'No Women in Combat Roles,' Says Rick Santorum
Rick Santorum, who is no stranger to drawing ire from comments of the campaign trail, may have done it again when he announced he wants no women in combat roles.
The comments came after the Pentagon said it wants to open up thousands of jobs that could see more woman on the front lines in combat zones.
Santorum said the move would put U.S. troops in harms way.
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"When you have men and women together in combat, I think men have emotions when you see a woman in harm's way,'' Santorum said on "Today." "I think it's something that's natural that's very much in our culture to be protective. That was my concern, and I think that's a concern with all the military.''
But Santorum may have no say.
The move by the Pentagon goes into effect in 30 days unless Congress steps in. The new policy, in essence, removes older policies, which banned women from taking part in certain "dangerous" jobs in the military.
Santorum said that the move would not prove to be beneficial either to the men or women in the military, or the military as a whole.
"(It's) because of that reason of a sort of natural inclination to not focus on the mission because of the natural inclination to want to protect someone because it's natural within our culture," he said.
The Republican presidential candidate went on to say that gender roles could prove harmful to the military if men and women fought in fierce battle side by side.
"The issue…is how men would react to seeing women in harm's way or potentially being injured or in a vulnerable position and not being concerned about accomplishing the mission," Santorum said.
Santorum has been trailing Mitt Romney, who has won several key primary states in the battle for the GOP nomination.
