Now if this were ancient Sparta, and the Persians were at the gates of the city, this sort of thing might not be a bad idea. Then again, the difference is that Sparta’s women actually had some idea which end of a spear to use in combat. This, on the other hand, cannot possibly end well:

U.S. military leaders on Thursday formally lifted the ban on women serving in combat positions, with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta saying women have become an “integral part” of the military and have already demonstrated their willingness to fight during the wars of the last decade. 

“It’s clear to all of us that women are contributing in unprecedented ways to the military’s mission of defending the nation,” Panetta said. 

The change would open hundreds of thousands of front-line positions and potentially elite commando jobs to women. Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey both approved the change Thursday, and the White House separately said it endorsed the decision. 

The groundbreaking move recommended by the Joint Chiefs of Staff overturns a 1994 rule banning women from being assigned to smaller ground combat units. Panetta’s decision gives the military services until January 2016 to seek special exceptions if they believe any positions must remain closed to women. 

He argued that women, who already make up 15 percent of the force, have increasingly found themselves in the “reality of combat” during Iraq and Afghanistan. He said not everyone can meet the qualifications to be a combat soldier but that everyone is entitled the opportunity.   

“They’re serving in a growing number of critical roles on and off the battlefield,” Panetta said of women. “They have become an integral part of our ability to perform our mission.” 

Some front-line military roles may open to women as soon as this year. Assessments for others, such as special operations forces, including Navy SEALS and the Army’s Delta Force, may take longer. 

I don’t care how politically incorrect it is to state the obvious. Women have absolutely no place in front-line combat. And indeed, I would go farther and argue that they have no place in the military, full stop. This has been known for more than 20 years, ever since Operation Desert Storm:

President Bush in 1992 created the Presidential Commission on the Deployment of Women in the Military to determine the capability of women severing in direct combat positions. “The Commission showed that women were three times more nondeployable than men, primarily due to pregnancy, during Operations Desert Shield and Storm.” 

Moreover, fitness standards for military admissions have already been loosened to accommodate the growing weakness of the average American male. What happens when that standard is loosened even further to accommodate physically weaker women? And I’m sure the all-male Islamists of the Taliban are going to  surrender when they see that they’re about to be engaged by a gaggle of women armed with assault rifles and clad in headscarves.

There really is no apparent limit to human stupidity. In the name of “progress”, our Wise and Benevolent Overlords would seek to introduce women into a field which they have absolutely no business being in. As Vox pointed out in his riff on the subject:

To be honest, I’d like to see the Obama take it even farther and make it an all-female military.  Somewhere, there is a Chinese general reading his tablet and laughing.