First female pilot for UAE bombs ISIS, Fox News host asks if that counts as 'boobs on the ground'


Two of today's biggest issues — the ongoing conflict with ISIS and gender equality — came together Thursday when the United Arab Emirates' ambassador to the U.S. confirmed that a female pilot led the UAE's latest airstrike mission against ISIS. Emerati Ambassador Yousef al Otaiba officially confirmed the rumors on MSNBC after getting approval to do so, he said. The strikes in question occurred Monday night.
Reports about Major Mariam Al Mansouri had surfaced Wednesday after Fox News' Bret Baier confirmed she had led the UAE's mission. Al Mansouri is the UAE's first female Air Force pilot. Baier's Fox News colleague Kimberly Guilfoyle gleefully reported the news on The Five on Wednesday, and while her introduction of the issue was questionable — "I wish it was an American pilot," she said — the response of her male co-anchors was undeniably worse. Watch below:
To recap: Woman leads an airstrike against major terrorist organization, man references her boobs. Welcome to 2014.
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Kimberly Alters is the news editor at TheWeek.com. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
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