The last bit of common sense and one who remained faithful to his troops.  I never thought I'd live to see this come to pass.  When the JCS became a political appointment instead of being selected from within the services this was the downward spiral of the militar

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N.B. Since this article’s publication, some have asked if General Joe really made this speech and if he has indeed retired. General Joe did not say these words. I only wish he had.

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.