Lowering Standards Got Us Into Trouble In The First Place

There is nothing fair about war. As a matter of fact, you don't want to be fair in war. Lots of people die needlessly when a conflict is on equal terms. You want unequal terms.

You want to maximize every advantage you have and exploit every weakness you can find in your enemy. There is nothing noble in defeat.

Of course that is anathema to liberals.

Two female Marine officers who volunteered to attempt the Corps’ challenging Infantry Officer Course did not proceed beyond the first day of the course, a Marine Corps spokesperson confirms to the Free Beacon. The two were the only female officers attempting the course in the current cycle, which began Thursday in Quantico, Virginia.

With the two most recent drops, there have been 29 attempts by female officers to pass the course since women have been allowed to volunteer, with none making it to graduation. (At least one woman has attempted the course more than once.) Only three female officers have made it beyond the initial day of training, a grueling evaluation known as the Combat Endurance Test, or CET. Male officers also regularly fail to pass the CET, and the overall course has a substantial attrition rate for males.

The Marine Corps spokesperson, Captain Maureen Krebs, told the Free Beacon that the two officers, “did not meet the standards required of them on day one in order to continue on with the course.” Fifteen male officers also did not meet the standards. Of the 118 officers who began the course, 101 proceeded to the second day.

[...]Keeping the traditionally high standards of the Marine infantry will result in a situation where there are a handful of enlisted female Marines in every infantry battalion, and effectively no female infantry officers.

Pressure will become tremendous to reduce those standards–something that the overwhelming majority of Marines, including those women who currently wish to serve in the infantry, believe would be damaging to the service.

Story here.

There is nothing degrading or ignoble or unfair in the failure of these women to complete the course. Fifteen men also failed to make it past the first day. That's what the physical challenges do, winnow out those who are unqualified as quickly as possible.

This past fall my daughter participated in something known as "selection." She couldn't tell us where she went or what she did; only that it was an elite vetting process for ... something. She was in the mountains somewhere for a month of unbelievably grueling military exercises.

She eventually washed out, but not before she saw other men fail the challenges. She was disappointed of course but told me that she met some of America's finest warriors and they are an incredibly impressive lot.

They are not muscle bound, hulking, brutish monsters but smart, dedicated -- consummate professionals.

She had nothing but admiration for these people and only wished that she could serve with them. My girl is only 5"1" and 115 lbs.and has spirit, tons of it. Still, I am glad she she didn't make the cut. The toll this took on her small frame was considerable and I know this will come back to haunt her physically in twenty years or so.

The physical challenges she faced were daunting enough, but the mental ones were even worse. You are driven until you can't give anymore, then required to reach down - way, way down - and give even more, lots more. That is where most fail and only the MIB's "Best of the Best of the Best, Sir!" rise to the occasion.

We need people exactly like that to serve our country in critical situations. To do otherwise is to invite disaster.

That is precisely what America-hating liberals want.