1st 3 women Marines graduate from infantry course. Private First Class Cristina Fuentes Montenegro, 25, left, shares a moment with Pfc. Julia Carroll, 18, during graduation ceremony held on Camp Geiger, Jacksonville, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013. Montenegro and Carroll were two of the three female Marines who became the first women to graduate from the Corps' tough-as-nails enlisted infantry training school in North Carolina. The three completed the rigorous 59-day course and met the same test standards as the men, said Marine Corps spokeswoman Capt. Geraldine Carey. (AP Photo/The Daily News, John Althouse)

Yes, we’re in the final days of “hope and change,” along with the fundamental transformation of America, but don’t think that the Obama administration is going to slow down and assist with the transition to a new administration. With the executive actions on offshore oil drilling, the UN resolution against Israel, and in other matters, we’ve seen evidence that Barack Obama is concerned with his own agenda. These actions signal an unwillingness to enable a new presidential administration to have success by boxing it in. As we know, today Obama will be on Capitol Hill to discuss Obamacare.

You’d think Obama would be focused on our national security, but as we shared with you last week, we have no aircraft carrier coverage in the Persian Gulf for the second time in as many years.

But there is something Obama — and his henchman, SecNav Ray Mabus — can claim as a success.

As reported by the Marine Corps Times,

“The Marine Corps will make history on Thursday when the first three female infantry Marines join their unit at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, officials said. “The women are headed to 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, where they will serve in the following infantry military occupational specialties: rifleman, machine gunner and mortar Marine, said 1st Lt. John McCombs, a spokesman for II Marine Expeditionary Force. “The battalion has a team of women leaders consisting of a logistics officer, motor transport officer and wire chief to support the female infantry Marines, McCombs said. All three of the infantry Marines graduated from the School of Infantry as part of the service’s gender integration research, said Marine Corps spokesman Capt. Philip Kulczewski. “‘The Corps applauds the time and efforts of those Marines who volunteered,’ Kulczewski said. ‘As we continue to move forward, we remain steadfast in our commitment to ensure that the men and women who earn the title “Marine” will be ready, and will provide America with an elite crisis-response force that is ready to fight and win.’ “In [last] March, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter approved the Marine Corps’ plan to allow women to join military occupational specialties that had been restricted to men only. Carter had refused an earlier request by the Corps to keep women out of combat jobs after the service’s gender integration study found that mixed-gender teams did not perform as well as all-male teams and that female Marines were more likely to get injured. “It is unclear whether President-elect Donald Trump will pursue gender integration in the military with the same vigor as the Obama administration. Retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, told Military Times in September that ‘shortsighted social programs’ could make the U.S. military less effective. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller has said no one has talked to him about possibly reconsidering the service’s efforts to allow women to serve in combat jobs. “‘I’ve heard people speculate on it,’ Neller told reporters on Dec. 7. ‘I don’t do speculation. Until the 20th of January, we’ve been told what to do and we’re in the process of doing it.’ Neller bristled when a reporter used the term ‘women in combat’ to describe the military’s gender integration effort, explaining that women had been excluded from certain units and jobs, not combat altogether. “‘With all due respect, I would never insult a female member of the armed service and talk about women in combat,’ Neller said. ‘They’ve been in combat throughout history.’ For example, Marine spokeswoman Maj. Megan McClung was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq on Dec. 6, 2006, he said. ‘I’m coming up on the 10th anniversary when Megan McClung was killed in Ramadi … And I sent her to Ramadi,’ Neller said. ‘So, I don’t mean to take umbrage, but when people start talking about women in combat, I don’t need a class on women in combat.’”

For Barack Obama, this is a grand accomplishment and achievement. He can boast that three female Marines are assigned to an infantry battalion, just as two female soldiers graduated Army Ranger School. But in the grander scheme of things, what does that mean when we have the smallest Marine Corps since World War I and the smallest Army since pre-World War II?

What does it mean when the enemies of America, state and non-state, whose creation Obama enabled, and who’ve grown under his watch, just took responsibility for the deaths of 39 — mostly Westerners — in Istanbul on New Years Eve, namely ISIS? I’m still trying to figure out what this means: “The battalion has a team of women leaders consisting of a logistics officer, motor transport officer and wire chief to support the female infantry Marines … .”

Why do these three female infantry Marines need three more female non-infantry Marines to support them? Does this structure supplant the standing chain of command under which these Marines serve? Are these three female Marines supposed to report to their designated “Kommisar” if they want to express certain grievances?

The military doesn’t exist to support the social egalitarian experiments the progressive socialists of the Left favor. As the Commandant of the Marine Corps stated, women have been serving in combat since the days of Mary Ludwig Hays, affectionately known in the Army Field Artillery as Molly Pitcher. She took up the position of her fallen husband on the cannon gun line at the Battle of Monmouth. For those who don’t study history, that was during the Revolutionary War.

I concur with General Neller: professional military men and women don’t need a class on “women in combat” from the Left. What we do need is a commander in chief who won’t play small ball — an ideological agenda with our national security. Yes, Barack Obama will have a small exhibit in his presidential library highlighting this “grand” feat. Will his library also portray his utter decimation of our military capability and capacity? Or show his complicity in aiding and abetting our enemies through the billions released to Iran? Sadly, we know Iran was furnishing the explosive force penetrators into Iraq … and maybe that’s what killed Marine Major Megan McClung.

Here we are just days before a new presidential administration on January 20th. We have no aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, but tomorrow we will have three female infantry Marines assigned to a battalion at Camp Lejeune. What does that say about priorities? President John F. Kennedy had the vision to put a man on the moon … Barack Obama wanted to put men into the women’s restroom. There’s a maxim in shooting: “aim small, miss small.” For Obama it’s “aim small, hit nothing.”

Congratulations to these three female Marines for earning the title of Marine Infantryman. Yes, rather ironic, but the real test comes on the battlefield, when they are deployed as the BLT (Battalion Landing Team) of the Ground Combat Element (GCE) of a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) SOC, Special Operations Capable. And, no, three female “support” Marines ain’t gonna make the bad guy go away.

Allen West is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army. During his 22-year career, he served in Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom, receiving many honors including a Bronze Star. In 2010, West was elected as a member of the 112th Congress representing Florida’s 22nd District. He is a Fox News contributor and author of “Guardian of the Republic." Mr. West also writes daily commentary on allenbwest.com.