MIXED MESSAGES ON CO-ED COMBAT TRAINING.(Brief Article)

Condensed from an August 7 Washington Times report on efforts to end co-ed basic training in the U.S. military:

Pro-military groups are pressing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to follow through on a Bush campaign promise to re-examine the training of male and female recruits in the same units and barracks. Fourteen pro-defense groups have signed a letter to Mr. Rumsfeld urging him to reverse the policy:

"In our view, military policies should encourage discipline, not sexual misconduct. There is ample evidence that training men and women together complicates and detracts from the training mission. Our members hope that you will act quickly to end this and other demoralizing personnel policies that have vitiated discipline and morale."

The letter comes as the Bush administration is sending signals that it has more pressing priorities. Mr. Rumsfeld said in an interview with the Washington Times in July that no one within the military has raised social issues with him. He said his focus is on carrying out President Bush's order to retool the armed forces to confront new, twenty-first-century threats.

A signer of the letter, Elaine Donnelly, who is president of the Center for Military Readiness and opposed to women in combat, said it is understandable that Mr. Rumsfeld is preoccupied, but suggested some of the defense secretary's top policy-makers should examine mixed-sex basic training. "Without proper attention, the agenda set ...