So because you think that there are those that will use it for political advantage, we should simply continue to discriminate so that they can't?
Oh, that's talk about "political advantage"
At the time of enlistment a 17 year-old female is expected to do 13 push-ups, compared to 35 for males, while for 41 year olds, the numbers are 6 (females) and 24 (males), respectively.
A 17 year old girl is expected to run 2 miles in 19 minutes, 42 seconds or less, which is 12 seconds more than a 41 year old man gets.
A 41 year old woman has to "run" 2 miles in 24 minus and 6 seconds, almost 5 minutes more than a man receives.
The military executes missions, and the generals and admirals understand that one of their most important missions - from the point of view of their personal advancement - is to recruit sufficient numbers of women to please their political masters. The only way to achieve that mission is to operate very unequal standards.