ans historically like to sentimentalizenthe Old Army, or the Old Navy, wherenthings were rougher arid tougher thanntoday. Well, this time they’re right.nStandards have been scaled downnsharply to accommodate those otherwisenunable to meet them.nWomen have, to begin with, only 80npercent of men’s overall strength. Duringn1980 tests at West Point the worknof male cadets exceeded that of femalenones by 48 percent at the leg press andn473 percent at the bench press. “All ofnthe services,” Mitchell writes, “havendouble standards for men and womennon all the events of their regular physicalnfitness tests … In the Army, thenyoungest women are given an extranthree minutes to complete a two-milenrun.” Additionally, women are hospitalizednthree times as often as men.nThey are unavailable for duty from twonto two-and-a-half times as often asnmen. They leave the military at anhigher rate than men, and up to 17npercent are pregnant in any given year.nEleven percent, being single parents,nmust worry about child care. What wenhave on this sad showing is a militarynestablishment significantly less preparednto defend the country than annall-male military of comparable size.nJust here the eyes and the mind startnto roll in concert. It is like standing innfront of a funhouse mirror. Everythingnis wavy. The question before us is lifenand freedom, not employment opportunity,nyet opportunity is the onlynconsideration that seems to matternwhen the topic is military women.nFeminism-in-fatigues is the last laughnof that egalitarianism spawned by thenFrench Revolution two hundred yearsnago. At this point — the point at whichnwe assert that a female soldier is thensame as a male soldier — all is reducednto absurdity.nThe complementarity and mutualitynof the sexes is not what we talk aboutnanymore . . . the role of this one, thenrole of that one. We talk about interchangeableness,neven when we known(or should know) interchangeablenessnto be a lie. History instructs us as to thenmartial nature of the male; but itnteaches an even harder lesson, which isnthat social arrangements built on liesnare not long for this world. Things arenas they are; they are not necessarily asnthe silver-tongued and nimble-brainednwould like them.nFeminists now seeking to repeal thenlaw barring women from combat are innreality trying to repeal the laws ofnnature. These, unlike acts of Congress,nare unrepealable, but nonetheless variousnwomen won’t be happy until fellownwomen can get blown apart bynartillery shells, just like men. How’snthat for love, compassion, equality, andnthe rest of that good 20th-centurynstuff?nWilliam Murchison is an editorialnpage editor at the Dallas MorningnNews.nOne, Two, ManynColombiasnby Wayne LuttonnWarlords of Crime: Chinese SecretnSocieties — The New Mafianby Gerald L. PosnernNew York: McGraw-Hill;n289 pp., $18.95nGreat Britain’s decision to transferncontrol of Hong Kong to CommunistnChina by 1997 has spurred anflight from the colony. Despite reassurancesnfrom Beijing, money is flowingnout of Hong Kong at an acceleratingnrate. Among those who are movingntheir assets are the Chinese crimensyndicates — the Triads.nWhile they are expanding their criminalnempires in Western Europe andnCanada, the Triads’ destination of preferencenis the United States. Their presencenis growing and has promptednCalifornia Attorney General John Vannde Kamp to warn that, “There hasn’tnbeen a mass exodus of criminals on thisnscale since 1980, when Fidel Castronopened up his prisons and flushed thenworst elements of Cuban society — thenMarielitos — into Florida.” He fearsnthat the stage is being set for a “catastrophe,nunless we send word across thenPacific that this is a dangerous andninhospitable place for gangs to do business.”nThat Van de Kamp’s remarksnare not exaggerated is supported by thenfindings of New York City-based investigatornGerald Posner, author of thenfirst book-length account of the ChinesenTriads. In Warlords of Crime,nPosner traces the history of the Triadsnnnand reveals how their influence isnspreading across the country.nThe Triads date back to the 17thncentury, when patriotic Han Chinesenfounded secret societies to fight thenforeign Manchu invaders and restorenthe Ming dynasty. By the end of then19th century, many Triads had largelynabandoned their political idealism andnhad transformed themselves into highlynorganized criminal enterprises. Leadingnpoliticians, including Dr. Sun Yatsen,nfound it expedient to trade favorsnwith the powerful Triads, who gainedngreater opportunities for profits afternthe Manchu were finally overthrown innI9I1.nTriads have been active in HongnKong since 1842. During Wodd WarnII, they tended to cooperate with thenJapanese, to control the dockyards, andnwere able to penetrate the labor markets.nAdditional Triads fled to HongnKong, Macao (the nearby Portugesencolony that comes under Beijing authoritynin 1999), and Taiwan, afternMao seized power on the mainland inn1949.nPosner reports that today. HongnKong is the headquarters for at leastnfifty secret Triads, who have a combinednmembership of some 300,000npeople. One society, the 14 K Triad,nhas nearly 30,000 members. Posnernnotes that many Triad members are ofnChiu Chau descent, from the Swatownregion of southern China. They play anrole in Asian crime similar to that ofnthe Sicilians in the Italian Mafia.nTriads are involved in gambling,nprostitution, extortion, loansharking,nprotection rackets, murder-for-hire,nand political corruption. However,ntheir most important source of wealthnderives from their control of thenworld’s major supplies of heroin.nPosner escorts his readers on a tour ofnthe “Golden Triangle,” the hilly areanbordering Burma, Laos, and Thailand,nwhere over 70 percent of the worid’snopium is grown. As the author pointsnout, this virtual monopoly “gives themnan advantage that other criminal syndicatesndo not have. . . . Without heroinnthey are just another group of criminals.nWith heroin they have a potentialnfor profit unmatched in the annals ofnorganized crime.”nPosner explains how the opium isnrefined into heroin and discloses thenmethods used to smuggle tons of thatnDECEMBER 1989/35n