What the Chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff Must Tell the Nation
By Ray Starmann
Good afternoon ladies and
gentlemen, in concern for
the lives of current and
future US military personnel
and to honor those who have
gone before, I must speak to
the nation today.
I’ve called this press
conference to announce that
I am resigning as the
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff and I am retiring
after 39 years on active
duty, which included combat
service in Iraq leading the
finest Marines in the world.
I am resigning as
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff and retiring from
the Marine Corps for the
following reasons:
For the last seven years
during the Obama
Administration:
I have watched and
remained silent as hundreds
of senior officers were
forced to resign or were
forcibly retired because of
their disagreements with the
current policies wrecking
the military.
I have watched and
remained silent as people
who have never served a day
in uniform laid siege to the
glorious traditions of the
US military.
I have watched and
remained silent as male ROTC
cadets paraded in red high
heels, male soldiers
conducted physical training
wearing pregnancy
simulators, combat units
dealt with breastfeeding and
lactation issues in the
field and sensitivity
training became the standard
operating procedure of the
US military.
I have watched and
remained silent as
trans-genders were
authorized to serve in the
ranks, and three females
graduated from the US Army
Ranger School, under what I
believe are the most dubious
of circumstances.
My predecessors in the
JCS chose to look the other
way, and like Pontius
Pilate, wash their hands of
these egregious affairs.
My predecessors in the
JCS were more concerned
about their careers than
about the welfare of the
nation and the troops
they led every day.
Now the final
nail in the coffin of the US
military has been hammered
in. On April 1, 2016,
Secretary of Defense Ash
Carter, with the full
backing of the President of
the United States,
authorized the legal
inclusion of women in the
combat arms branches and
special operations units of
the United States Armed
Forces.
In good conscience, I can
no longer remain silent. The
stakes are too high for this
nation and for the women in
the US military who, I
believe will be greatly
harmed by their inclusion in
the combat arms and special
operations.
I can no longer watch
the US military be
annihilated. While many have
chosen to sit on the
sidelines, I must step forth
and report to the nation
concerning the mortal danger
the US military is in tonight
because of its commander in
chief, President Barack
Obama and his cabinet and
advisers.
The evidence against
women in direct combat from
the Center for Military
Readiness and the Marine
Corps’ 36 million dollar, 9
month study and the
performance of
women at the Marine Infantry
Officers Basic Course is
overwhelming. Yet, the
President, the Secretary of
Defense, the Secretary of
the Navy and the Secretary
of the Army refuse to
acknowledge that the
evidence even exists.
It does exist and it
indicates that while women
perform spectacularly in 80%
of the jobs in the military,
the combat arms and special
operations should be closed
to them; permanently.
Women are simply prone to
more injuries than men, have
less muscle mass, do not
have the upper body
strength, the same
aerobic lung capacity and
the aggressiveness to
fulfill the military’s
combat readiness requirements
and missions.
The so-called experts
often say that women have
already served in combat. In
the last two conflicts in
Iraq and Afghanistan,
females did engage the enemy
and many performed
heroically and beyond the
call of duty. But, returning
fire during a military
police security operation is
not the same as being in a
combat arms unit that has
the mission of finding,
fixing and killing the
enemy. That is like
comparing Pop Warner
Football with the NFL.
Reality says that women
serving in the combat arms
and special operations is
not just a bad idea, but a
horrific decision that puts
this nation in mortal
danger.
The President and the
Secretary of Defense are not
dealing with reality, but
with a feminist based
fantasy based on false
premises of gender
neutrality. They see the
world the way they want it
to be, not the way it is.
These policies are based on
the illusion that genders
are neutral and that none of
this will affect the
military’s readiness, esprit
de corps and ability to wage
and win wars.
There is no gender
neutrality on a battlefield.
It is the responsibility
of America’s military
leaders to protect the
nation and to obey the
lawful orders of those
appointed above us. But, our
military leaders are not
martinets. There is no
Fuehrerprinzip in America.
An order is not just an
order. The nation’s military
leaders have a moral duty to
inform our elected officials
when policies they support
and implement are
destructive to the nation
itself.
Silence is not golden. It
is pure and unadulterated
moral cowardice.
Congress also has a duty
to protect the nation and to
insure that the military is
strong and readiness is
maintained. On the issue of
women in combat, Congress
has been full of sound and
fury, while signifying
nothing. Except for a few
concerned veterans like
Senator John McCain and
Congressman Duncan Hunter,
Congress has remained silent
because a majority of
Congress has never served
and is largely ignorant of
the issue itself.
I cannot in good
conscience promote policies
that will order American
women, ages 18 – 26 to
register and be eligible for
a military draft which could
place them in combat arms
units in wartime.
I cannot in good
conscience serve as the
highest ranking military
member of the US military,
when I am completely at odds
with the social engineering
directives emanating from
the Secretary of Defense and
the President.
The military has one sole
mission. That is to wage war
and to vanquish the enemies
of this nation on land, on
the seas and in the air. It
must never be used as a
social engineering project
by naïve and uninformed
politicians and lobbyists.
As the military prepares
for this cataclysmic change,
the enemies of this nation
are lining up against us.
They know that this is a
lose, lose situation for us
and a win, win situation for
them. They know that we are
now going to wage war with a
much weaker force and that
our readiness is withering
by the hour.
It is very possible that
the United States of America
may never win another war. I
do not believe this is
hyperbole. I believe this is
a fact.
The fate of the republic
hangs in mortal jeopardy. I
pray that my successor and a
new President elected in
2016 have the courage and
the wisdom to amend the
policies that might very
well destroy this great
nation I have served for
nearly four decades.
I bid you farewell.
Semper Fi.
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