Cronin: A ‘solution’ to a non-existent problem

A year and a half ago, I wrote a column in this space entitled “Eye-to-eye with the Mau Mau” in response to then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s decision to remove the restriction against women serving in the most grueling of military occupations, the combat arms.

In response to that decision, the Marine Corps initiated the “Marine Corps Ground Combat Element Integrated Task Force,” an experiment specifically designed to balance the administration’s desire for greater diversity with the need to maintain combat readiness. To ensure both objectivity and transparency, quantifiable metrics were developed and civilian academicians and RAND Corporation analysts provided independent oversight. This was to be an empirical study.

I concluded that piece with the following: “Everyone needs to just stand back and let this happen. When the experiment is complete, we accept the results. Unlikely scenario. Think Washington D.C. As this experiment proceeds and the pre-determined political solution ends up in jeopardy, it should not surprise anyone when the metrics are quietly ‘refined,’ the methodology ‘improved.’ Someone has to declare victory.”

Guess what happened? The experiment has been completed, the data has been analyzed, the results have been published. The findings are indisputable: all-male ground combat teams outperformed their mixed-gender counterparts in virtually every task assessed.

Guess what happened next? The findings were summarily dismissed and the Marines were accused of rigging the test. The day after the results were released, the secretary of the navy declared the experiment “flawed” during a radio interview. The corps has since been ordered to develop plans for fully gender-integrated basic training.

Current Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus is an accomplished man. He is a former Mississippi governor, U.S Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, naval officer, magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School. According to his official biography, the Navy has doubled the number of ships under contract, somehow managing this Herculean feat during a prolonged ground war and steadily decreasing operational budget. A Democrat, he was originally nominated by President Obama in 2009.

Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter is a no less impressive scholar and public servant who is of like mind with respect to women in the combat arms. A summa cum laude graduate of Yale University with a dual degree in physics and medieval history, he subsequently earned his doctorate in theoretical physics from Oxford University. He is a former Harvard University professor and has published books and articles on physics, technology, national security, and management. A Democrat, he was nominated in 2014 to replace the outgoing Chuck Hagel, a twice-wounded Vietnam combat veteran. Secretary Hagel was an enlisted US Army infantryman. He is a member of the Republican Party.

These are remarkable men, to be sure. But ask yourself this question: Who is best qualified to truly understand what it takes to fight and win on the battlefield? An Oxford educated theoretical physicist? An ex-governor/former U.S. ambassador? Or is it the storied American fighting force that has been successfully accomplishing that bloody business for over 240 years?

This is not some cozy college campus “safe zone” where tender souls with My Little Pony haircuts can flee for refuge and nourishing succor in a womb-like, non-judgmental environment. This is the battlefield, currently host to an evil and cruel enemy totally committed to the destruction of our American way of life. Now is hardly the time to impose this gender-diversity “solution” to a non-existent problem.

“We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready at night to visit violence upon those who would do us harm.” There is iron in those words.

One final question. This integrated task force experiment cost the American taxpayer $36 million dollars. Why the hell would this administration put the Marine Corps through such an expensive and time-consuming rigmarole if there was never any intention of honoring the results?

Cronin is a Poway resident and the assistant police chief at MCAS Miramar.