Julia Pollak; the Military’s sexual assault dilemma
Paul sends us a link to Breitbart which carries an opinion piece by Julia Pollak, who is a serving Navy reservist. But she addresses the military sexual assault discussion that Congress is currently having about taking the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) out of the hands of commanders. This piece is so good, I’ll try not to C&P the whole thing;
When I joined the U.S. military in January 2011, a family member asked me: “Aren’t you worried about being raped?” And she wasn’t the only one. Many people cautioned me that I would be entering an institution synonymous with machismo, authoritarianism, and violence.
What I found instead was very different: professionalism, respect, and a strong presence of women in the highest ranks. I also found the most transparent, aggressive, and in-your-face Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) program I had ever witnessed.
At bases in Great Lakes, Pensacola, and San Diego, I have received regular and frequent sexual assault prevention training. There have been posters with information about how to report sexual assault in every workspace and bathroom. And forms for reporting sexual assault have been prominently displayed.
Trained male and female Sexual Assault Response Coordinators (SARCs) and SAPR Victim Advocates (VAs) have made it a point of introducing themselves, sharing their phone numbers, and making themselves available to their fellow sailors. Chaplains and health care providers have similarly signaled their readiness to help.
What Ms. Pollak is saying and what I’ve been saying is not that sexual assault doesn’t happen, or that it’s not a problem, but that the military is not not doing anything about it. Education and repetitive training isn’t always the answer to all problems, though. Drunk driving has been frowned upon in the military for the last thirty years, but the troops still get arrested for it, don’t they?
Using the old hammers seeing nails everywhere analogy, when you’re in Congress, every problem has a legislative answer, whether it will help or not. In this case, Congress is undermining good order and discipline in the military by thinking that they legislate justice. It’s unnecessary and ill-considered. And even if they do, it won’t change people’s nature. It will still happen. And, worse, innocent people might be punished for things they didn’t do.
But you should read Ms. Pollak’s whole article – she does a much better job on the subject than me.
Category: Military issues
When I was in Cuba, we had three seperate mandatory training sessions in 11 months. The most absurd was the “Don’t be a Zebra” session, led by some college proffesor, starring a bunch of d-bag college students. Every one of my male Soldiers felt that they were being treated as predators. Further, the due process rights of male service members have been severely infringed by this SHARP witch hunt. We treat our men like shit in the Army. Sad.
In today’s military, all males are treated as potential rapists. All females are treated as potential victims. How about we treat them all as adults, prosecute the offenders, and allow the rest to continue to be adults? Is that to fookin’ simple?
Bravo Zulu to Ms. Pollak! She’s one of the few (male or female) who actually “gets it” and does so with intelligence and heart.
Good on her.
I’m all for working on the problem, but I am tired of being treated like a rapist waiting to happen.
SFC D: no, it’s not too simple. But it doesn’t support the agenda, so I’m pretty sure it won’t be adopted.
I’m getting tired of seeing the military being used as the whipping boy for political science experiments, and even more fed up with the BS/crap that follows.
Comes today a rev-’em-up story from the AP regarding the number of reports of sexual assault in the military for FY 2013. The headline is, of course, sensational and the lead paragraph announces that the number of reports has “shot up” more than 50% over FY 2012. The numbers given for FY 2012 are 3,374 reports and “more than” 5,000 for 2013. For some inexplicable reason, the exact number for 2013 is not provided. My guess is that the actual number is somewhere between 5001 and 5015 but by saying “more than 5,000,” the reader gets to imagine 5,800 or 5,995 or something. Aside from that curiosity, embedded in the story is this gem–that “about 10%” of the FY 2013 number occurred BEFORE the victim entered the military! That’s right. The military sexual assault report total includes assaults that did not occur in the military at all. So, if we call the “about 10%” 500, there were about 4,500 reports of military sexual assaults during FY 2013 which, at least to me and my old-school math, is not an increase of 50% over 2012. What’s more no neither year’s actual reports come anywhere near the anonymous survey that many military folks had a good-old time laughingly submitting. That number, some 26,000, is the one that was thrown all over the place inside and outside Congress and the Pentagon to show what a crisis the military is in. Unfortunately for those who want to portray our military as rapists and rape victims, there is no reliable statistical support for their fear mongering. But, then, who needs truth?
Yeah, well, when the intent is to cause discontent, silly things like reality and truth have no place.
What they should have said clearly, because the data supports it, is that the military STILL has a much lesser incidence of sexual assault than Anywhere, USA. Too bad that simple facts do not conform to the agenda.
@8. It’s astounding, isn’t it, the effects of inane reports of anonymous surveys have had on otherwise intelligent people? The survey questions were, in part, downright ridiculous and allowed all sorts of stuff one would never regard as sexually assaultive behavior to be deemed just that. And I will point out that the reports of sexual assault are not, curiously, identified as male on male or male on female. Why? It could not possibly have anything to do with preserving the holy image of gays in the military. Of that I am absolutely certain. [Insert Brooklyn Bridge FOR SALE sign here.]
@9 Thank you Air Cav. Well said. Liberals love he said, she said styles of reports and statistics. Real numbers are not their concern so don’t bother them with real numbers. The issue is just a great chew toy for them play with in their liberal rags and CNN, MSNBC and that ilk. You will never see a true breakdown of who-shot-John about this. Liberals hate the military. As long as there is ONE assault in the ranks they will be just as vocal. I think one assault, military or civilian is too much. But that is a fantasy world. Men and women, put together, will do what they do and sometimes bad things happen. You know I never hear about woman on woman assaults in the military. Do they never happen? In the civilian world they certainly do. Or as you said, men on men when it was perhaps a gay encounter gone wrong. But God forbid we talk about about or question gays in the military or anywhere for that matter.