Why would anyone care if a woman is made 4-star general in our government sponsored killing machine? Our military has killed far more women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan than either of the regimes it conquered. Is the fact that she is a woman going to change anything about how our military is used or run? I doubt it. This is a completely uninteresting and pointless piece of trivia. Haven't we gotten beyond the point of simply celebrating the fact that a minority has made it to a position of power? Can we move on and instead focus on what those in power and their policies are doing to the powerless in the world? The appointment of Clarence Thomas should have been a good lesson in why the appointment of a minority is not always a good thing.

"Our military has killed far more women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan than either of the regimes it conquered."

Well, given the fact that your statement is simply not true the rest of your argument kind of falls apart doesn't it? Do some research next time you want to spout off. It will save you the embarrassement of being obviously wrong.

I care.

I'm not very into the military as a rule - but if there are qualified women who are dedicated to serving the country in that manner, and who make a career and follow the rules and do what needs doing - then by damn they should be promoted to full-fledged four star generals.

Good for her.

Salute her and move on.

Except that I'm not wrong. The civilian death toll in Iraq alone is in the hundreds of thousands.

Thank you. Well-said!

I'm not saying that there shouldn't be women 4 star generals. What I am saying is that the women's movement has more pressing issues to worry about, like the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians in Iraq and the continued second-class status of women in that US-occupied country. One 4 star female general isn't going to change those problems one tiny little bit.

Hi Mike -

Yes, well you're probably right that "the women's movement" along with the rest of the world has more pressing issues to worry about.

But the truly glorious thing about being a human being is that we have the capacity to take time out of the pressing needs of our daily lives and marvel at various things -- such as a flower, the birth of a baby, a dog that can do tricks, a holiday like Halloween .... and even the fact that a woman has become a full-fledged four star general in the Army of, ostensibly, the greatest military organizaiton on the planet.

Life is just rich, rich rich.

Now, back to all the pressing issues. Yes -- the war in Iraq is despicable. The toll on humanity is incalculable. I'm often shocked that we here in America don't include the massive amounts of dead Iraqis in our assessment of the toll of the war.

Terrible, terrible indeed.

mike_in_nm:

I'm not saying that there shouldn't be women 4 star generals. What I am saying is that the women's movement has more pressing issues to worry about, like the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians in Iraq and the continued second-class status of women in that US-occupied country. One 4 star female general isn't going to change those problems one tiny little bit.

That's kind of a logical fallacy, isn't it? If your standard for judging the good in any event is whether it reduces civilian deaths or increases women's rights in Iraq, then most events in the world are meaningless.

now if you can only get females into battle and combat, you move closer to full responsibility and rights..