Can people stop getting their panties all up in a bunch over rape in the U.S. Army? Sheesh! Alternet links to a David Rosen article from Counter Punch on Rape as an Instrument of War. And it must be Congresswoman Jane Harmon's time of month, because she is going OCD over what she refers to as "Rape in the Ranks." So, nobody is doing anything about the 73% increase in the number of rapes of women
employed by the army; so the 12 women who have said they were sexually assaulted or raped
or gang-raped by fellow KBR employees haven't received that much attention. But I prefer to look at the military rape epidemic glass as half full.
Congresswoman Jane Harmon reports that at a Los Angeles VA Healthcare
Center she visited, 41% of
female veterans claimed they were victims of sexual
assault while in the military, and 29% reported being raped during their
military service. But this is actually great news for U.S. service women! As Harmon herself states, "Women serving in the U.S. military are
more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire
in Iraq."
Here's the happy story:
Sexual assaults are frequent, and frequently ignored, in the armed services.
By Jane Harman
March 31, 2008
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 nonpunitive
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.
Jane Harman (D-Venice) chairs the House Homeland Security subcommittee on intelligence.
