Military sexual assault moves to the front burner
Every email inbox I have got an email from the Army Chief of Staff, General Ray Odierno, today in regards to military sexual assault;
Our profession is built on the bedrock of trust; sexual assault and sexual harassment betray that trust. They have a corrosive effect on our unit readiness, team cohesion, good order and discipline. We are entrusted with ensuring the health and welfare of America’s sons and daughters. There are no bystanders in this effort. Our Soldiers, their families, and the American people are counting on us to lead the way in solving this problem within our ranks.
Well, of course, I agree. Completely. And while there have been a few high profile cases recently, I don’t think it deserves the attention that it’s getting. The Stars & Stripes reports that Congress is calling for new legislation to deal with the problem – I guess it’s not illegal now, so they’re going to move to correct that (yes, I’m being sarcastic).
The latest proposal, from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., would take most sexual assault prosecutions out of a servicemember’s chain of command, handing those duties to more impartial military officials.
“It’s time to change a system that is clearly not working,” said Gillibrand, who argued that rape victims too often see their legal cases ignored or undermined by commanders more interested in protecting their subordinates than fixing problems. “We need to give victims the basic confidence that justice will be had.”
Aside from ending her sentence with a preposition, Gillibrand is just wrong because she’s undermining the confidence that troops have in their leaders by declaring them untrustworthy in legal matters. I would have loved to see Congress get this upset in regards to giving the troops the stuff they need for dealing with the enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan – you know – their jobs.
I feel that every incident of military sexual trauma is serious and should be dealt with immediately and harshly when a service member is found guilty, I kind of think that all Congress can contribute to the problem is a lot of screeching and arm waving.
Category: Military issues
“There are no bystanders in this effort.” ‘Scuse me there General sir, but I beg to differ. I’m one of those, a bystander. You probably meant that there ought to be no bystanders but that’s not what you said. Me? I really don’t care to make this the be all and end all, the trust litmus test. If you want to talk some serious issues of trust and betrayal of trust, you really need to look up, not down.
From my experience I think this is incredibly over exaggerated to further a select minority into higher positions and roles where performance comes second.
It’s kind of strange how during draw downs, during a huge policy change, and further major policies changes yet to be enacted that this is just now such a problem that it needs to be addressed.
Not surprising that when we get a community organizer in chief the military becomes an office environment where if you have a dick you’re a possible perpetrator and if you have lady parts you’re now a victim or soon to be victim. Sooner or later service members aren’t going to be able to fart without worry about who it affects.
I’m not marginalizing real deal sexual assault and rape.
Is it just me or does that word “justice” get a lot of mileage from every dog, trick and pony show on the floor of Congress? Not marginalizing rape either, but politicions seem to make hay on the backs of troops everytime we turn around. Cue CID rape investigators in about….
Sexual assault/rape and sexual harrassment are NOT illegal right now?
Wow, no wonder Democrats are so pro-rape – it’s perfectly legal! What will they do once there are brand new laws to prevent outlaws from breaking the laws?
“My size only comes in white”
Aside from that…
I wonder how many promotion points a false accusation of sexual assault/rape and/or sexual harrassment are. Will LGBT be exempted from the new laws like they are these days?
This so wrong on so many levels, not the least of which that the ones most hurt by it will once again be the true victims. (That would be those who are actually assaulted and those who are falsely accused of committing assault.) Yeah, when nothing else works, lets see how we can make the lives of victims even more difficult.
Unraveling what is already a complicated crime to investigate and prosecute will be easier by adding more regs, more people involved in the process, and more resentment among those required to sit through one more power point presentation? No. It absolutely will not.
Now every male servicemember will be guilty until proven innocent. Disgruntled females will be able to ruin a male’s career with a false allegation.
I saw that on Active duty in the early 90s. In our Group’s HQ unit, nearly every NCO that had a lackluster performing female troop buffing floors or sweeping the Motor Pool on a weekend had a Sexual Harassment Complaint facing him that monday. I had some turdball female Troops temporarily assigned under me in Kuwait, they regularly recited the crap from the damn briefings, crap about “diversity”,… I think this whole shebang is just B-HO and company trying to stir up more shit and distract from the mess they’ve made!
Sounds to me like we’re re-living the post-Tailhook days again, or maybe these are just leftover scraps.
Trust that I’m not minimizing sexual assault/rape, either – nor do I have a silver bullet solution – but I will say this: A Proud Infidel spoke about disgruntled women and certain ones will level charges with no other intent but to ruin a career. Those matters should be dealt with just as harshly as actual cases.
MGySgtRet said he was glad to get out so he could quit being treated like an 18 year old in a different post. I understand that sentiment. Until the culture starts acting like adults, I’m not certain anything will go away.
Taking matters out of the commander’s hands isn’t the right idea either. But if that commander fails to take action for cases that DO have merit and can be substantiated, s/he should be relieved.
My solution to the problem is simple: I brief my troops that anyone found sexually assaulting someone else will be turned over to the commander pissing blood and being dragged by the heels after they resisted arrest. Possibly they will have fallen repeatedly on their fingers as well.
Sexual Assault and Forcible Rape is a serious issue throughout the nation it’s a statistically frequent event (1 every 6.5 minutes or so every day of the year).
I am not convinced that the military always reflects our society at large, but if it does in some regards this issue bears discussion. Is it the most serious issue at hand? Of course not, on the national stage it’s hardly discussed. Nor do i believe it’s as prevalent in the military as these claims are intended to indicate.
However, does an independent office free of the local command structure undermine the trust troops have in their leaders? I don’t think so, and I disagree that the creation of such an office automatically declares that their leaders can’t be trusted in legal matters. What that independent office says to me is that there is a resource that is removed from the intense personal relationships good or bad that occur in a military environment. It’s a resource that is not clouded by those relationships, and should be viewed as such. It’s not going to destroy the world as we know it, nor will it reduce the effectiveness of any unit more than unresolved sexual assaults and rapes will. In those cases where nothing is done and something has happened the effectiveness of that unit is already quite suspect. And in those cases where nothing has happened but the suspicion lingers, that’s net negative for unit effectiveness as well. An independent office should provide a perspective and outcome not clouded or having the appearance of being clouded by local command structure relationships.
I do agree that nothing Congress does will help, no additional legislation is required.
Can someone tell me where all these Commanders are who are hiding rape and sexual assault cases? My personal experience has been the exact opposite – Commanders do anything and everything in their power to ensure alleged victims get every service to which they are entitled and even the weakest cases (from a prosecution standpoint) are pushed forward to trial. The bottom line was always, if the victim says they were sexually assaulted/raped, we were going to trial, no matter what. And, by and large, the rape/sex assault cases that were reported were “terrible” cases to prosecute. Inevitably, they involved two underage junior Marines who got blind drunk, ended up in someone’s barracks room, and the result was a “he said-she said” case. Those are almost always losers for the prosecution and, generally speaking, are cases that civilian authorities won’t even take to trial. Because the government was losing more of those cases than they were winning, the Marine Corps, literally, completely reorganized the provision of its legal services in an effort to “better” prosecute sex assault/rape cases. Is it going to work? I sincerely doubt it simply b/c of the nature of the cases you get, not the ability, or lack thereof, of the people prosecuting it.
Hey ask anyone who have been accused of this how the CID did them took DNA finger print them not told they have the right not to answer any question they can lie then can use statements from people being chapter . You have to remember they are their to convict you not find you not guilty then you have the lawyer who trying to move up the ranks will lie and use friendship with other to convict you .the soldier who found not guilty life will never be the same they destroy those soldiers name family and career. So when I hear a congressman or woman say the army does nothing to the soldiers wrong soldiers are destroyed who been wrong please ask them how they are done and we start looking at this a little different
Um, what?
He was doing great until the stuff he put in after “Rodney.”
“Rodney” is was found innocent of his “charges”, whatever those charages where.
But nothing happen to the people or lawyer who falsely made charges and they have the paperwork showing they wrong him but nothing was done to them he is my friend and they destroyed
Congress isn’t going to change anything. It’s the culture from the music industry and hollywood that degrades women. Look at music videos from Beyonce and Rihanna showing themselves as sluts or whores. Add to the fact that most new male enlistees come from broken homes without fathers to teach them how to treat women. This is not only a military issue it’s happening in the civilian sector as well.
Rodney what base did this happen at
Before you go too far into this discussion, you need to read this article (sent previously to TAH) and remember that it is not just women who are subjected to sexual assault.
http://www.khq.com/story/22277273/male-rape-survivors-tackle-military-assualt
It’s a problem, a very real problem, for both women AND men. That is not being properly addressed, but rather, swept under the rug. The sooner the ‘he said-she said’ stuff stops, the better.
Once and for all, rape and sexual assault are power trips and nothing else.
Civilian police finally understood that by the 1970s. When is the military going to understand this? When?
Okay, now you can get on with your discussion.
Fort hood tx
I read this article and frankly, I’m appalled that active duty servicemembers would stoop to the crap reported here.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/17/18323283-facebook-shutters-page-that-taunted-lawmakers-push-to-curb-military-rape?lite=
Hey do y’all know they have flag ever soldier who name was in sfc McQueen phone has been flag and going thought CID shake down I know this because we flag them
One thing that fun is all the officer were not only the enlisted from Sgm to pvt but no officer and it was Ltc and cpt on the list wow
I agree that this is getting way more attention than it deserves. When I was in boot, we were one of the last all male companies they brought up the females about two weeks before we graduated. They made it abundantly clear then the consequences if we didn’t “toe the line”. As our government pushes to merge females with male combat units, I feel we will see more of this type of “drama”, and this is only the tip of the iceberg, whether or not it’s actually going on. If anyone want’s a good learned opinion on this matter google Castra Praetoria and read SgtMaj Burke’s articles.