New combat rules for women come too late, stop too short

Over a quarter of a million women have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, and 144 of them have been killed. They have performed functions akin to combat - from tank mechanics to medics. Until this review, the Pentagon had essentially turned a blind eye to the reality that the demand for troops and the length of the wars had meant women were standing side by side with men. But women could never technically be assigned to infantry units, which has hindered career advancement. Now, at least, they can serve in battalions, ground units of 800 men (and now women) in jobs ranging from radio operators to intelligence officers. Still off limits, however, are direct ground combat infantry and Special Operations.

The Pentagon’s failure to adopt more aggressive reforms at this stage is a lost opportunity for the armed services, as well as female recruits. Defying logic, the Pentagon said it found no evidence that assignment exclusions hurt women’s careers; yet women are only 7 percent of flagged officers, even though they make up twice that proportion of active-duty military.

The Defense Department should have focused on devising gender-neutral physical requirements for specific jobs and let those requirements weed out unqualified candidates, both men and women. But the Pentagon seems to have wanted to avoid a political battle in the midst of a presidential campaign, and just a few months after the “don’t ask, don’t tell’’ policy was rescinded. Indeed, the decision was embraced by Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum who felt that keeping women out of direct combat was wise because they may be distracted by “other types of emotions that are involved.’’

Hopefully, after the election, the Pentagon will continue the long process of giving women equal status in the armed forces, regardless of all those emotions.