Amanda Terkel reports that a military advisory panel says the ban on women soldiers engaging in direct ground combat is discriminatory:
"The Commission recommends that DoD and Services remove a structural barrier for women," reads the report, which commissioners met to review Thursday and Friday. "The current DoD and Service policies barring women from direct ground combat career fields and assignments have been in place since the early 1990s. As previously described, these policies constitute a structural barrier that keeps women from entering the tactical career fields associated with promotion to flag/general officer grades and serving in career enhancing assignments. The Commission considered four strands of argument related to rescinding the policies."
By focusing on vague questions of "troop readiness" and ignoring the fact that women already see combat, we miss out on a larger issue that the panel is pointing out: The barrier actually prevents women from getting combat pay and from having the same long-term career opportunities as men. And that is discrimination.
-- Shani O. Hilton
