Abuse in Military

Navigation

User login

Online users

jusbytheclown
emmettoconnell

Support OlyBlog

OlyBlog is run by volunteers who care about Olympia. If you like what we're doing, make a donation:

OlyBlog is powered by:

Who's new

GRuB
ktcoxster
making a differ...
johnmac
circular_ruins

Abuse in Military

Submitted by Sarah on Thu, 09/21/2006 - 12:04pm.

Article on Suzanne Swift's case

Many female veterans say her case might be an example of a raw fact of military life: that sexual offenses often go unreported, that young, lower-ranking women are especially vulnerable and that those harmed fear hostile treatment if they speak up.

“It’s more common than, unfortunately, people realize,” said Colleen Mussolino, a founder of Women Veterans of America.

suzanneswift.org

Sarah's blog
Login or register to post comments

sigh

Submitted by enpen on Thu, 09/21/2006 - 10:04pm.

It just seems like in the face of overwhelming evidence that training people to be violent increases their likelihood to commit violence...we keep expecting people to act differently. A standing military is a socially destructive phenomenon. In the interest of protection against short term dangers they increase the likelihood of longterm ones. Of course, our foreign interest policies have been to the detriment of so many others for so long, that if we were to wittingly lose our standing military we would have to socially prepare ourselves for some avengement. Sometimes it's amazing and depressing how many yesterdays went into today, and how many todays will make up tomorrow.

Command Rape

Submitted by jlw on Fri, 09/22/2006 - 7:41am.

Even the Department of Defense acknowledges that women are particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse in deployment situations. When one's commanding officer has the power to send you on relatively safe or relatively dangerous missions, and he wants to sleep with you, what would you do? If your drive to survive is strong enough that you submit to his wishes, it's known as "command rape." And how about those women in Iraq who died of dehydration because they were afraid to walk to the latrines at night, since their fellow soldiers had a tendency to rape them on their way to the potty? Just a few more reasons NOT to enlist.

Just how rampant is rape in

Submitted by The Fire Inside on Fri, 09/22/2006 - 9:09am.

Just how rampant is rape in the military?

I've known numerous individuals who are very upfront with the realities of ground combat and have been deployed to Iraq in combat situations. None has ever mentioned rape, let alone it being so prevalent that female soldiers in Iraq are dying because of "dehydration because they were afraid to walk to the latrines at night, since their fellow soldiers had a tendency to rape them on their way to the potty."

The scale you're talking about would seem to imply that there are thousands of soldier-on-soldier rapes taking place every day.

So, is this the case?

Huh? Are you talking to me?

Submitted by jlw on Fri, 09/22/2006 - 2:42pm.

How did you get this thousands of sexual assaults occuring daily based on what I said? I have actually researched this subject. For instance, I know from the Department of Defense's own statistics, that 2,374 complaints of sexual assault were filed in 2005. Granted, there were probably four times as many assaults as were reported, but saying I implied that there are thousands a day is ... well, let's say, very imaginative.

"And how about those women

Submitted by NWarty on Fri, 09/22/2006 - 10:00am.

"And how about those women in Iraq who died of dehydration because they were afraid to walk to the latrines at night, since their fellow soldiers had a tendency to rape them on their way to the potty? Just a few more reasons NOT to enlist."

This ridiculous statement sounds a lot like Crenshaw's "Soldiers rape children walking down the street" statement from months ago.

Whatever...

I don't appreciate your derisive tone.

Submitted by jlw on Fri, 09/22/2006 - 2:18pm.

Could you be polite? There's really nothing to lose by being courteous.

Here's a link to a story about those unfortunate deaths: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013006J.shtml

If this is true the people

Submitted by The Fire Inside on Sat, 09/23/2006 - 8:55am.

If this is true the people responsible should be shot on site.

Warfare must be vicious. You must be vicious in dealing with your soldiers who are not there to fight and you must be vicious toward the enemy.

Victory isn't achieved by being soft.

I always liked the Roman philosophy of putting people to death who fell asleep while on guard duty, because they put the lives of their comrades in danger.

Careful what you wish for...

Submitted by DrewHendricks on Sat, 09/23/2006 - 10:45pm.

You know that I oppose imperialism, you know that you've published your intentions to become a soldier for imperialism, and you would certainly not want me to take to heart the advice that I not be soft on you. You know that I am tenacious to a fault.

You should thank your deity of choice for the fact that I am not seeking "victory" at all. You should also reflect on the fact that I still respect you enough as a human being to see that one day you might make a different choice.

You should be very careful what you wish for.

As the Irish curse goes - you just might get it.

Fair enough. You can

Submitted by NWarty on Fri, 09/22/2006 - 2:31pm.

Fair enough. I'll retract the "whatever" comment.

You can also check the Center for Military Readiness regarding rape in the military. It's on the front page.

I will say that in 30 days at a camp of more than 40,000 personnel, I heard and read of one instance of sexual assault in the female latrine. That the perpetrator was caught and fortunately never harmed the female soldiers. That's what I know of.

www.cmrlink.org

Despite your anecdotal experience...

Submitted by jlw on Fri, 09/22/2006 - 5:26pm.

... the problem of sexual assault of military personnel in Iraq and Kuwait was sufficient that Donald Rumsfeld initiated an investigation which resulted in a new Sexual Assault Prevention and Reporting Program in 2004-2005 (http://www.sapr.mil/). I checked out your CMR website, and found its orientation toward sexual assault to be rather biased (was the front page article you referred to the one entitled "Sex, Lies, and Rape: How to Recognize False Allegations of Rape"?) However, I am not willing to commit much time to arguing with you about whether or not rape exists. Some interesting statistics are available here, from that commie rag, the Washington Post, regarding the increasing prevalence of sexual assault in the military.

I don't want to sound

Submitted by The Fire Inside on Sat, 09/23/2006 - 8:58am.

I don't want to sound insensitive but 1,275 reported incidents of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers who have rotated in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan (which is where I assume most of the incidents allegedly took place) is a pretty small number.

How comparable is the rate of reported sexual assaults in the military to the civilian world?

True, TFI, however....

Submitted by jlw on Sat, 09/23/2006 - 10:43am.

...the following year, after the DOD's Sexual Assault Prevention and Reporting Program was initiated, 2,374 complaints were filed. Obviously, this new program did more to improve reporting than to prevent sexual assaults. If you check out the SAPR website, you'll see that an option for reporting with limited confidentiality was added, whereas previously women who reported sexual assault did not have their identity protected at all, and were intimidated by the inevitable consequences of whistle-blowing. I think it's very important to bear in mind that many, perhaps even most, women who are sexually assaulted, choose to keep the assault a secret because they fear the secondary trauma of the mistreatment that occurs when they speak up. My guess is that military women, who don't have the option of hiding out at home and avoiding their assailants and other people who resent them for speaking up, are even more intimidated by the consequences of reporting assault than women with more freedom.

Your question about how the rate of sexual assault in the military versus the rate in the civilian world is a good one. I recently read that the rate in the military is 28% versus a percentage in the low 20's for civilians. I have been searching my bookmarks for the source of that statistic, but I haven't been able to find it. I apologize; when I come across it, I will post it.

Ugh. Weird.

Submitted by jlw on Sat, 09/23/2006 - 10:49am.

While trying to find the aforementioned statistic about military sexual assault versus civilian assaults, I've been googling "military" and other similar keywords a lot, and guess what? I'm suddenly getting a pop-up ads trying to recruit me! Uhh.... I don't really think I'm military material. Heh.

Kinder and gentler military!

Submitted by Mike on Sun, 09/24/2006 - 1:28pm.

Kinder and gentler military!

Hopefully the program does

Submitted by Norm on Sun, 09/24/2006 - 8:49pm.

Hopefully the program does help to decrease these instances.

I hope so, too, Norm

Submitted by jlw on Mon, 09/25/2006 - 7:03am.

I think that raising awareness of what sexual assault and harassment actually are, as well as demonstrating that out-of-bounds behavior has serious consequences, probably will decrease sexual harassment and assault. One study I read showed that sexual assault or rape was four times more likely in units where sexual harassment ("Hey baby, nice tits!") was tolerated. Isn't that interesting? So, if you've got a C.O. who steps in and says, "Hey, that's not an appropriate way to speak to a woman," all the women in the unit are safer from actual assault. Creating a culture where that kind of sexism is not tolerated is a very important key to reducing violent assault. Anyway, I share your hope that it works, and I'm sure the military does, too, since making women feel safe from sexual assault while serving will undoubtedly help them keep recruitment up.

OlyBlog.net

OlyBlog is devoted to citizen journalism, including hyperlocal news and discussion specifically about Olympia, Washington. If you care about this community and are tired of corporate media, then this is the place for you.

If you'd like to contribute, please register for an account. Here is a list of local news beats that need to be covered. You can post your news as a personal blog entry, and it will be reviewed (and possibly edited) for promotion to the front page. Once you've established a record of responsible blogging, you can become an autonomous user. You can also send news via email. All members of OlyBlog agree to abide by our comment and fair use policies. If you are frustrated about something said in a comment thread, go here.

Now playing at: