If you look at career Rangers, even the toughest and strongest men are seriously beat up and worn out by the time they retire from the physical wear, tear, abuse and injuries they received while in the service.
The Israeli army has had large scale experiments integrating women into front line combat units which demonstrate that women receive serious debilitating injuries that lead to permanent disability at an astronomical rate compared to men when placed in conditions that replicate actual combat conditions.
Israel is a special case given it's civil defense requirements so training women for combat is a necessity.
For the United States, women in front line combat will degrade military effectiveness in any engagement were soldiers are pushed to the limits of endurance and, more importantly, is going to result in many women taking early separation from the service due to serious permanent disability resulting from constant physical wear and tear combined with serious , debilitating injuries from training and actual combat.
As always, this will be a self correcting problem when we discover the long term physical consequences of women spending years in the military units such as the Rangers or Marines. In fact, this is already a known problem as the injury and disability rates for women are already high for women not in front line combat units.
This is not some hypothetical because we know what happens to the strongest, best trained and most physically fit men. In fact, a majority of men cannot meet the physical requirements for induction into front line combat units.
Just look at the toll such service takes on the men and multiply by factor of 10 or more to get a prediction of what it will do to women.
This does not even consider the fact that men in the military are exposed to all sorts of nasty chemicals that no women of child bearing age has any business being exposed to.
Reality and Common Sense are not a consideration in this "Politics Uber Alles" environment that constitutes our politically correct government society.
They are willing to take horrendous losses just so long as they don't have to admit they made a mistake.
There are two basic mantras of Liberal ideology. One is "CHANGE!!!!!!!" (Sweeping away the old, to make room for their NEW! Better! Ideology)
And "EQUALITY!!!!!!" (The Attempt to force everyone to be the least common denominator, and call it just as good as as what used to be the best.)
Both of these Liberal mantras are incorporated into this foolhardy policy. They get to sweep away the old, and they get to pretend equality. Both notions gives them orgasms, and they do not in fact care if their "CHANGE" makes things worse, and they do not care if their "EQUALITY!!" makes things worse either.
The powers that be are insulated enough from the consequences of the stupidity that they advocate that they have no concern for what a hash their ideas will make of society.
If you need an example, I direct your attention to Venezuela.
rdcbn, Your comments on the stresses and physical wear and tear on the body are spot on. Women’s skeletal structures are far different. This applies not just to upper body strength. It has a huge impact on the number of leg injuries such as shin splints and stress fractures which side line women more often.