National security must be priority, women’s group told

Kirsten Searer

Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2004 | 9:09 a.m.

Two women who rose within diplomatic and defense ranks during the Clinton administration told about a dozen Nevada women Monday that they should rank national security as their top issue this election season.

Women should be more concerned about the proliferation of nuclear weapons in North Korea and Iran, the growing burden on soldiers and special forces needed to fight the war on terrorism and the lack of respect for the United States around the world, retired Army Gen. Claudia Kennedy and former Ambassador Wendy Sherman told the group at an event for Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.

Women don't always rank national security among their priorities as highly as men do, opting instead to focus on issues such as social security and education, said Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, who is also a political science professor at UNLV.

But women are becoming increasingly more involved in the armed services, with one in seven soldiers now female, Titus said.

Women understand how to form relationships and, therefore, understand that countries around the world are unhappy with the United States' foreign policy, Sherman said. They want to balance that with their need to protect their families, she said.

"Nobody understands how important it is to keep America safe and secure other than mothers and sisters and daughters," said Sherman, a former advisor to President Clinton on North Korea who now runs a Washington consulting company with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

A recent poll commissioned by the Las Vegas Sun found that women ranked "protecting the U.S. from terrorism" as their top priority for the next president, followed by "improving the health care system" and "resolving the war in Iraq."

Men also put terrorism as their top priority, though they said resolving the war in Iraq was their second priority and "creating jobs and improving the U.S. economy" was third.

The poll found that female likely voters were evenly divided between Kerry and President Bush, at 44 percent each. Men, however, gave a large margin to Bush, 49 to 40 percent. The polls were conducted before last week's first presidential debate, a contest most observers said Kerry won.

Doris Balducci, a Kerry supporter, said she is most concerned that sufficient resources aren't being provided to the military serving in Iraq. Her grandson is serving his second duty in Iraq and has had trouble getting hot meals and even water, she said.