Ex-military chief slaps down declare by Trump protection secretary decide that girls shouldn’t serve in fight | EUROtoday

A former army chief has hit again at Donald Trump’s Defense Secretary nominee over remarks made about ladies serving within the armed forces.

General Mark Milley, who served because the twentieth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, mentioned that the US army “must be and always should be” standards-based, as he referred to as out the feedback by Pete Hegseth.

Hegseth, a army veteran and former Fox News host, was introduced because the President-elect’s alternative for secretary of protection final week, in a transfer that triggered consternation throughout the political aisle. He served 13 years as a part-time member of the National Guard, culminating within the rank of main.

“It hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated,” Hegseth mentioned in an interview earlier this month. He went on so as to add that he was “straight-up saying we should not have women in combat roles.”

Speaking at a nationwide safety innovation occasion hosted by the Pallas Foundation on Thursday, Milley, who served because the nation’s highest-ranking army officer, reacted to the feedback.

“Don’t lecture me about women in combat,” he mentioned. “Women have been in combat and it doesn’t matter if that 762 (bullet) hits you in the chest, no one gives a s*** if it’s a woman or guy who pulled the trigger – you’re still dead.”

He continued: “If you meet the standards, our military must be and always should be a standards-based merit-based military, period, full stop. Doesn’t matter if you are white, Black, a man, a woman, a Catholic or a Protestant.

“What matters are standards, readiness standards. Do you meet the standard or not? If yes, pass go, collect 200, join the infantry.”

According to service knowledge reviewed by Military.com, there are presently round 3,800 ladies serving in frontline military fight roles throughout infantry, cavalry, armor and subject artillery roles. The knowledge consists of energetic obligation, reserve and National Guard, and encompasses enlisted and officers.

In the Marine Corps, practically 700 ladies are serving in fight roles, together with 112 feminine infantry riflemen and 15 Marine officers, the information confirmed.

Though Milley served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff throughout Trump’s first stint in workplace, holding the place from 2019 to 2023, the connection between the pair turned tumultuous.

In September 2023, the President-elect appeared to indicate that Milley deserved to be executed after talking with a Chinese basic throughout Trump’s fraught remaining months in workplace.

“This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH! A war between China and the United States could have been the result of this treasonous act,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on the time.

Milley later mentioned that he would “take appropriate measures” to make sure his and his household’s private security within the wake of the remarks.