[TheMaleBrain]

Here is a nice article which basically sums it all up:

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Putting women into close combat roles isn’t fair to the men who will be relying on them, and isn’t fair to the women who will find themselves continuously at a deadly disadvantage

Why?

Well, here is one:

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A recent study, for instance, by Britain’s Tri-Service Review found that mixed-gender combat units have “lower survivability,” a “reduced lethality rate” and reduced deployability. This study, along with countless others done over the last 40 years, demonstrate that combat capabilities are so heavily weighted toward men that the gap cannot be closed.

You need more? Here is another:

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But the last 40 years of aggressive integration efforts by the U.S. military have shown that women cannot meet the same rigorous standards as men — and the answer has been to implement different standards for women, while lowering the standards for men, too

That wasn't enough, wasn't it?

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“Women soldiers are challenged by some field combat duties — carrying five-gallon cans of fuel and water, changing armor vehicle track and heavy truck tires, carrying 100-plus-pound loads of ammunition and fighting gear on extended dismounted operations, carrying stretchers of wounded soldiers, and the brute labor required to dig in fighting positions,”

It get's worse:

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Army drill instructors were required to wear “empathy bellies” and fake breasts to better empathize with pregnant women.

We are not done yet:

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Another common argument is that women are already dying in combat zones, so it’s only fair to formalize what they are doing...
The women who have died in service to their country need to be honored, but they should not be honored by increasing the chances that other servicemen and women will die as well

As an Israeli, I can somehow relate to the next section:

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In particular, modern-day Israel is often cited as an example of women successfully fulfilling combat roles...women no longer participate in front-line IDF combat units

Yes, you have heard it. Almost no female went inside the Gaza strip last year, or has served inside Lebanon in the 2006 war.

Read more about actual difference in performance between male and female:

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Men are not simply bigger women with different plumbing. Men’s blood carries 10 to 12 percent more oxygen per liter than does a women’s; and men’s VO2 max, a measure of the top rate of oxygen consumption, is 40 to 60 percent greater than that of women. An average fit man will weigh about 23 percent more, have 50 percent more muscle mass, and carry 10 percent less body fat than an average fit woman. Pound for pound, men have thicker skulls, bigger, stronger necks, hearts that are 17 percent larger, and bones that are both bigger and denser. Despite being much heavier, men’s vertical leap is nearly 50 percent greater than that of women.

So, we are physically stronger. How about mentally?

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For the kind of violent events and situations found on the battlefield, women are far more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder and experience the symptoms for a longer duration than men. Despite the gender-specific ability to handle the pain of childbirth, “study after study” conclusively shows that men have a much higher overall tolerance for pain than women

Wait. Did someone just say that females are "less tolerant" than males?


Surely having that second X chromosome will help the female...Wouldn't it?

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One Army study focusing on Operation Iraqi Freedom found women are almost twice as likely to suffer from non-combat related disease and injuries and are twice as likely to be medevac’d out of the theater of operations. Historical non-deployment rates for women are three to four times than that of men. Women suffer many times the rate of stress fractures and ACL injuries

Well, at least unit moral will be high, having girls around...wouldn't it?

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platoon commanders in co-ed units already deal with a tremendous amount of drama, pregnancies, and sex in the co-ed unit barracks

So, just to sum it all up:

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What we have is a modern-day case of the emperor’s new clothes. But over the decades, so many compromises to the truth have been made and careers advanced by hiding or glossing over gender-integration issues in the military that it will take more than one small voice standing athwart the road yelling “stop!”