Pentagon reviewing combat roles for women

The US Department of Defense is launching a review of the effectiveness of having women serve in ground combat roles, which were opened to female troops a decade ago, the Pentagon said Tuesday. The review is being undertaken by the non-profit Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) to "ensure standards are met and the United States maintains the most lethal military," Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson said in a statement. "Our standards for combat arms positions will be elite, uniform, and sex neutral because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn't care if you're a man or a woman," Wilson said, adding that the Pentagon "will not compromise standards to satisfy quotas or an ideological agenda."