Defense secretary Ash Carter announced that beginning next year all roles and positions in the military must be open to female service member including combat units.
The United States Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter, announced on Thursday that beginning next year all military roles will be available to women including combat. Carter said that all jobs including infantry combat units as well as special forces operations are now open to female personnel.
The defense secretary said that current ban on women in combat roles will be officially eliminated in thirty days time and that all military branches will have until April 1, 2016 to open previously restricted roles to their female members, according to USA Today. Carter publicly stated that the United States can’t properly defend itself if half of the population can’t fight in combat.
Carter’s announcement was met with defiance in many quarters. United States Representative Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), who is on the House Armed Services Committee, said that Carter’s idea is little more than a politically motivated maneuver and that placing women in combat positions will hamper American combat units from performing at competent levels. He referenced a recent study done by the Marine Corps that showed that integrated combat units performed far worse in reality that did all male units.
The Marine Corps has already asked for certain exemptions but Carter forcefully denied any exceptions would be made. All combat positions must be open to women by the end of the month or waivers must be requested and those waivers must clearly demonstrate to Carter why females would not be able to accomplish the tasks required for membership in certain units.
United States Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) said that it was a decision to be made by the Congress as it is Congress who regulates the military. It is Congress who makes the rules, stated Senator McCain, not independent politicians.
One soldier, Dakota Meyer, who won the Medal of Honor as a Marine in Afghanistan, feels that it is a political rush to judgment by Carter and that his decision has been poorly thought out.
“Once again,” Meyer said, “politicians aren’t listening to their counterparts in the military.”
