Flash! Men are Tougher Than Women

This may come as a shock to the feminist lobby, liberal academia, and others who embrace politically correct nonsense concerning gender equality, but a new Marine Corps study has found—all-male ground combat units are more effective than—teams that included women. Yes, you heard me. Men are better suited for the military than are women. Guys are tougher than gals. Oops!

This startling news comes at a time when our military has become much more feminized and politically correct than any other time in our history. The armed services used to be the last remaining outpost of hawkish masculinity, but unfortunately, like all other government agencies, even our military has undergone political correctness in recent years (actually over the course of the last couple of decades). So I'm sure it wasn't easy for the Marines to have to admit this discrepancy.

The study has—now raised new—concerns about the Pentagon's—push to open all jobs to women next year. In a summary of the study results that were released last week, it was made clear that all-male ground combat squads were—faster, stronger and more lethal in most cases than units that included women. The women also suffered higher injury rates during physically demanding training.

Top Washington officials in the Pentagon and the White House are anxious to open all specialties to women, which would include infantry, special ops, and other highly physical elite forces. The problem is, in their rush to make our military more "sexually diverse" they are softening the standards, increasing the chances for foul ups and jeopardizing mission success in these highly specialized service categories. The deadline for requiring all military branches to open all specialties to women begins next year.

If any service branch wants to request an exception for some occupations to this order, they only have until the end of this month to do so. The Marines haven't said whether they will request a waiver, but the study's results are—likely to fuel a growing debate over including women in ground combat jobs.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, a member of the Armed Services committee who served in the Marine Corps, told USA Today, "If you were to turn down a request for a waiver like that I guess the political machine in the White House would be saying we don't care about the effectiveness of the ground combat units."

Of course the administration is fighting back hard against any waivers that would preclude women from serving in any branch of service. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who oversees the Marine Corps, said the study would not change his mind about opening all career fields to women. Yes, by all means let's integrate the sexes, even if it means that our special forces just won't be all that special any more. After all, what's more important, military effectiveness or gender equality? For highly placed political mucky mucks at the Pentagon the answer is obvious, "you go, girl!"

Never mind the facts. The all-male units outperformed gender-integrated units on 69% of the 134 tasks that were evaluated, according to the summary. The study concluded that all-male squads moved faster than integrated units, particularly when carrying heavy weapons, such as machine guns and mortars.

Why is this a revelation? Most clear thinking logical people know that men are naturally stronger than women. You have to be a liberal studies undergraduate to believe otherwise. A few other facts that arose from this study:

• Women struggled with obstacles designed to test upper body strength in simulated combat. "For example, when negotiating the wall obstacle, male Marines threw their packs to the top of the wall, whereas female Marines required regular assistance in getting their packs to the top," the summary said.

• On marksmanship, men who had not been through infantry school hit targets 44% of the time with M4 rifles, besting infantry-trained women, who hit targets 28% of the time.

• The average male Marine in the study weighed 178 lbs. and had 20% body fat. The average woman weighed 142 lbs. and had 24% body fat.

• The rate of injuries to muscles, tendons and ligaments was 40.5% for women, compared to 18.8% for men.

Women are great in lots of areas, but there are many tasks that men are simply better suited for. This isn't a knock against women, it's a fact of nature. There are some people who will never get this and some people who get it, but just don't care. What bothers me is that many of those people are calling the shots in Washington. When it's a matter of life or death, political correctness is the last thing anybody needs.

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JWR contributor Greg Crosby, former creative head for Walt Disney publications, has written thousands of comics, hundreds of children's books, dozens of essays, and a letter to his congressman. He's also a Southern California-based freelance writer.