The third shoe drops

Mackubin Thomas Owens served as an infantry platoon leader in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart. Mac now teaches on the faculty of the Naval War College as Professor of National Security Affairs. He is also a senior fellow at the Program on National Security of the Foreign Policy Research Institute while serving as editor of its journal, Orbis. He is a long-time student of civil-military relations as well as of the issues related to women in combat.  [STEVE adds: Guess what else? Mac is a devoted Power Line reader.  See below.]

In the current issue of the Weekly Standard, Mac draws on his long study of the issues bearing on women in combat for his article “Coed combat units.” I call the Obama administration’s order lifting restrictions on women in combat an act of wanton destruction. In an email message today Mac puts it this way: “The third shoe drops.” In his message he writes:

Here’s my take on women in the infantry. It remains a bad idea.

I call this “the third shoe drops.” Hagel: yes man as hatchet man to do his worst at DoD. Mattis: get rid of generals who provide advice forcefully — in other words, do what they are supposed to do. Women in the infantry: with a SecDef who doesn’t care and generals who will now think it in their best interest to keep quiet, the “diversity crowd” can run wild. I have been making this argument for two decades. The fact that it’s old doesn’t make it wrong.

To say the least.

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