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 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.
By Jane Harman , Los Angeles TimesPosted on April 2, 2008, Printed on April 2, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/80995/
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.
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.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
RAPISTS IN THE RANKS
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13 comments:
This is what I have been trying to talk about on the Vets for Common sense site for the past 5 or so years! I have commented only to be ignored or flamed by some woman who wants to deny the reality of other women vets by saying that the poor men need prostitutes. This is an issue that will not go away until men themselves address it. It is not about men it it about their BEHAVIOR. It is something that can be controlled if a decision is made to do so.
What is needed is for you guys to begin to talk honestly and openly about sexuality. All humans like sex. So how do we deal with sexual needs when at war? Somebody needs to talk about masturbation without making it a bad joke - rather a viable alternative when a willing partner is not available. We need to grow up and realize that sex is not shamefull, and masturbation is not shameful either. We as a nation are so hung-up on shame about a natural human function it is really pathetic and women should not have to be raped as a result of our hang-ups. Neither should we have to be the ones who fix the problem -- come on guys talk about it openly and teach our young men how to deal with their sexuality. PLEASE.
Maryriver
Mary: Thanks for your comment.
I wonder if there are any very old submarine veterans still alive to explain what salt-peter in your coffee everyday will accomplish. Rape has repeatedly occurred in the military since the civil war, now it’s being exploited JUST for political gain! Remember the suicide of the veteran who never had sex again because of the double circumcision he received from the Saigon whore who inserted a razor blade? What about male veterans that need counseling to deal with their guilt from raping someone or from just being in the vicinity and knowing a rape was occurring? This guilt and self-hatred is also a form of PTSD that must be dealt with. If repressed memory really is a severe form of PTSD; what about the female vet who after 27 years knows that the rape was the nicest of situations that happened to her? The VA certainly doesn’t have the answer. Veterans must unite as one while leaving their sex, politics, racism and views on this war at home or our issues will continue to be politically exploited. Our politicians need to get rid of their politically correct self-righteousness and provide American prostitutes to our troops or saltpeter in their coffee.
If they were to follow your suggestion, they could close all the recruiting offices.
I guess just as our politicians’ have always done when elected to office, when enlisting in the military today everyone also has to take that ‘vow of celibacy’. Maybe we should just have a bunch of pedophiles’ running our government, maybe then something would actually be done right? Since the ACLU never has done anything for a good cause, maybe we should ask them to fight for our troop’s ‘right to be human’. Not many men will want to enlist if they have to take the oath of celibacy. Eventually we will have an all women military, at least then there will be no more rapes! How can anyone sleep at night when they are denying our troops American prostitutes and the right to be human?
Pat: It certainly would be a good recruiting tool to provide prostitutes when you enlist. BTW: I was in the Army and they don't ask you to take an oath of celibacy.
Keep your thoughts coming. They are interesting and food for thought.
Bill
Rape and sexual abuse in the military is an intolerable condition. There should be severe punishment for such offenses. In the field I would not find such characters trustworthy and would not want to depend on them when under fire. Somehow those that commit these acts show signs of being cowardly; they certainly lack the basic self discipline necessary for soldiers. I would think, in light of the problem that the initial testing of potential soldiers would screen such factors. Certainly the subject should be adequately addressed during basic training with emphasis on the Uniform Code of Military Conduct.
When in Vietnam if I found a soldier committing rape they would have taken a rifle butt and a court marshal. No different than my attitude about deliberately killing civilians; I would have shot them flat out. Trying to stop someone that out of control was too dangerous, just shoot. At that point they were as likely to kill fellow soldiers that attempted to stop them as they were the civilians.
Soldiers that do not respect their fellow soldiers and commit acts such as rape deserve no better than to be shot; they are a disgrace to the uniform. Those that abuse and harass should be broken in rank and given the worst of the shit jobs available. If they act like that in the military where there is an expectation of discipline just think what they will act like on the streets of this nation. Who wants wives and daughters exposed to these turds.
If soldiers do not respect fellow soldiers they will respect nothing. Think of the folks who did the federal building in Oklahoma City; what did they respect?
JW: I really believe even those who did the unspeakable once felt just like you do. Just the combination of fear, drugs or alcohol can make people do some very strange and horrible things.
{I have mentioned this only a few times because it only results in denial and disdain; the -- wounds which go untreated because the topic is taboo and has gone unstudied – only results in denial and disdain. I remember as a teen meeting an all American new veteran who was still a teen himself at just nineteen. It was summer and he worked outside in construction, he always wore farmer jeans without a shirt in the heat. One day when they broke for a break, I took a snapshot of him and his very shy strawberry-blond haired girlfriend. That winter I found out the picture wasn’t perfect, to make a long story short; since his return home from war he was never able to have sex with his ex-fiancé. His battlefield scar was self hatred, disgust and guilt from being involved in a rape of a non-American female. He was just a kid when this happened and was so drunk, but he did sober up much at the end, he could not get off and vomited all over the girl. Today would his feelings be considered a form of PTSD? With the women overseas now, wouldn’t the rape of an American military sister in arms demand even more quilt? Many months later when I did learn of his suicide, I gave the snapshot to his old fiancé and explained his situation. She thanked me for learning he never stopped loving her, but couldn’t understand why he never told her what happened. I’ll never know if giving back the snapshot was the right thing to do, but this young girl’s mom was only full of distain for me for opening up old wounds for her daughter. Will I once again get nasty comments back here in this comment section of this newspaper for mentioning something taboo which is a reality that must be dealt with? } I wrote this paragraph above in the brackets last week on an article concerning how some male vets now returning home had a very hard time with their sex life. I really wanted to post it on the articles concerning women vets receiving SMT treatment at VA’s because it would not be an isolated incident to have a women vet sitting in the mental health clinic waiting to see her counselor and in walks the veteran that actually raped her along with his wife and two kids.
Thanks for your comment. It was very instructive and I applaud everything you said.
Thanks Pat for your honest input and your answer to JW. Good lively discussion.
Bill: You are welcome. The sad part is the VA already knows this is a reality that must be dealt with. I watched this happen and the poor girl (veteran) was placed in the psych ward while it was the wife that should have been. Then every doc, nurse and their mother started asking every woman vet at every appointment if we had been raped. This was back in the 90’s and they talked then about us women using the entrance to the nursing home instead of the main entrance. I’d never walk in any VA using the back door. Our VA never even had a MST counselor until about 18 months ago, and who by the way refused to even talk to me, I’m still wondering if it was something I said or something I didn’t say.
Hi Pat: Thanks for sharing that story with my readers and me. There are so many things that never get told because I'm firmly convinced most of the mainstream media never served in any branch of the military and they find all this military talk boring.
As you probably know from reading my blog, I continually hammer away at the media and it disgusts me they use "Irag Fatigue" as an excuse not to cover the war.
Our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from "fatigue" too, but not because they aren't interested in the war.
Again, thanks Pat for writing and sharing your story.
One last fact: While that happened in the 90’s at the VA, in the eighties I attended a few VSO gatherings (open bar); most times I was the only woman vet there. At every gathering there was always that wife or girlfriend who would catch me in the ladies room and say: “you’re not bad looking, so go find your own meal ticket, this one’s (a male vet) is mine”. While dating anyone was the furthest thing from my mind, at the last VSO gathering I attended back then, I would have got the hell beat out of me if I used the bathroom, and so I actually peed myself leaving the meeting. If guys like JW are sincere they can help their sister veterans just by making them comfortable at VSO gathering’s. Women veterans also NEED to be included as just another veteran, not ostracized for being pretty by an insecure wife or girlfriend.
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