Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth plans to set unified combat standards for men and women. This step would reverse Obama’s defense department announcement in 2015 meant regimental combat teams and special forces units became bureaucratic toys for those imagining equal opportunity and affirmative action could coexist with warriors enduring the brutality imperative for victory.

Combat operations require the most severe restrictions on human emotions and behaviors to foster the uniquely understood high morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion. Human sexual diversity cannot intrude into this authoritarian meritocracy where only those displaying the greatest savagely can win.

At the point of collision, our troops face situations requiring exceptional physical capabilities and unbelievably sacrificial, primitive, and intimate relations. They continuously face extraordinary stress punctuated by killing other humans within inherently chaotic and brittle environments.

Of special consideration is the understanding national defense through combat operations becomes the ultimate Olympics. Therefore, much less excuse obtains for merging men with women into this hideous ordeal than exists for combining the Olympic athletic competitions every four years. Certainly, the controversy over transgender females competing in women’s sports makes that point obvious.

Look at the ribbons of this current array of generals and admirals and you will see institutional memories no longer exist for fighting ferocious, shrewd enemies such as Germans, Japanese, Chinese, and North Vietnamese, who utilized a full array of modern weapons.

Nolan Nelson

Redmond

Editor’s Note

Do you have a point you’d like to make or an issue you feel strongly about? Submit a letter to the editor.