contagion.'" I have no doubt that “emotional contagion” exists, and I try to guard against it in myself. I don't want to be a part of a revenge mob as in the lynchings of black people some 75 years ago in the South where I grew up.

One reason I have always hung back from the competition to be “popular” in high school is because it has always been obvious to me that the larger the group, the more likely it is to modify the thinking of its members, sometimes purposely as in political or cult activities, and sometimes by the natural tendency for people to “go with the flow.” It takes courage to buck the crowd, but there is no personal virtue without individual choice and thinking. When I say people are “sheep,” I'm not just being angry or disrespectful, but am stating a basic truth of human nature. Personally, I don't go to a church that heavily pushes any set of “doctrines,” especially with the threat of hell for those who disagree or simply don't “believe.”

I do follow Democratic Party politics in most ways, but I'm not a “dove” about all military actions and I don't blindly defend certain kinds of people such as drug addicts who don't try to live without their drug of choice; though I don't think they should be incarcerated, but required by a judge to go to mental health care for at least 3 months and join a 12 Step Program or other kind of aftercare, as the problem can't be resolved in three months time. Some things are sufficiently harmful that the society needs to do something about it rather than blindly laying no blame.

In that category I would include violence, dishonesty, the fascination with pornography in general, anti-feminism, religious or racial hatred and especially abuse, class based abuse regardless of race, and activities against intellectual pursuits, as when Spiro Agnew referred to Nixon's critics as “pointy-headed intellectuals.” That comment really floored me at the time. If we don't encourage intellectual pursuits enough to foster an educated public, we will be in serious trouble as a nation. We are almost at that point at this time, I'm afraid, so the whole debate against Common Core and the public school system in general is one I care about a great deal. Likewise, feminism is important to me because a woman alone needs to be able to live safely by herself, hold down a job which pays a living wage, and think and express her own thoughts without having her boyfriend or husband break her nose. I don't think that's too much to ask. End of my rant.








The Marines Are Looking For A Few Good (Combat-Ready) Women
by TOM BOWMAN
July 07, 2014

Sgt. Jarrod Simmons speaks to his squad of Marines before they head out on a training march with 55-pound packs on Feb. 22, 2013, at Camp Lejeune, N.C. The Marines and the other military branches must open combat jobs to women in 2016. More than 160 female Marines are taking part in a grueling training program that begins this summer.

The challenge for the Marines, and for the Army, is how to open up ground combat jobs to women in January 2016, without lowering standards.

And here's where things stand in the Marines.

Eighty-five female Marines already made it through an infantry training course last fall at Camp Lejeune, N.C., which included drills such as attacking a mock enemy force, hidden in a pine forest. That course lasted eight weeks, and the men and women all completed the same training.

Now the Marines have a more ambitious plan that will take a new group of volunteers from the deserts to the beaches to the mountains during the next year.

More than 160 women will be taking part in a training exercise that will start this summer that will stretch well into next year. It will include simulated combat exercises in the Mojave Desert, Pacific Coast beaches and the Sierra Nevada mountains.

The Marines will march with 100-pound packs, mount an attack that will include tanks, then dig a defensive position. They'll practice pulling a wounded Marine to safety. They'll crawl over obstacles. Climb mountains and cliffs.

"Male and female, the task has got to be the same. Combat readiness will not be compromised. If we get this right, combat readiness will improve. And the second thing, we're not going to lower standards," said Marine Lt. Col. Michael Samarov, who's part of the planning team.

He brushes aside the main complaint of critics — that training will have to be watered down so women can pass.

"There's going to be a rigorous set of standards, and a Marine, male or female, is going to have to meet those standards, so this will exclude some proportion of the population. There's going to be some men who can't meet these standards," he said.

The Question Of Upper Body Strength

These types of jobs — infantry, artillery and armor — take a great deal of upper body strength, which is one of the big physiological differences between men and women. And that strength comes in handy when carrying a 100-pound pack.

"That is one of the largest obstacles," said Katelyn Allison of the Department of Sports Medicine and Nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh. She will take part in the Marine Corps study along with other researchers from the school.

"Females that are small in stature are at a huge disadvantage compared to males," she added, "let's say a male Marine who is 200 pounds or 180 pounds. So that's a huge barrier, and if that's something that's required of everybody, then there's no way around that."

Actually, there are some ways to deal with it. One of them, Allison said, is physical training. That can help narrow the strength gap between men and women, so that when women are tested climbing over a wall wearing body armor, they can do it.

Allison says her researchers can also help the Marines identify common injuries to women, like sprained ankles and shin splints, and ways to prevent them. They've already done similar work with the Army's 101st Airborne Division.

Lt. Col. Samarov said all the physiological, physical and performance data collected by the University of Pittsburgh and the Marines will help determine who can perform in combat — which, he said, is the only measure that counts.

"We owe it to the American people to make sure that somebody who's a Marine in a particular specialty can do the job, and we owe it to that Marine, to keep faith that young man or woman who has volunteered to serve their nation," he said.

Col. Anne Weinberg, who is among those overseeing the study, has her own prediction.
"I think we're going to have a lot of female marines who are able to meet those standards," she said.

But other Marine officers will say privately that they doubt many women will be able to make it through the more advanced combat training. They also suspect that not many women will show interest.

Weinberg admits there's anecdotal evidence that female Marines, who make up 7 percent of the force, aren't rushing to serve in ground combat.

"I think the jury is still out on the propensity for women to join the ground combat arms," she said. "My generation, you know, is a different breed from the young women who are coming into the Marine Corps now. They are very tough, very strong, and they have that mindset of 'I want to go and do these types of jobs.' "

Whether significant numbers of female Marines can handle those ground combat jobs remains to be seen. But some are at least eager to try, and test themselves with their brother Marines.




“The Marines and the other military branches must open combat jobs to women in 2016. More than 160 female Marines are taking part in a grueling training program that begins this summer.” I, personally never wanted to serve in the military, but some women are motivated to stretch their capabilities to the nth degree, so if they want to I think they should be allowed to go to combat. Col. Anne Weinberg, who is helping oversee the University of Pittsburgh study, says “'I think the jury is still out on the propensity for women to join the ground combat arms,' she said. 'My generation, you know, is a different breed from the young women who are coming into the Marine Corps now. They are very tough, very strong, and they have that mindset of 'I want to go and do these types of jobs.'" Hopefully they won't be harassed or even raped, as has been occurring in the Army to too great a degree. If they can make it through the training and perform successfully, the place of women in American society will be advanced to some degree, with the public “getting used to the idea” of women doing extraordinary things.

More than 160 women will participate in training this summer. “The Marines will march with 100-pound packs, mount an attack that will include tanks, then dig a defensive position. They'll practice pulling a wounded Marine to safety. They'll crawl over obstacles. Climb mountains and cliffs.” Combat readiness must be accomplished without “lowering standards,” said Marine Lt. Col. Michael Samarov. “'There's going to be a rigorous set of standards, and a Marine, male or female, is going to have to meet those standards, so this will exclude some proportion of the population. There's going to be some men who can't meet these standards,' he said.” That was his answer to the complaint that women in the group would cause the lowering of standards. He probably smiled when he said that.