The realities of the war in Iraq are making the debate over the role women should play in combat obsolete.

Consider Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester.

A 23-year-old soldier from the Kentucky National Guard, Hester on Thursday was awarded the Silver Star for valor in combat. She’s the first woman since World War II to receive the citation, which cites a soldier for gallantry in action against an enemy of the United States that has been performed with marked distinction.

Hester led a counterattack against a group of 50 insurgents who had ambushed a convoy that her military police unit was assigned to protect. Along with her squad leader, Staff Sgt. Timothy Nein – also a recipient of the Silver Star for his actions – Hester attacked an enemy position, killing at least three enemy fighters.

Another female soldier, Spec. Ashley J. Pullen, received the Bronze Star for her part in repelling the ambush and protecting the lives of other wounded U.S. soldiers.

More than 35 U.S. woman have been killed while serving in Iraq and another 300 have been wounded. Regardless of their assignments – women are currently limited to support jobs in the military and are not assigned to “frontline” combat units – female soldiers have answered the call of their country and are facing the enemy on a fractured and non-linear battlefield, where attack can come at any time and from any direction. There are no frontlines and no units immune from attack.

Under extreme circumstances, women soldiers have shown themselves time and again to be brave, skilled and capable of carrying out their duties.

That the U.S. House of Representatives felt compelled last month to again debate the role of women in the military shows that many are out of touch with the ugly reality of fighting against insurgents in a chaotic Iraq. A measure to further limit the military jobs open to women failed in May when Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and a bipartisan group of lawmakers rightly united in opposition.

Quaint ideas of chivalry and protecting the “weaker sex” have no place in the modern military. Women have distinguished themselves serving and fighting alongside their male comrades. In an all-volunteer military, desperate for qualified recruits, it’s time to stop building hurdles for willing soldiers who happen to be women and, instead, start tearing them down.