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Retired Navy SEALS Lt. Commander Brian 'Iron Ed' Hiner

SAN DIEGO, California, August 18, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — A former Navy SEAL officer says President Trump is right to ban transgenders from the U.S. military.

Military service is not a basic “right” of all citizens, Lt. Commander Brian “Iron Ed” Hiner (ret.) explained in a San Diego Union Tribune op-ed. In fact, the strict Uniform Code of Military Justice means soldiers do not have “many of the constitutional rights that civilians enjoy.”

Hiner listed examples: “You don’t have freedom of speech in the military. If you display contempt for your superior officers or stand up and insult the president of the United States, you are subject to a court-martial.”

Adultery is another example. “Adultery is a court-martial offense. Imagine if we held our elected leaders” to that standard, he said.

“If you are too fat, too short, too tall, too dumb, or have virtually any pre-existing condition, you don’t get in,” Hiner summarized. He argues that this “blatant discrimination” is necessary for lethal efficiency and troop cohesion.

In other words, military service is not an equal opportunity for all, and can’t be. “War is not fair and, as a result, military service is not a right,” he said.

“When you join the military, you learn that you fight for a democracy — but you don’t work for one,” Hiner explained. “You also learn that you change to meet the needs of the military. It doesn’t change to meet your needs.”

Not just anybody can serve, but only those meeting stringent requirements, Hiner noted. That’s why the armed forces “is not a place for social engineering.” He accused “the recent move toward open service of transgender(s)” of “cherry-picking for progressive social issues.”

“The military serves one purpose, and that is to win our wars as efficiently as possible,” Hiner cited from personal experience. Recruiting transgenders into service is “not focused on improving the mission.”

For one thing, “distractions to the force are very dangerous to readiness,” Hiner said.

The decorated war veteran dismissed liberal arguments that the integration of transgenders is the same as the integration of racial minorities into military service, pointing out that 40 percent of transgenders have attempted suicide, according to research by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

The SEAL concluded, “I really do wish that our civilian leaders would stick with telling us the who, what, when, where and why, but let the how be decided by the experts.”

Hiner served as Operations Officer for all SEAL missions in the Pacific and commanded a wartime task unit in Iraq. He also fought in Afghanistan, and during his military career served nine deployments on five continents, four of which were combat deployments.  

Twice awarded a Bronze Star for valor, Hines retired in 2012 after 20 years as a U.S. Navy SEAL.