It doesn't matter if a woman can pass the physical, or if she can carry you on the beach, if she's a better pilot than you, or can kick your ass in hand-to-hand combat. Shield maidens!
This is the argument the left wants, that some women are more capable than some men, because they know it's an argument they will win.
It's an utterly irrelevant argument.
Why does our military exist? At it's core, to protect our way of life. When two dissimilar cultures go to war, their militaries are expressions of their cultures. The more successful culture will win and thrive. The inferior culture will either learn or will either and die.
Our culture, our western culture, or American culture, has many tremendous values that have made us the most successful people in the history of humanity. We respect the individual, we foster creativity, we reward intelligence coupled with hard work, and our men protect our women and children.
Why do our men protect our women and children? Because cultures that cherish and protect their women and children defeated those that didn't. Protecting women and children, may seem common sense, but it is actually a unique and defining aspect of our culture, that our military exists to defend.
Putting our women, our pregnant women, in harm's way... what exactly are we fighting to protect?
You are correct from a Total War perspective. It makes 0 sense to send women to war because in Total War, a woman's greatest contribution is her ability to have children. If a Total War breaks out it could be generational in length so population demographics are key to victory. Women should be having more children not fighting. Any 18-40yo woman sent to battle is a woman who could be having children. If she has two children and raises them she has contributed more than she would have going herself to fight.
The reason why the US Military is pushing women in the military is because the military isn't planning for total war. The military is planning for its usual excursions to other countries to increase profit for the wealthy elites. It's not about protecting America but about enhancing the wealth of the elites. For this, women serve just fine for their purposes. In fact, in a lot of ways, women are better because women follow orders (question them much less) better than men. The US Military is specifically targeting women because the amount of men willing to join is shrinking not to mention the number of fighting fit men is abysmally low. By widening their breadth to women they can make this problem go away for them. It's a much easier fix than fixing the underlying social issues that is causing less men to join the military and less fighting fit men from turning 18yos.