There was substantial resistance--and ignorance--to overcome, but yesterday Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announced that the Pentagon's official ban on women serving in combat roles will be lifted. The ban was a fiction--woman have continuously served in combat zones, and they have been injured and killed in the course of that service. But the fiction was significant, since it meant that women were not entitled to the full pay and benefits that generally accompanies such service. All of that will now change. Congratulations are due to the women who stepped forward to challenge the constitutionality of this ban, and also to their ACLU lawyers for helping to bring this change about.
