So the SecNav is going to overrule Marine Corps leadership?

via Navy Times.

Marine officials will soon offer their recommendations, but Mabus, the civilian secretary who leads the Navy Department — including the Marine Corps — made clear that he must sign off on the decision to seek any exemptions to opening all jobs to women, and he hasn't had a change of heart.
"That's still my call, and I've been very public," Mabus said in an exclusive Sept. 1 interview. "I do not see a reason for an exemption."

Do you get the arrogance of this guy?

Everytime you turn around you get the meme "following the recommendations of my military" from the President but when it comes time for a social experiment that will rip the Marine Corps to its very foundation, the truth comes out and its obvious that a military appointee will decide.  Don't believe me?  The issue of Obama (and his appointees) following military advice has come up before, I just ignored it.  Check this out from Fox News...

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president listens very carefully to the advice that he gets from his military commanders.

The fact is, Joe --
(CROSSTALK)
JOE SCARBOROUGH, CO-HOST, "MORNING JOE"/MSNBC: -- What do you make of the Washington Post headline when it says in the military, there's skepticism of the president's plan.

EARNEST: The headline's wrong. All they do is they misinterpret Chairman Dempsey's testimony. And the rest of the time they essentially they quote people who are either frequent critics of the president or people who supported the previous Iraq conflict. So the more accurate headline would be supporters of the Bush war in Iraq criticize President Obama's strategy.

So this is just par for the course.

The problem though?  For the administration this is a legacy issue.  For Marine Corps leadership they're concerned with combat effectiveness AND recruiting/retention.

I hear your question.  So shouldn't we cut Marine leaders slack because you just pointed out that the administration doesn't listen to them!  To that I say BULLSHIT!

Why?

Simple.  Because the administration has lied to the American people.  You would expect at least one person wearing stars (and in this case the fingers can be pointed only at the Joint Chiefs and the Combatant Commanders) to have some integrity and say that it wasn't there plan OR to resign in protest.

We haven't seen that so no slack is given.

The pain train is coming for the Marine Corps.  The separation between the Marine Corps and former/retired/vets, the public is going to increase.  The Corps will be seen as just another govt agency.  The old debate between the New vs. Old Corps will have a date.  New Corps Marines (the ones that serve after females are allowed in the infantry) will never be looked at as equals again.