Female Marine captain on combat roles: Major 'discrepancy' between reality and policy

On Current TV's The War Room, Marine Capt. Zoe Bedell -- who is part of a federal lawsuit filed by the ACLU that aims to get the Pentagon to reverse course on the ban of women in combat -- explains why she believes the rules should be changed.

Guest host John Fugelsang interviewed Bedell and began the segment by listing the countries that allow women in combat roles, such as Israel and France.

Bedell believes America prevents women from assuming certain combat positions because the country is attached to the old rules. "It's not really taking into account the change in the modern warfare today and the fact that women have really been in combat for the last ten years and the last two wars we've been in," she argues.

"I don't have to argue about how good women are, or the nature of women, if we're aggressive enough. I can just point to the last ten years of history and the fact that they have been doing this, and they've been doing it very well."

There are now roughly 240,000 job slots that women cannot fill.

Bedell described one mission where she led a group of 46 female soldiers into a dangerous area of Afghanistan to gather intelligence and talk with the women in the region.

"We got to do things that women often don't get to do in the military, but it also made you realize that my marines are out there patrolling, I was patrolling with all these male marines, and if someone attacked us we all fought back, and it really emphasized the discrepancy between the reality and the policy," she said.

While women do serve in combat despite the ban, Bedell claims the ban creates high barriers for promotions and advancement, citing statistics that 80 percent of generals are promoted from positions officially off-limits to women. "Why not give yourself the widest pool to pick from?" she asks.

Watch the video, via Current TV, below.