US allies repudiate doubts about women in combat

HALIFAX, Canada — Some NATO allies are indignant over new questions in Washington about the role of women in the military after President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be defense secretary rejected the idea of women serving in frontline combat roles.

Former Fox News commentator and Army National Guard veteran Pete Hegseth said on a recent podcast that “I’m straight up saying we should not have women in combat roles,” raising fears among Defense Department officials that progress for women in the military, allowing female service members into combat branches like artillery, armor, infantry and special operations, could be rolled back.

The response from NATO allies has been swift, with current and former top military officers fuming that they have to rehash the debate.

“After 39 years of a career as a combat arms officer and risking my life in many ops across the world, I can’t believe that in 2024 we still have to justify the contribution of women to their defense and to their service in their country,” Canadian military chief Gen. Jennie Carignan said at the Halifax International Security Forum on Saturday.

She received a standing ovation from the audience of defense and national security officials at the forum.

Carignan was one of a pile-on of attendees at the confab in Canada expressing similar sentiments, particularly after Sen. Jim Risch (R-Id.) didn’t dismiss Hegseth’s comments at the forum.

“I think it’s delusional for anybody to not agree that women in combat creates certain unique situations that have to be dealt with, I think the jury’s still out on how to do that,” said Risch, who is slated to become the next chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Other military officials were even more blunt than Carignan. “If we are not willing to use half the population on something so important, then we are stupid,” Royal Netherlands Navy Adm. Rob Bauer, the chair of NATO’s Military Committee, said at the conference on Friday.

The Obama administration first allowed women to serve in combat roles starting in 2015, when then-U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter opened all U.S. military jobs to female service members.

Hegseth’s comments, and the release of a police report detailing graphic sexual assault allegations against Hegseth dating back to 2017, have raised fears among defense officials at the Pentagon that if the Trump ally is confirmed by the Senate to lead the agency, his tenure could halt progress on ending sex abuses in the military — which ticked up during the first Trump administration — and even the recruitment of women.

Carignan and others, including the retired Army Gen. Mark Milley, have noted that women have been serving in combat for much longer.

“Women have been participating in combat for hundreds of years however they have never been recognized for doing so, they have been demobilized quickly and then quickly forgotten about their service and their commitment,” Carignan added.

On a practical level, moving women out of combat roles across the U.S. military would create a massive disruption within the active duty and reserve forces. Jobs that troops have performed for years would suddenly be left vacant and career paths upended. Female enlisted troops and officers and their families would also have to move to different installations at significant cost to take any job they can find.

“I think we need to say very clearly to women in the United States that we would like those women who are interested, who meet the qualifications to join the military,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, set to be the next ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said at the forum. “Right now about 18 percent of our military are women. We are not meeting our recruitment goals as it is. If women think they can’t participate fully in our military and take on combat roles, that’s gonna have an impact on what women are willing to join our military.”

“That will be very clearly asked at the hearing for Mr. Hegseth,” Shaheen added.

The armed services have fallen short of their recruitment goals in recent years, and have had to curtail their recruitment targets to meet new numbers to reflect the crisis. Excluding women from critical roles could only worsen those issues as jobs are left open and disruptive personnel moves take up time and effort.