Four women have sued the...

the United States Department of Defense because of the rules that exclude women in the U.S. military from combat.  As it happens, all four have served in Iraq and/or Afghanistan and two of the four were wounded in action.

What do they want?  They went the ban on women serving in combat units to be lifted.  The argument is that in the world in which we live today, there are no longer well-defined "front-lines" of combat.  The entirety of Afghanistan is a combat zone and woman are at risk of finding themselves in a combat situation even as so-called "rear area bases".

What is really at stake?  This is perhaps best illustrated by some numbers:

38
1

741
2

That top number of 38 is the number of 4 star generals (admirals in the Navy) currently on active duty with the U.S. military.  The number of 1 represents how many of those are women.

The lower number of 741 is the number of 4 star officers that have been promoted to that rank in the entire history of the U.S. military.  The number of 2 represents how many of those were women.  No woman ever rose to the rank of 4 star general until 2008.

For those who aren't familiar with the military, there are "combat" units and "non-combat" units.  For example, an infantry platoon in the Army or Marine Corps is a combat unit. A support company would be a non-combat unit.  The most direct route for a commissioned officer to advance is to command a combat unit.  Women can't command combat units, so their opportunities for advancement are limited.

It works in Israel.  Currently, 92% of all roles in the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) are open to women.  Women comprise 33% of all of its soldiers and 51% of its officers.  In fact, military service is mandatory in Israel and both men and women have a required service commitment.

If we were living in the era of World War II, or even Vietnam, then there was a fairly well defined line that could be seen on a map where on one side, combat was going on and on the other, it wasn't.  That wasn't 100% accurate, but it was damn close.  Women in rear areas rarely saw any shots fired in anger.  That is no longer true.

I hope these women win their lawsuit and all military roles are opened up to women.  If a woman can become a SEAL or a Marine Corps sniper, more power to her.