From BBC NEWS World

US rejects ban on women in combat
“Republicans in the US Congress have ditched a flat ban on women in combat."

The first I heard about this was an article earlier today that has disappeared completely (sorry) which discussed how the US Congress were deciding about legislating to ban women from the front lines of battle.
Not fully understanding the headline, further reading of the article told me that female US troops are currently banned from fighting on the front line but since the conflict in Iraq involves “fighting insurgents” (ie unplanne skirmishes) there is no front line and so women are both involved and killed in direct combat with the opposition.
This led lawmakers to propose that women be banned from any kind of situation that might find them under direct attack.

My first reaction was a raised eyebrow: reading on just had me exclaim aloud “What the fuck?"
It seems that the US Army’s major objection to this proposal was that it would be difficult to supply replacement male troops for the female troops they’d have to stand down. That’s pathetic enough as an excuse for this bizarre reverse sexism, but what I really can’t grasp is why the Pentagon banned female front-line combat in the first place.

Reasons? Anyone?