The stories are shocking in their brutality:
A female military recruit is pinned down at knifepoint
and raped repeatedly in her own barracks
Her attackers hid their faces but
she identified them by their uniforms
They were her fellow soldiers.
Women in the Military:
“You’re One of Three Things - a Bitch, a Whore or a Dyke"
It's often the woman’s word against the man’s word
As one female sailor said:
“You just don’t expect anything to be done
about it anyway, so why even try?”
She said she was raped at a naval base on Guam
before being deployed to Iraq
Female soldiers coming back from Iraq
relate their fears of even going to the latrines
in the middle of the night
for the fear of being sexually assaulted
Male Chauvinist Pigs of War
Chauvinism: 1. Militant devotion to and glorification of one's country; fanatical patriotism.
Chauvinism is extreme and unreasoning partisanship on behalf of a group to which one belongs, especially when the partisanship includes malice and hatred towards a rival group.
The term is derived from Nicolas Chauvin, a soldier under Napoleon Bonaparte, due to his fanatical zeal for his Emperor.
Nicolas Chauvin was injured, wounded 17 times in the Napoleonic Wars but nevertheless he continued to fight for France.
2. Male chauvinism is the feminist term for the belief that males are superior to females. The word "chauvinist" was originally used to describe someone who has a fanatical loyalty in one's country.
The word was later applied to the women's liberation movement in the 1960's and used to describe men who uphold the belief of female inferiority..
War [Violent Masculinity]
The military teaches soldiers to internalize the misogynistic role of violent masculinity so they can function psychologically.
At the 2003 Air Force Academy Prom, men were given flyers that read, “You Shut the Fuck Up. We’ll Protect America. Get out of our way, you liberal pussies.”
They were then treated to a play that provided instructions on how to stimulate a female’s clitoris and nipples to get her vaginal juices flowing (in case she was otherwise unwilling?).
War, Rape & Male Aggression
The stories are shocking in their simplicity and brutality: A female military recruit is pinned down at knifepoint and raped repeatedly in her own barracks. Her attackers hid their faces but she identified them by their uniforms; they were her fellow soldiers.
During a routine gynecological exam, a female soldier is attacked and raped by her military physician.
Yet another young soldier, still adapting to life in a war zone, is raped by her commanding officer. Afraid for her standing in her unit, she feels she has nowhere to turn.
These are true stories, and, sadly, not isolated incidents. Women serving in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq.
The scope of the problem was brought into acute focus for me during a visit to the West Los Angeles VA Healthcare Center, where I met with female veterans and their doctors.
My jaw dropped when the doctors told me that 41% of female veterans seen at the clinic say they were victims of sexual assault while in the military, and 29% report being raped during their military service.
They spoke of their continued terror, feelings of helplessness and the downward spirals many of their lives have since taken.
Numbers reported by the Department of Defense show a sickening pattern. In 2006, 2,947 sexual assaults were reported -- 73% more than in 2004.
The DOD's newest report, released this month, indicates that 2,688 reports were made in 2007, but a recent shift from calendar-year reporting to fiscal-year reporting makes comparisons with data from previous years much more difficult.
The Defense Department has made some efforts to manage this epidemic -- most notably in 2005, after the media received anonymous e-mail messages about sexual assaults at the Air Force Academy.
The media scrutiny and congressional attention that followed led the DOD to create the Sexual Assault and Response Office.
Since its inception, the office has initiated education and training programs, which have improved the reporting of cases of rapes and other sexual assaults. But more must be done to prevent attacks and to increase accountability.
At the heart of this crisis is an apparent inability or unwillingness to prosecute rapists in the ranks.
According to DOD statistics, only 181 out of 2,212 subjects investigated for sexual assault in 2007, including 1,259 reports of rape, were referred to courts-martial, the equivalent of a criminal prosecution in the military.
Another 218 were handled via non-punitive administrative action or discharge, and 201 subjects were disciplined through "nonjudicial punishment," which means they may have been confined to quarters, assigned extra duty or received a similar slap on the wrist.
In nearly half of the cases investigated, the chain of command took no action; more than a third of the time, that was because of "insufficient evidence."
This is in stark contrast to the civilian trend of prosecuting sexual assault. In California, for example, 44% of reported rapes result in arrests, and 64% of those who are arrested are prosecuted, according to the California Department of Justice.
The DOD must close this gap and remove the obstacles to effective investigation and prosecution. Failure to do so produces two harmful consequences:
It deters victims from reporting, and it fails to deter offenders. The absence of rigorous prosecution perpetuates a culture tolerant of sexual assault -- an attitude that says "boys will be boys."
I have raised the issue with Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Although I believe that he is concerned, thus far, the military's response has been underwhelming -- and the apparent lack of urgency is inexcusable.
Congress is not doing much better. Although these sexual assault statistics are readily available, our oversight has failed to come to grips with the magnitude of the crisis.
The abhorrent and graphic nature of the reports may make people uncomfortable, but that is no excuse for inaction. Congressional hearings are urgently needed to highlight the failure of existing policies.
Most of our servicewomen and men are patriotic, courageous and hardworking people who embody the best of what it means to be an American.
The failure to address military sexual assault runs counter to those ideals and shames us all.