National Defense Briefs

By W. Thomas Smith Jr.

NATIONAL DEFENSE BRIEFS is a series produced by National Defense Consultants, LLC, aimed at informing readers with timely military and homeland security news updates, trends, definitions, and short commentaries. Defense issues are inextricably connected to business. In that, MidlandsBiz.com and National Defense Consultants presents the “National Defense Briefs” that matter.

• U.S. Marines – active, formerly active, Reserve and retired – are up-in-arms over Navy Secretary Ray Mabus’ decision to integrate females into male-Marine boot camp among other gender-norming decisions that will almost assuredly alter – some argue “destroy” – the 240-plus year culture of the elite U.S. Marines. According to the Daily Caller, the SecNav “reportedly infuriated Marine Commandant Gen. Robert Neller when he ordered him to integrate women into the previously gender-segregated boot camp. … Marine Corps leadership is widely disillusioned at pressure from above, and according to Marine Corps Times, some insiders believe that the service will continue to resist each step of the way. The idea of women in combat has functioned as a tremendous source of friction between the Marine Corps and the Navy, as well as the Pentagon. Every step of the way Mabus has reiterated that nothing will stop him from reshaping the Marine Corps to line up with gender-neutral norms. Certainly, the pioneering Marine Corps study looking at the differences between men and women in combat did not at all paint a favorable picture of female performance, but Mabus infamously trashed the study, much to the disappointment of Sergeant Maj. Justin LeHew, who was involved in running the study.”

• Jude Eden writing for PoliZette, says “The problems with integrating boot camp are the same as those of integrating the combat arms, so the Marines are not allowed to talk about it. … [The SecDef] put a gag rule on discussing the matter and the Marines’ nine-month integration study which showed that, compared to males in combat tasks, female Marines were slower, couldn’t lift as much weight, were less accurate shooters and retained more than twice the injuries. Now the Marines must comply not only with integration of the combat arms but, suddenly, integration of boot camp, post-haste. … The Marines have been the last holdouts on integrating training, just as they have been for the combat arms, because THE MARINES ARE IN THE BUSINESS OF KILLING. Gen. Kelly had it right when he said the question is whether or not this policy makes us more lethal: ‘If the answer to that is no, clearly don’t do it.’”

• Eden – herself a former Marine – adds, “Recruits graduating coed boot camp will be a lower-caliber breed of Marine, Guinea pigs required to follow orders and ‘prove’ integration a success. Injuries and misconduct will increase even as standards are “gender-normed” lower.”

• The U.S. has lessened the restrictions on rules of engagement for American forces striking ISIS and affiliated groups in Afghanistan, “allowing them to target militants just for being associated with the terror network,” according to FOX News. “The new authorization now puts ISIS in the same category as Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.” According to CNN, “Previous rules of engagement required ISIS elements to first pose a threat to U.S. forces in the area or to be pursued as part of a specific counterterrorism mission, officials said.” A U.S. official said, “Now we can kill ISIS in Afghanistan just for wearing the T-shirt or waving their flag.” The Wall Street Journal reported, “The development comes after the State Department designated the affiliate ISIL-K, or Khorasan, as a foreign terrorist organization earlier this month.”

• French President Francois Hollande said, “airstrikes against Islamic State extremists will accelerate in coming months,” according to reports, adding – in a speech Thursday – that 2016
“must be one ‘of transition in Syria.’”

• Elena Holodny with BusinessInsider, writes, “While the world has had its eyes glued on Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS or IS, has been creeping into another chaotic state: Libya.” [read here http://www.businessinsider.com/isis-expansion-into-libya-big-risk-for-europe-2016-1]

• As we have reported, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (also ISIS), the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and the Islamic State (IS). Many Arab-speaking people refer to ISIS as Daesh, an acronym for Al Dawla al-Islamiya al-Iraq al-Sham (the Arabic translation of the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham).

– W. Thomas Smith Jr. – a former U.S. Marine rifleman – is a military analyst and partner with NATIONAL DEFENSE CONSULTANTS, LLC. Visit him at http://uswriter.com.