Penna Dexter

Flanked by a couple of female generals, President Biden spoke recently at an event marking International Women’s Day. In comments on the speech, Fox News host Tucker Carlson wondered how the military’s focus on placing women in combat and procuring maternity flight suits is really going to help us deal with the rising Chinese military threat. Considering this push, plus the Biden administration’s announcement that the Pentagon will pay for gender reassignment surgery for active-duty personnel, one does wonder whether the Biden White House just might be elevating social justice over military readiness. In 2015, the Obama Administration opened all of the military’s ground-combat arms to women. Defense Secretary Ash Carter told National Review that women could serve in Army and Marine Corps Infantry units “as long as they qualify and meet the standards.” The Army has a new gender-neutral Combat Fitness Test. The question is: will those standards remain gender-neutral? Sixty-five percent of women have been failing the test, compared to only 10 percent of men. Combat experience is seen as a way to enhance female leadership opportunities. Advocates want the test changed to achieve equality of outcomes. Already, there are reports that Army brass is giving some consideration to making the requirements different for men and women. There’s another unwelcome eventuality: The chief impediment to requiring women to register for the draft has been their ability to perform well in combat positions. In 1981 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Congress’ mandate that draft registration be limited to men. That decision is now being challenged by the National Coalition for Men. A federal district court in Texas ruled in favor of the plaintiff, but the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit overturned that ruling last year. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will decline to review the 5^th Circuit’s decision. Women are valuable military assets. However, we need our military to be at maximum strength and lethality. Placing women in combat undermines that goal.