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Women in the military are useless to Fox News' Tucker Carlson. The Pentagon wants more.
The U.S. armed forces require all the smart and determined people they can get because the all-volunteer force is struggling to fill its ranks.
March 13, 2021, 4:30 AM EST
By Sébastien Roblin, military writer
Tucker Carlson is sounding the alarm: “So we’ve got new hairstyles and maternity flight suits. Pregnant women are going to fight our wars," he said on his Fox News program Tuesday, referring to new grooming standards in the Army and a program to develop a flight suit for pregnant military personnel. "It's a mockery of the U.S. military. While China's military becomes more masculine as it's assembled the world's largest navy, our military needs to become, as Joe Biden says, more feminine."
The Fox News host’s wildly offensive comments received a well-deserved rebuke from the military. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the remarks inspired “revulsion,” while the Pentagon’s press secretary stated the institution wasn’t going to take personnel advice from “a talk-show host or the Chinese military.” On social media, both serving and retired military women took aim at Carlson’s message.
The across-the-ranks response demonstrated why Carlson’s claims were insulting and pathetic. But even if that doesn’t bother you, his verbal disparagement of female service members is also completely contrary to the needs of the American military and national security. Quite simply, the U.S. armed forces require all the smart and determined people they can get because the all-volunteer force is struggling to fill its ranks.
U.S. military branches frequently experience fluctuations in recruitment and have in recent years resorted to waiving recruitment standards and offering more generous financial incentives, both to lure new recruits and entice experienced personnel to re-enlist. Women represent a huge, undertapped pool of potential talent — if they can be persuaded to enlist and, especially, to re-enlist.
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https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/women-military-are-useless-fox-news-tucker-carlson-pentagon-wants-ncna1260958
