Women in combat is an issue that is probably open for debate among my colleagues.
What I think we'd all agree on is that the issue shouldn't be decided on the basis of what is PC.
So it is disheartening that famously PC Navy Secretary Ray Mabus seems to be going all out to impose PC dogma on the military, even when it contradicts what experienced officers and an important study tell him.
Incoming Commandant of the Marines Gen. Joseph Dunford, who takes over soon as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is expected to request a waiver on putting women in all combat positions. There is a debate over whether Mabus can veto such a request, but, if he can, he will.
If Dunford goes forward and asks for a waiver, it will be based not on prejudice against women but in part on the experiences and perceptions of officers and also on a study:
Informing Dunford's decision is the Marine Corps' yearlong study on gender integration. It concluded that, overall, male-only units performed better than gender-integrated units. It found that the male-only infantry units shot more accurately, could carry more weight and move more quickly through specific tactical movements. It also concluded that women had higher injury rates than men, including stress fractures that likely resulted from carrying heavy loads.
The report acknowledged that "female Marines have performed superbly in the combat environments of Iraq and Afghanistan and are fully part of the fabric of a combat-hardened Marine Corps after the longest period of continuous combat operations in the Corps' history."
Women make up less than 8 percent of the Marine Corps, the smallest percentage across the four active-duty services.
But the report also pointed to the 25-year-old report by a presidential commission on women in the armed forces that concluded: "Risking the lives of a military unit in combat to provide career opportunities or accommodate the personal desires or interests of an individual, or group of individuals, is more than bad military judgment. It is morally wrong."
Mabus has said that the study relied on averages. What is it supposed to rely on?
There are some women who support opening up these positions to women because it will provide more opportunities for career advancement for women. But it might also deter other women from seeking careers in the military. Marine Sgt. Danielle Beck, a female anti-armor gunner, said that Mabus had "completely rolled the Marine Corps" in refusing to accept and act on these findings.
Magus is quoted saying:
“I’m not going to ask for an exemption for the Marines, and it’s not going to make them any less fighting effective,” he said, adding that the Navy SEALs also will not seek any waivers. “I think they will be a stronger force because a more diverse force is a stronger force. And it will not make them any less lethal.”
To which David French of National Review responds:
A more diverse force is a stronger force? Is this guy a university dean or the leader of arguably — pound-for-pound — America’s most deadly fighting force? Rather than reciting Ivy League slogans, perhaps he should pay attention to the actual evidence. . . .
I know I’m only a JAG officer, but even I know that accuracy is directly relevant to lethality — as is the ability to stay in the fight without getting injured. And that’s not even taking into account the profoundly important issue of unit cohesion.
The Marines are fighting a valiant rear-guard action, but they’re in a race with the PC clock. The left wants to transform the military as much as it can before it faces a new president, and social justice warriors firmly believes that social justice delayed is social justice denied.
The Marines are fighting a valiant rear-guard action, but they’re in a race with the PC clock. The left wants to transform the military as much as it can before it faces a new president, and social justice warriors firmly believes that social justice delayed is social justice denied.
Forget "Damned the Torpedoes!"
Mabus says, "Damned the evidence!"
Let's hope nobody gets hurt, but if you put soldiers who who shoot less accurately and aren't as strong as others on the front lines, a lot of people will be hurt, and some will lose their lives unnecessarily.