The beautiful thing about business is that it is often explicitly measurable.
You do what works, and it is evidenced by the margin.
For over 200 years now, the United States Military has operated on a similar framework.
You do what works, and it is evidenced by life and death.
Then again, there are politicians and social movements that would subject both our men and women to what doesn’t work for the sake of their progressive movement.
As a United States Marine Infantry Veteran of Iraq, I just have to say this: I’m glad I am out.
It is Not About the Ladies
To any females reading this article, I want you to know that my opposition to women in certain combat jobs is not about keeping you underneath any particular glass ceiling.
Women have been serving honorably and risking their lives in combat for a long time now, and I applaud that courage.
Rather, I’m really just talking about the infantry.
The Marine Corps conducted very rigorous studies over the past couple of years regarding gender-integrated infantry units.
And in every case, without exception, the all-male units vastly outperformed the gender-integrated units.
The infantry is a physical affair that is very unforgiving once bullets start flying down range.
To be able to pull your own weight, quite literally, is essential.
And if you ask infantry Marines, they will tell you that they have disdain for males who cannot do so but join the infantry anyway.
There is no tank to sit in and no aircraft to ride.
An infantry unit will go with a full combat load just as far as their feet will take them.
And then once they get there, they either have the strength to fight a determined enemy or die.
And while there is a prospect that standards will remain intact, one has to wonder if the same social movement that forced our military to do what measurably does not work in combat will now force them to lower those same standards over time.
Israel, a nation surrounded by enemies, proudly employs women in the service, and the country is often heralded as one who puts women in the infantry.
That is, until you do a little digging and realize it undid that decision because it didn’t work.
Women still serve, but they are in rear-echelon roles and not at the front.
The Cost of Coercion
It is really no different than a tax, a regulation, or a government agency stepping in to slow down your business.
You have every incentive to pursue profit as it is, and when they come in with these regulations, it is not as if they are actually helping that cause.
The same is true of the Military.
They have every incentive to do what keeps our guys alive and kills the bad guys.
Trust me, when you hear the crack and snap of a bullet fly overhead, you are only thinking about what is going to work — not what’s socially progressive or morally upstanding.
The NFL is also in the “what works” business.
Can you imagine your favorite professional or college football team being told they have to put at least three women on the offensive line?
Much less is on the line in a game of sport than is in combat.
There will be cost to this coerced policy, and it will not just be borne by the men.
The women who would take up this mantle of joining the infantry will find out harshly if they were wrong in the worst possible way.
The enemy in a firefight is not thinking about our social movements.
They are thinking about what works, and 99% of the time, what works is killing the other guy.
So if in any manner possible the inclusion of women makes that easier for them, they are just fine with that.
But take note just how many of them have women serving in front-line infantry positions.
The Military is, or used to be, in the business of what works and nothing else.
So while I will pray for my fellow service members who still serve, men and women, there is a little piece of me that sits back and says to myself, I can’t help but be glad that I’m a Veteran.
