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Congress Told That DOD Data on Sexual Assault and Rape in Military Is 'Lacking in Accuracy, Reliability and Validity'
A Department of Defense Task Force on Sexual Assault in the Military told a Congressional committee on February 3, 2010 that "DoD's procedures for collecting and documenting data about military sexual assault incidents are lacking in accuracy, reliability, and validity."
Task Force a low priority--three years to name members of the Task Force
In what many see as the reality of the military institution investigating itself on the criminal acts of sexual assault and rape committed by its own personnel, the naming of Task Force members and the work of the Task Force was delayed for three years. Following a congressional request, in October, 2005, Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense authorized the DOD Task Force on Sexual Assault in the Military, but DOD took three years to name the Task Force and for the Task Force to have its initial meeting in August, 2008.
Military Personnel Subcommittee Chair Susan Davis in her opening statement at the hearing noted this three year delay: "Not to make a major issue here, but I do feel that it is important to note for the record that, due to a variety of factors that could have been dealt with more quickly by the Department of Defense and were certainly beyond the control of the witnesses before us today, the Defense Task Force on Sexual Assault in the Military Services did not actually begin their work until August of 2008."
Why not make this delay a major issue when the purposeful delay undercut the oversight that Congress itself was demanding and most importantly, when during these three years 6,000 service women and men were sexually assaulted and raped?
In fact another Congressional subcommittee did make this delay an issue. In
July, 2008, the Representative John Tierney, chair of the House
Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs of the Committee
on Oversight and Governmental Reform, dismissed from the hearing DOD's
Principal Deputy Undersecretary of defense Michael Dominguez from the
hearing when Dominguez acknowledged that he had ordered Dr. Kaye
Whitley, chief of the DOD Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office
(SAPRO) not to honor the subpoena the committee had issued to Dr.
Whitely to testify in the hearing. The subcommittee was poised to ask
her why the Department of Defense had taken three years to name the 15
person task force and why the SAPRO program was failing to require key
information from the military services in order to evaluate the
effectiveness of the sexual assault prevention and response programs. (http://www.truthdig.com/
Once
the Task Force began meeting in 2008, over the next 15 months, members
of the Task Force talked with over 3,500 service members in 60 U.S.
military locations throughout the world. Its 179 page report on sexual
assault in the military was made public in December, 2009 (http://www.dtic.mil/dtfsams/
It must be a challenge for a Task Force composed a retired Admiral, a former advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense and 4 active duty military service members appointed by the Secretary of Defense to be critical of policies of the Defense Department. The four civilians on the Task Force would be most likely to be more critical.
One can see the difficulty in bringing out critical information on sexual assault and rape in the military in how the information from the Task Force's report has been made public.
Take for example, the testimony itself of the Task Force co-chairs to the Subcommittee on Military Personnel of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee. It is only in the last paragraphs of page 8 before you can find what key problems are concerning sexual assault and rape in the military.
DoD data on military sexual assault incidents are lacking in accuracy, reliability, and validity
Why wait to the last page of testimony before the co-chairs of the Task Force (http://armedservices.house.
It seems reasonable that the Congress, the public and, in particular, the members of the military, should be informed first-thing in the testimony that the information provided by DOD has not been accurate, reliable or valid! But, unfortunately, the Task Force did not elaborate on how inaccurate, unreliable or invalid DOD's information is or how they arrived at that conclusion.
We all know that as the testimony says "Accurate and comprehensive data is essential to achieving accountability for responders and those who are accused of criminal activities. Without meaningful data, trend analysis and efforts to effectively address issues become problematic."
According to the Task Force's December, 2009 report (page 77), DOD's procedures for collecting and documenting data about military sexual assault incidents lack "accuracy, reliability, and validity." The report states that the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO) expends much effort
compiling DOD's annual report to Congress, but this report "falls short in measuring the underlying incidence of sexual assault. Specifically, SAPRO has not established a database or the necessary tools to accurately track the incidence, investigation, and prosecution of sexual assaults in the Armed Forces. The absence of this database and associated tracking tools precludes the ability of DOD and the Military Services to gain an accurate understanding of the pervasiveness and nature of military sexual assaults and impact on military readiness."
Is it inaccuracy in terminology alone, or in numbers of incidents reported, action taken, and types of punishment? We don't know, but these would be questions for the Congress to ask. Where is the accountability?
How and why would someone combine offender and victim data?
The Task Force co-chairs in their testimony remarkably acknowledged that the most recent DoD report to Congress itself was wrong as it "combined offender and victim data." That must be a story in itself, how two very different sets of data could/would be mixed together and no one spot the mistake before the report was submitted to Congress!
What are the implications of the mixing of the data, one would like to ask? Who would have made such a mistake? Was it a mistake?
Neither victims nor other military personnel informed of the results of possible disciplinary actions
The Task Force leaders told the Congress that "neither victims nor other military personnel were routinely informed of the results of disciplinary actions relating to sexual assault." The Task Force stated that "Commanders generally did not communicate case results to members of their command, and that this lack of information often led to misperceptions, rumors, and assumptions that allegations were unfounded."
I have heard from several women survivors of sexual assault that they were the last to find out that the perpetrator of the assault had gotten off scot-free with no punishment and they, the victim, became the focus of unit members' snide remarks and comments.
Additionally, the Task Force recommended that "both victims and other military personnel within the affected command be informed of the disciplinary action results related to sexual assault."
Why does it take a recommendation of a task force to remind/force persons entrusted with command to simply notify victims of the sexual assault of the disciplinary action taken?
Perhaps it is that in all too many cases, no disciplinary action was taken at all. Perhaps it is because no one in the higher chain of command was/is holding commanders responsible for punishing these types of criminal acts committed.
Leaders need to model correct behavior
A clue at what the Task Force is driving at comes from a statement earlier in the testimony about the importance of unit leadership. "Leadership clearly has a profound influence on the prevention of sexual assault, from strategy development and execution, to continued focus and open discussion of the issue. Commanders and leaders must take an active role in addressing the issue and modeling correct behavior."
The report (http://www.dtic.mil/dtfsams/
Military Lawyers say sexual misconduct regulations are "cumbersome and confusing"
The Task Force leaders commented that military lawyers consistently advised the Task Force that the new Article 120 of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, the article that addresses sexual misconduct, is "cumbersome and confusing." Based upon the consistency of this feedback, the Task Force recommended a review of the effectiveness of Article 120.
If the military lawyers are having difficulty figuring out the regulations, no wonder so few persons are prosecuted for these crimes.
After 60 years of sexual assault and rape, still no measurable indices
The Task Force testimony says there is no research on "meaningful incidence metrics" on which to identify effective prevention strategies and initiatives.
After 60 years of women being in the military and with cases of sexual assault and rape increasing by the decade, one would have hoped that in all the studies (dozens of them) conducted, that the Department of Defense, that can figure out "metrics" on every other subject, to include all other types of criminal acts, would have made it a priority to develop the "metrics" on these criminal acts affecting members of its population.
The Task Force website lists 20 reports on sexual assault since 1988 (http://www.dtic.mil/dtfsams/
Military system stacked against the victim
Effectiveness between victim and victim advocates in the military limited as no communications privilege under military law
The Task Force stated that communications between sexual assault victims and victim advocates were "problematic" because these communications are afforded no privilege under military law. Therefore, the effectiveness of victim advocates in the military is limited.
The Task Force reminds us that in civilian communities, medical personnel can provide privileged advice and counsel to victims, but this is not the case for military medical providers. While a victim advocate may be available, the advocate must advise the victim that, should he or she decide to pursue an unrestricted report of the assault, all communications between the advocate and the victim are discoverable by the alleged assailant's attorney.
As it stands now, the only legal source of confidential advice for a victim from the military community is a lawyer or a chaplain, but many victims are reluctant to seek help from a chaplain about a sexual matter.
In contrast, in the civilian world, 35 states have granted effective privilege to communications between victims and victim advocates.
The Task Force recommends that Congress enact into the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, a comprehensive military justice privilege for communications between military victims of sexual assault and victim advocates.
Victims don't know their rights and are dissatisfied with treatment in investigative process
The Task Force found that sexual assault victims are frequently dissatisfied with their treatment during the investigative process, often because they participate in this process without fully understanding their rights and the limitations of their rights.
The Task Force recommends that victims of sexual assault be immediately made aware of their rights including the opportunity to consult with legal counsel during the investigative process.
Perhaps a headline in military newspapers and in military recruiting stations and basic training facilities "If you are raped, ask for a lawyer" might be an effective way of communicating this information!
No certification required for DOD victim advocates
While many victim advocates volunteer for the duty, others are appointed as an extra duty by the unit commanders and have very little interest or compassion for the victims. DOD has never required formal certification for its victim advocates.
The Task Force recommends that DOD require response personnel and victims advocates receive more specialized training on sexual assault response and also service members who report they were sexually assaulted be afforded the assistance of a nationally certified victim advocate.
Rape of men in the military
The social pressure within military units against reporting sexual assault and rape is extremely intense, and particularly for male soldiers.
The Task Force acknowledges that sexual assault of men in the military is under reported (p. 34). In Congressional testimony in the summer of 2008, Lt. Gen. Rochelle, the Army chief of personnel, reported the little known statistic that 12 percent (approximately 260) of reported 2200 rapes in the military in 2007 were reported by military men victims.
Interestingly, the lead story of rape chronicled in the Task Force report was not the rape of a woman soldier, but the rape of a male soldier. Private First Class Cody Openshaw was raped by a non-commissioned officer in charge of the medical holding unit where Openshaw was assigned to recover from injuries following a parachute accident. Openshaw was threatened by the NCO and never reported the rape. Five years later he finally acknowledged the rape and sought assistance because of his nightmares, excessive drinking and his increasing isolation. He ended up committing suicide.
The Task Force recommends establishment of gender-specific medical care protocols for victims of sexual assault to provide immediate treatment to victims for their injuries; to provide screening and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases; and to provide a forensic examination to assist law enforcement efforts.
"Sexual assault within the ranks is antithetical to the trust and camaraderie that defines military culture"
Military Personnel Subcommittee chair Susan Davis ended her opening statement at the February 3, 2010 hearing with "Sexual assault within the ranks is antithetical to the trust and camaraderie that defines military culture. Any sexual assault undermines the moral foundation of our Armed Forces and does irreparable harm to unit cohesion. Hopefully today's hearing will help us chart a legislative course to make progress in our goal to eliminate sexual assaults in the military."
It's a crisis when legislation is needed to make progress to eliminate sexual assaults in the military
Congresswoman Davis' comment that the elimination of sexual assaults and rape in the military needs a "legislative course" reflects the key, under-lying problem women and men victims are facing-unresponsive leadership of both commissioned and non-commissioned officers, who provide the foundation of the military's culture.
As citizens, we should recognize that there is a crisis in our military when the Congress feels it must step in with legislative fixes to try to stop these criminal acts when military leadership refuses to take appropriate steps on its own.
24 Comments so far
Show AllIf the military stops raping itself and others what will it do with all that spare time and energy? Macrame'? Origami?
It seems that this essay is about soldiers assaulting other U.S. soldiers on bases in the U.S. If we think that this is lacking in accuracy , reliability and validity, imagine what the reports on this type of military behavior look like in Afghanistan or Iraq when it comes to the poor people under the power of U.S. occupiers. Who would ever know, as the people, would be terrified to tell anyone they were raped by a U.S. soldier. It was also not made clear if the male soldier perpetrators of the rape against male soldiers were gay. Is this just coming out now that the" don't ask don't tell law" is being reevaluated? I do not believe that they are all gay. Why was this not made clear? This article left me with a lot of questions.
Sioux Rose
Tough for Mars, the warrior, to police himself. This is why the Biblical statement, "He who conquers himself is greater than he who conquers a city," hold so much spiritual power, and Truth.
ARTEMIX? Where are you?
MARTIAN BACHELOR: If you read this article, maybe you'll become a bit more enlightened about the problem of violence in our society. I was surprised that 12% of military rapes involved men. Yet I feel equal compassion for men that get raped. Violence is violence, and that it often holds a sexual or sexist (rape is an act of power OVER other) content is worth noting.
As usual, this topic gets little attention from the MALES in this forum. They may not like to admit it, but they are more programmed by team sports than they'd like to admit. Proof? That so many jump into threads about war, endlessly analyzing which side/team enacted which strategy. Or responding to similar cues in the endless debates over political candidates and their relative (team) positions.
Alas, consciousness raising sometimes happens! I haven't given up yet!
I got yours and Ranjit's replies from the other topic. I will take this article and look some more into it before I reach a conclusion. I will need some more time and information before I can be sure of what to make of this.
Sioux Rose
M.B. Do you think you can "put yourself" in the place of a person, male or female, who was forced to endure someone else forcing their body into your own? Can you imagine the depth of so private a violation of one's person? And given that most of us human beings subscribe to laws and therefore have a reasonable belief in justice prevailing... can you picture what it would be like to know that this great wrong was done unto you, and that no authority seems to give a damn? There are no protocols in place for dealing with the messy scenario? "What to make of this" should be in part based on empathy, the capacity to feel what another is made to feel. Some people who are raped incur TISSUE damage. It can be very violent... although it's said that rape is mostly about power, it's not exactly a mere foot that the offender is stepping on.
I really hope you evolve from exposures in this forum.
I have read this post and many times talked about this issue on a local municipal access show that I do once a month. It is very clear that rape trumps military discipline as well as comes from it. Rape, serial killing, battering and war that now is mostly about killing masses of civilians i.e. lots of women is about the continued and suicidal war of patriarchy over women and the goddess. I don't have near the time or energy to go into the depth of how it is so. Read Mary Daly's Gynecology, Brownmiller's work on rape in war, Kate Millet, Andrea Dworkin or any of a hundred feminists who have tried to tell the world unchecked patriarchy is a suicidal course. Read Jane Caputi to see how it all works in our popular culture.
Beginning with a religion that gives dominion over the earth and women to men and defies the natural truth of birth to say that women come from Adams rib or Zeus's head the world was set on a path of distortion, reversal woman hating and earth abusing. We learn in high school the great theme of American literature, man conquering nature, Ahab kills the whale. In Jaws it is the shark as vagina dentata. In a much earlier myth Tiamat the goddess as sea monster is slain and the world is made from her body. They still had to acknowledge the world is made from her body. Male hatred of women is endless and those feminists mentioned above were all villified for saying out loud that men hate women. For saying that men hate women you will be called a man hater. A correlative: say the ruling class is oppressing the poor and you will be said to foment class war. Do not notice the class war, do not notice the sex war. This is the natural way according to the reversals of capitalist patriarchy now in its death throes. The only question left is will we survive them. Patriarchy is on the way out. Either we change the paradigm and honor the earth and honor and include women or we will die of the rape/war/pornographic cult that is patriarchy and the religions it has built.
I once saw Jerry Falwell and Larry Flynt on a tv show. It was, dualistic as ever, meant to be two sides of a debate on pornography. But I saw only two sides of the same coin. Women as objects either pornographic or pious in neither case is there room for the wholeness of real women who are spiritual and sexual and political and social and everything men claim for themselves.
Those who work in shelters and rape crisis center have long known that there is a high rate of battering among police, lawyers judges and other men with power. The military with the priesthood is the strongest bastion of male domininace. It is hardly surprising to find that there is high rape rate amongst soldiers. Raping other men can be an even stronger statement of power over another human being making him the dreaded female.
There is a line in From the Terrace by John O'Hara where the father speaks of his dead son:"I loved him like he never lived in his mother's womb." I was stunned when I first read this but it is of a piece with patriarchal logic. Women find it very hard to face how much men hate them so they often don't want to know. Look at Andrea Dworkin, who lived with a man she loved, yet told the truth of violence agains women, you will find she is viciously misrepresented and villified. Men want to pretend they protect women by telling us that war has made us free and secure when any honest examination shows the very opposite. We are now in the USA an economy dependent on war. We are destroying ourselves from within by extracting all our wealth human and material for the purpose of killing women and children and old people and soldiers for a fantasy of "full spectrum dominance."
Sioux Rose has it right about where the men go to comment; war is the big one. Women's issues are left alone unless they feel they must defend their sex. Our mainstream media make everything into a contest/war for the citizens to consume and do nothing to tell the reality of people trying to build a new world in the midst of this endless spectacle of war violence, power and celebrity. Collectively, we must reinhabit and realign our relationship to the earth if we are to survive. One great success for the women's movement has been that those who work in development agree that empowering women and girls is the best path to sucess for any culture. It is still easier for Nickolas Kristoff to say this than for women to say it for themselves so tht is still a problem. Rape and the military are long time companions. We are the victims of a giant militainment propaganda machine that valorizes killing and dominance and has everyone supporting the troops and forgetting about what they are supporting those troops to do.
What I am mainly trying to say is that our problems go deep and are rooted in male fear and hatred of women and a concomitant fear and hatred of the earth itself as something to be subdued rather than the bountiful source as goddess religion saw it. A source to be worked with and shared for all, a source fertile and self renewing, a miracle obscured by the absolute stupidity and vileness that is our capitalist militarist cult of male dominance and ruling class greed.
Sioux Rose
ARTEMIX: I've read Shulamith Firestone, Germaine Greer, Susan Faludi, Gloria Steinem, others I can't recall at the moment, and Ms. I am on the same "page" as you. Your post was very powerfully written, and naturally I concur with 95% of it. I am saddened to see how this subject pushes men away. A few think the issues we raise as women in pursuit not only of political/social/economic equality, but towards building an ethos that sees women NOT as the lesser gender, the one demonized by religion is divisive to interests of the left. For a long time I have been offended by the use of only the MALE PRONOUN as a reference for Creator. Lots of women don't understand how that asymmetric reference shapes their sense of self.
If you return to this thread, I'd like to send you a copy of my new book: Moon Dance: Feminine Dimensions of Time. It marries a number of perspectives, inclusive of astrology, feminism, ecology, and psychology, and weaves them into a new hybrid. Instead of using the customary planetary reference, Uranus, to symbolize Aquarius and the nascent Age ascending... I use Artemis. Twin to Apollo, the sun god (son of god), She signifies the Divine daughter, long absented from the spiritual equations that help human beings define themselves in reference to the greater cosmos. If you'd like a copy, email me.
'genie February 15th, 2010 7:53 pm
It seems that this essay is about soldiers assaulting other U.S. soldiers on bases in the U.S. If we think that this is lacking in accuracy , reliability and validity, imagine what the reports on this type of military behavior look like in Afghanistan or Iraq when it comes to the poor people under the power of U.S. occupiers.'
Goes without saying.. : rape - one of the many 'perks' for the troops. It was ever thus. 'To the victor, the spoils'. We know what happened in Vietnam... From one who was there.
The writer of this letter to his son, who was in Iraq at the time... 'Hold on to your Humanity'... by Stan Goff
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1115-06.htm
Watch virtually any of the popular Movies out of Hollywood on the military, or for that matter go to various bulletin boards that Military personel frequent.
Indeed we have even had some of those good folk come here.
Female body parts are used to insult another person and question their manhood. The female becomes as OBJECT to be ridiculed. It all part of the same desensitizing process. Not only is it MANLY and courageous to violate anothers bodie with bullets and napalm and chemicals, but it an act of manhood to violate anothers body with ones prick.
"They" are after all, just objects worthy only of ones scorn in that mindset.
Sioux Rose
GW NORTH: You are wise and one of my favorite posters because you speak with great depth on just about any subject, the mark of TRUE intelligence merged with a humanitarian spirit. I would like to take your words a step further.
Having read Robert Jensen's documentary work on the pornography "industry" and the exact nature (which consists of an upping of the ante of what is "dirty," mirroring the way Hollywood films intensify their crash scenes, choreographed murder enactments, and other depictions of raw, brute violence) of its "product," I can say that the entire female body is being denigrated. Look at the way the body of Earth Mother is left as a dead, toxic zone littered in weapons after each and every war theater enactment. Rape/abuse of females and war/ecological destruction of Gaia represent the force of Mars (which in a healthy society would express as the strong protecting the weak) abusing its Divine partner! The Mother earth is our partner in that it supports the ecological webs of life. In porn, the female vaginal canal is treated like a tainted cesspool... this is an ATTACK on the very PORTAL through which LIFE emerges. And the images of male after male DESECRATING the female body in one port or another, stays in the minds (or subconcious) of men exposed to these images. I can only imagine what goes through their heads if and when they attempt to MAKE LOVE to a woman they genuinely care for. And I wonder how many men sneak up at 3 AM to watch porn while their wives sleep. How many entertain a very active fantasy life with virtual "screen" partners. A friend of mine caught her husband so disposed and divorced him. Jimmy Carter spoke of "lusting his mind" after other women, and recognized this as a not very Christian (given it's his professed faith) attitude. He, at least, owned this weakness. Given the popularity of porn, this insidious dis-ease is evidently finding its way into otherwise healthy men's minds & souls.
What is being done to women in the form of rapes in Congo, rapes in the US military, domestic violence here and in other lands, added to the demonization of the female as intended partner (through so much vile imagery in rapidly spreading porn) is a time bomb... one that further erodes all promise of that equality that would help to balance our world. It is this lack of balance that is the key reason why things have gone incredibly off course, led by Mars and his rules. To Mars, to the victor go all the spoils. Rape has long been a prize of war, an aspect of warfare. Too many men have unconsciously embraced a virtual Neanderthal self-image and as a result, they identify with a form of masculinity that is so bankrupt, that it can only find value in debasing its Divine (too often BETTER) half. There. I said it. It troubles me how few men, some that I truly respect in this forum, could care less about this issue. It's like the Causasian that fancies himself non-racist because he had a Black friend in college.
>>Look at the way the body of Earth Mother is left as a dead, toxic zone littered in weapons after each and every war theater enactment. Rape/abuse of females and war/ecological destruction of Gaia represent the force of Mars (which in a healthy society would express as the strong protecting the weak) abusing its Divine partner!
Riane Eisler outlines the ravaging of the body of the Earth Mother in The Chalice and the Blade.
Man cannot have dominion over life because only the Earth mother can bear life so man decides to glorify death and make death his province.
The logic is "anything you can create I can KILL and Violate therefore you are subject to MY dominion"
Sioux Rose
GWNORTH: Your third paragraph completely resonates with my repeated comments about the natures of Mars and Venus, and what happens when their relationship is thrown asunder, or kept out of balance. I, too, wrote a book about what these archetypal influences mean to us, as individuals, and to the world as a collective. Mars can be THE Lover, however, when religions teach that only the MALE is holy, the son of god and such, it creates a spiritual basis for asymmetrical interactions. Without the yin and yang in balance, the dark side of the masculine (as Mars, destroyer) takes over. THAT is what ails this planet most. And explains why I must sound like a broken record in relating this message. It is THE message for our times.
Thank you for being one of the only males in the forum to have demonstrated the courage and sensitivity to post in this particular thread. If you have a partner, she is fortunate to have found someone as balanced as yourself.
Again, rape is considered an "assault with a friendly weapon."
It is a strange thing: murder is deemed a heinous crime because no man would want to have their lives taken from them. Rape, however, is bodies being used for sex against their will, and this is unimaginable by even the weakest of men. Deliverance is a film that strikes the very heart of men; the very idea is enough to make them vomit, to shudder and shriek at the very horror and the helplessness to prevent rape. To remind men that the rape scenes depicted in Deliverance happen to millions of women around the world every day, means little to nothing to them. Men have a strange tendency toward a lack of empathy when it comes to the "opposite sex." Opposite meaning other, foreign, and so unable to identify with or relate to...that is why rape is so difficult to prosecute.
To the credit of a few men, who remember their mothers, sisters, daughters are women, too, there is hope. Real justice, however, will come when men listen to the cries of indignity and injustice coming from the women themeselves, when those few men do not have to cry for them...
I am loathe to address such a topic as I know there will most often be only women my voice will reach. But I do believe in those few men, that they have voices of their own, and they cry to their brothers a great truth that will not stand down, can not stand down...
Men must learn that morality is not different when it comes to women. She is neither less nor more of a human being than your fellow men. She stands among fellow men: indeed, she is the bearer of your fellow men. Would you desecrate and so degrade the body from whenceforth humanity is issued, without indeed desecrating and so degrading humanity?
Rape is often not about sex, but power, and the exertion of power.
Men get raped too.
Sioux Rose
RFLOH: I know you are sympathetic to gay rights and porn, and it makes me wonder if you are transgendered in that you still carry apparently male chauvinist attitudes. Did you even read a word Corinthian said? S/he related the film "Deliverance," to portray that men are appalled by rape when it's THEIR OWN gender under assault. I am still HURTING from your smug attitude of appreciation FOR porngraphy, and the ghastly disconnect that would have you viewing this "pattern of consumption" with one indicative of INDIVIDUAL freedom, as opposed to how damaging it is to women, as an entire gender. That strikes me as the worst of libertarian "values." And please don't patronize me with any bull shit about how women consent to making porn. Those types of women were no doubt sexually abused, currently are "high" on addictive drugs, or lack any semblance of a conscience. They set the bar very low for the rest of us! Porn plays a significant role in the lives of serial killers and rapists. One of my daughters dated a West Point Cadet and learned that he and his roommates took turns with porn and then rapid access to the shower. Human sexuality can be a beautiful thing, a transcendent form of communion. What is depicted instead is its bestial antithesis. For any woman (?) to give their nod of affirmation to this carnage to the Feminine Spirit makes me want to provide them with access firsthand to what these acts are about. Maybe then, such persons can get off their cold, armchair throne and FEEL for a change. Sometimes I wonder if you've got warm blood circulating through your system, RFLOH, master of details and minutiae, but heartless to the core. Or so it seems.
Sioux Rose
CORINTHIAN: Wonderful post! I admire the calmness of your spirit and delivery. I tend to be a more fiery persona.
This article is a depiction of the same kind of 'bad intel' as gave us Leonard Peltier, WMD, the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory, bombing the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Maher Arar, Iran nukes, collateral damage, and whatever else they are or have been spending their time on.
As for the underlying issue of rape and humanity, it does strike me as a bit odd to want people, involved in an organization dedicated to doing inhumane things, to not be inhumane themselves. Not that I don't want that too but there is something wrong with the big picture and by big picture I mean more than just the military although I mean that too.
Maybe they should add that infamous Japanese video rape game to those "Army Experience" trailers.
Help educate young people considering service in the U.S. military about the vast disparity that exists between the messaging they will be fed by the U.S. military propaganda machine; and the true lifestyle of a U.S. military service member during these times of illegal and unsupported wars, when every shortcoming of the U.S. military must be swept completely under the rug to maintain enlistment numbers. Join and support http://www.CAMMMO.org Support the troops by making sure they know what they are getting themselves into.
War is always bad, but when you send young people to attack civilians in several countries for no clear defensive reason, then you really get a severe degradation of the soul. We need to bring the troops home and re-purpose that whole massive killing and raping apparatus to train and employ people for good.
Standing up against rape is part of reclaiming our humanity. Denying it or minimizing it is equivalent to participation.
Joe
Based on the informaton in this article, it would appear that the military has adopted a
DON'T ASK DON'T TELL position for rape , as well as for treatment of gays in military service.
If the military reps think that this report is neither " valid, accurate nor reliable " ( with so much information) then we can be assured that detail is not their forte. Personally, I always though that "not valid, accurate nor reliable" applied to our military's body count of the "enemy."
Chain of Command seems to be made out of barred wire, designed to shred soldiers' spirits as it binds them.
Bouquets by the truckload to Col Wright for not letting this matter rest.
Bouquets, too, to Artemix, Corinthian, GWNorth, SiouxRose and to those men willing to dialogue with us about this topic.
Coincidentally, a few days before this appeared, I was having an e-mail exchange with a — male, ex-military — friend in the US, in the course of which I wrote the following (forgive the historical references — we were discussing the USSR in WWII):
Men not only use the act of rape to humiliate and destroy women, they also use the threat of rape to prevent us from participating fully in all aspects of life. Most of us experience this threatened feeling at random during our lives — it doesn’t take being invaded by hordes of Axis rapists; sometimes a visit to a pub, or a “friend’s” BBQ can be threatening enough, and attacks can occur because one is working late, or wearing a short skirt or “revealing” blouse, or “sending out signals,” or… — and it is this very randomness (you never know when you’re going to be at risk), that justifies the feminist claim that women live under the threat of rape every day of their lives. Many of us develop a sixth sense about such situations/people and exercise care, but we shouldn’t have to modify our behaviour to the extent that we avoid going to certain places, wearing certain things, or acting in certain ways (“However we dress, wherever we go/yes means yes and no means no!”).
Now when it comes to “war,” the same arguments apply — even if your enemy does not rape you, the possibility that he might is meant to keep you a passive non-participant or even a collaborator in his plans.
In the case of a defensive war (one state invading another) we would both agree that all women should have military training and access to arms — anything less would not only be a perfidious betrayal by your own government of you as a woman but an obvious hindrance from the point of view of “pure” military strategy, since it halves your country’s potential defensive personnel.
But of course rape and the threat of rape is also used in internal conflicts (eg in Africa, the Balkans and even in your own Civil War). Once assumed to be an opportunistic act of brutality, something inevitable when men are deprived of female companionship for prolonged periods, or a “reward” for success in war, it is increasingly recognized as being an actual tactic in conflict. “Its purpose, whether as act or as threat, is usually to advance one group’s political, economic, social, or religious position over another. In such cases rape not only devastates individual women but, when perpetrated systematically and en masse, destroys the fabric of families and communities. These women also need not only the physical means but also the social sanction to defend themselves — both things have usually been in short supply for much of our history.” (And, interestingly, evidence is accumulating that men are more often raped in wars than was previously thought.)
I would imagine that women who join combat units of the military in “normal” circumstances are quite aware of the threat of rape if captured, but are unwilling to be intimidated by that threat — they are the ones who definitely deserve our admiration! And, if rape is the threat if you are captured, then you would be best advised not to let yourself be captured!
What female soldiers do not expect is to be assaulted by the men who wear the same uniform and serve beside them. This is more than just the resentment you mention, […], though such feelings definitely contribute to it — this is definitely a case of “the military is a ‘boy’s own’ (boyzone) club, in which women are not wanted.” Rape and the threat of rape once again are intended to stop women intruding on “sacred men’s business.”
We need to change rigid cultural norms of gender and ideas of women’s sexuality, as much in relation to the military as to other aspects of life in our societies. Doubtless it will take time, but unless someone starts the process and refuses to allow themselves to be intimidated, women will never be fully equal.
My friend then commented, “I’d rather give a woman the choice to serve under front line conditions,” to which I replied, “Ideally both genders should have the choice — but when their governments are determined to go to war…”
A bouquet, too, to Susan Davis for her forthright statement that "Sexual assault within the ranks is antithetical to the trust and camaraderie that defines military culture"
And, genie, men who rape other men do not have to be gay — all they have to be are power-mad animals
Sioux Rose
SALLY: Thank you for the acknowledgement. I agree with 90% of your post. However within that 10% lies the rub! You may take me for an idealist, but as a feminist I do not see the gain in having women adapt to the male culture of violence that the military IS, or even the idea that all should be equipped for combat in the event the nation were attacked. I take a Jungian-psychology crossed with astrology view of what ails us, and in my view, it's that the world has come to resemble the image and likeness of Mars, the god of war, in too many ways. The most telling is the fact that entire nations devote sizable portions of their net economies to the purchase of heinous weapons; and that in the U.S. important things like social programs, those that comprise the safety net for people in genuine need, are in a phase of being cut, while the military barrels along like some kind of dark vacuum sucking up all the available funds so it can develop yet more weapons of mass destruction, and leave its deadly footprint on more regions virtually ensuring the very thing it purports to protect against--a retaliatory attack on the homeland, the thing allegedly protected against instead is being courted by so many senseless foreign invasions.
In sum, rather that equipt women to fight like men, march like men, and bow down before the patriarchal god of war and destruction, I'd prefer to see men taught to honor the feminine side of the force, learn to add some Venus to their lives. It begins with religion. Patriarchal beliefs have defined women as lesser citizens of this cosmos, that status made clear in countless cultures across the globe. Were men to see the female as their Divine partner, it's doubtful they would be so quick to rape. If they weren't taught to suppress a healthy sexuality (instead it's shrouded in all kinds of beliefs around sin), they probably would not seek out today's sickening species of porn and through its imagery, treat women "accordingly."
The systems that have been used, overtly and covertly to condition persons to what passes for norms are what need to change. They have brought about the monster, the same MIC Eisenhower aptly warned against, as it creeps around the globe with a network of close to 1000 bases, making the imprint of the soldier the dominant one in every land. Added to Hollywood's glamourous depiction of handsome guys expertly wielding weapons, and as reward, gaining access to the gorgeous girl; to football events pushing the idea of slaughtering the weak to "win" and "be number 1," these programming devices lead to war, aggression, and conflict. It is THAT mindset that is sick, and needs changing. Adapting women to it in my view only means we accept the disease AS the norm. It reminds me of Gandhi's phrase about "Eye for an eye would make the entire world blind." This is the "it's good for both genders" equivalent. I'm not buying.
The military here is totally lacking in humanity, but that is the nature of the beast of any war machine at the service of its power elite masters in any given hierarychy to keep those in power in power.
Still the commander in chief could do something about this if he weren't such a gutless wonder as he has the power and duty to do same.
AD