As published at Stream.org August 17, 2016.

Maybe the Marine high command should take a break from their busy work of social re-engineering and enjoy the final week of the Olympics. They might learn something about men and women the rest of us take for granted.

The first thing that they would notice is that the world continues, as it always has, to not watch men competing against women. Are the Olympics just another relic of patriarchy, or do we know something arch-leftists don’t? What we know is that if women competed against men in the toughest sporting competition on the globe they would never medal and likely would be phased out completely.

This was underscored when a young boy “identifying” as a girl was allowed to compete against real girls on an Alaskan high school track event and won. (So much for girl power). Yet, as AP reports, the Marine command wants to troll high school sports teams for female athletes to fill Marine jobs, including combat positions. Here the stakes are not medals and reputation but life, limb and our country’s national security.

Recruiters forced to meet Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus’ quota of 25% female representation and General Robert Neller’s new dictate of 10 percent for the Marines would see many young women’s star athleticism cut short by recruiters who will be pressed to entice these young women with misleading talk about the equality of the sexes.

Equality in dignity and worth: check. Equality in human rights: check. Equality double timing it for miles under an enormous field pack over rough terrain, or carrying a 200-pound wounded Marine and his gear and weapon off a battlefield, or going hand-to-hand with an ISIS soldier who wants to kill, disable, or make you a star in their next YouTube video? Not so much.

Quotas are King

But as long as the diversity numbers are “right” who cares if the military actually functions to purpose? AP reports Neller telling his recruiters, “Go find them. They’re out there.” Except that they’re not, really. Young women who know what’s good and not good for their bodies want nothing to do with the infantry. Most women don’t want to join the military at all let alone it’s toughest branch.

Some 37% of female Marine recruits don’t even make it to boot camp graduation where they’re training to become basically qualified, not infantry. We’re 0 for 31 on female officers trying to complete the Infantry Officer’s Course, and they can’t find anyone else who wants to try.

Military women already average two to ten times men’s injuries in support units where the physical requirements are much less. The military is hard on the body — much more so for women. Are recruiters informing young women of this fact? Hardly.

If it worked, why aren’t women competing with men in wrestling, football, the UFC or any other full contact sport? Because doing so doesn’t help us thrive, much less win.

What does it say about this administration and compliant generals like Neller that they want women to compete in the most lethal activity known to mankind despite unchanging disproportionate liability?

You Can’t Debunk the Truth

General Paul Kennedy, head of the Marine Corps Recruiting Command, told the AP that “he is working to debunk misconceptions about women in the Marine Corps, including worries about sexual harassment and sexual assault, limits on career options, lack of stability and difficulties having a family life.” But you can’t debunk the truth. Although sexual assault numbers are often inflated because in addition to actual assault they include unwanted touching or overhearing a dirty joke, sexual assault is absolutely something women need to be aware of when entering the military’s toughest, most male-dominated branch.

Military life, especially in combat units, is not stable. It’s a constantly changing environment with new demands always on the horizon and obligation to follow orders including frequent moves and deployments. Women can enjoy life-long military careers — not being in the infantry doesn’t stop one from joining the highest ranks — but it’s extremely difficult and most women don’t want to do it — primarily because their bodies usually don’t hold out that long unless they’re riding a desk the whole time.

Finally, calling the “difficulties of family life” a myth is appalling. It’s precisely the lack of permanency and the extreme pressures and demands in the military that tear so many families apart. Combat and family life are in perpetual conflict with far deeper ramifications if you’re a mother. Many women leave the military at far higher rates than men precisely because they recognize this unchanging reality as they start families or seek to begin one. But hey, forget about the children. Women’s military careers and breaking the “brass ceiling” are paramount, no matter the costs.

The simple truth is that military leaders like General Kennedy are painting a fantasy that the military and combat aren’t what they are.

The Tip of the Spear

Diversity hawks look at the Marines with its 7% females and say the other branches are more receptive. There’s another factor — the other branches are easier. With the exception of the Special Forces and Army infantry, they’re not the tip of the spear like the Marines are.

The AP story reports, “The 10 percent goal would require [Kennedy] to bring in about 3,400 women recruits a year; he believes that is well within reach.” But getting recruits in the door and having them stay in are two different matters.

Women are many times more expensive to recruit because, compared to men, more of them don’t finish boot camp or make it past six months of service, more of them are non-deployable, leave the service early and far fewer re-enlist. It makes the women who do stay & succeed all the more impressive. Even so, they’re very rare, not due to sexism, but the demands of the job. Last year 400 women volunteered to go through the Marines’ enlisted infantry training. Just shy of 36% of those made it to completion (vs. 98% of males). Of the 64% who didn’t, some were medically discharged due to injuries incurred in training. They’re not serving at all anymore and never got a chance to even complete one year let alone four, 12 or a 24-year career. Of the near 36% who did make it through, many will suffer the same fate as they try to prove the feminist lie that women are interchangeable with infantrymen.

“The key, Kennedy said, is to get to influencers — parents, coaches — and convince them that their daughters, their athletes, will be treated fairly,” according to the AP story. “And he said he allays fears that women would be forced into combat jobs they don’t want.” Is it fair that they are two to ten times more likely to be injured than their brothers? Now that women’s combat exemption has been repealed, those star athletes are prime fodder to help the Obama administration reach its “diversity metrics.”

Obama and the milquetoast flag officers imposing his social agenda don’t care about the military or winning against our enemies, and they certainly don’t care about women. All they care about is getting the numbers. In their complicity they’re trying to recruit young women do jobs they don’t want that will hurt them more than men and won’t help our military objectives. That this is a major priority is the primary reason for our military decline. Good for our enemies; not so good for us.