From the Panetta article: Fine. Gender-neutral, gender-blind changes -- these cannot hurt the military if they are followed. But when affirmative action was introduced, if the supporters had been asked, "Will this at all lower the intelligence level of our higher education system by even once substituting someone less intelligent on the basis of his or her race?" -- what would they have said? Apparently I'm not asking the right questions. Here's one: will this at all lower the effectiveness of our military by even once substituting someone less combat effective on the basis of gender? I hope not, and from what you've written I guess you believe it won't.For instance, the defense official said, it's likely the Army will establish a set of physical requirements for infantry soldiers. The candidate, man or woman, will have to lift a certain amount of weight in order to qualify. The standards will be gender neutral.