Morale Booster
British military priorities.

April 30, 2001 3:20 p.m.

hings are looking up in the ranks of our allies. Britain's Ministry of Defence recently admitted that a dozen servicewomen a year are having breast-enlargement surgery compliments of the defense budget. A defense official justified the expenditures as a morale booster to encourage women whose spirits are flat to remain in the service. He sees the implants as preventive surgery to benefit "women who might leave because of suffering from psychological depression over the size of their breasts."

British taxpayers have been footing the bill since this uplifting surgery was first performed on a female corporal in 1994. It was reported then that the implants were intended to make her "a happier soldier." Whether the men in her unit were happier too was unreported.

Advocates who relentlessly push the military along the road to complete gender integration in the ranks continually get tripped up by the latest ridiculous accommodation of girl soldiers. Before going under the knife, a female soldier who feels inadequate when the order is called for "shoulders back, chest out" might consider that she would feel a bit more feminine if she stopped wearing men's clothes.