Christian Science Monitor
Defense correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor
PROFILE
Anna Mulrine
Guest
FROM Anna Mulrine
Which Way, L.A.?
Women on the Front Lines About 16 percent of America's military is now composed of women. In Iraq, more than 130 have been killed, more than 800 wounded. Since World War II, two women have won Silver Stars — one by clearing insurgents from two trenches with hand grenades and killing three more with her M4 rifle. But she was a military police officer acting in an emergency. America's female soldiers served on the front lines in Iraq, and they're doing the same thing in Afghanistan. No American women are assigned to combat. Anne Coughlin has filed a lawsuit to challenge that. A professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, she and some students started the Molly Pitcher Project. We hear about a dispute that's raging from the courts to the Pentagon to the Halls of Congress.
To the Point
Should Women Soldiers Be Assigned to Combat? During the Iraq war, an Army medic ran through gunfire to rescue wounded comrades, earning a Silver Star. But one rescued man said she should never even have been there. The medic was a woman, even though women are never assigned to combat. They're getting closer and closer, and there's a budding movement to make them eligible for all things men do, if they can meet the qualifying standards. But that's hugely controversial. Is it just about equality under the law? Is it a cultural issue, deeply ingrained despite the guarantees of the Constitution?
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To the Point
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.
To the Point
Ex-FBI Director Comey tells his side of the story Today, former FBI Director James Comey came close to calling the President who fired him a liar. The White House denied the claim and called it insulting, but Republican Senators did not challenge Comey’s truthfulness. Many questions remain: did the President try to obstruct a federal investigation? Later, we’ll go behind the “velvet rope” for a look at 5-Star health care for the richest Americans.
To the Point
Janesville and the American Dream Janesville, Wisconsin is the hometown of Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan. But he couldn’t prevent the closing of the General Motors factory after 100 years. On this Memorial Day rebroadcast of To the Point, we hear what’s happened to what once was a model of American middle-class unity.
To the Point
Human Rights in the era of Donald Trump President Trump’s UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, said today the US might pull out of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council. Serious violators of human rights are members of the Council itself–and a US resignation could make things worse. Later on today’s show, now that he’s into his second term, comedian turned US Senator Al Franken is telling jokes again.