Meet the Press   |  February 03, 2013

Dempsey on women in combat: we won’t change standards for women

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey tells Chuck Todd that his primary job is to maintain the “readiness of the force” and he won’t allow that to be compromised.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>> in combat. implementing that. is there some movement on capitol hill to pass a law to make sure you don't change standards, somehow lower standards. do you think that's good legislation?

>> they can legislate if they like. they don't have to do that, because --

>> you're not going to change your stance?

>> we're going to make sure we have the right standards for right job to maintain the readiness of the force. my primary responsibility is the readiness of the force. there's also requirement as we open up occupational specialties to report to congress, and they would have the opportunity to ask us what we've done to standards. look, this really is about changing the paradigm from one of exclusiveness to inclusiveness to do the best job, to make the best force, for joint force 2020 , which is where we're looking. we have to get from here to 2020 , and make sure we have the right talent in the force. and this is part of it.