Poll: 17% Of Marines Say They'll Leave Service If Women Participate In Combat

I’m actually surprised the number isn’t higher:

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A Marine Corps survey shows 17 percent of male Marine respondents say they would likely leave the Corps if women move into combat positions.

The survey says that number jumps to 22 percent if women are assigned involuntarily to those jobs.

Results of the survey of 53,000 Marines were released to The Associated Press on Friday.

The survey was conducted last summer and the results were given to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta before he opened thousands of combat jobs to female service members last week.

What is no doubt worrying these Marines are concerns on how this policy will be implemented. Will women have to meet the same training and combat readiness requirements as the men do, or will those policies be manipulated to reach some specific outcome to satisfy certain political agendas?

That’s a valid concern, especially for those who serve on the front lines in very dangerous situations. They want the person next to them, who they rely on, to be there because they’re the best not because they’re fulfilling some political desire for a more diverse military.