Sexualized Violence Against Female Soldiers Going Largely Unpunished

[mom cat]

In the US Central Command’s (CENTCOM) theatre of operation, which includes Iraq and Afghanistan, female soldiers reported 112 incidents of rape, assault and other forms of sexual misconduct during an 18-month period ending in February 2004, according to the Department of Defense. The Pentagon also acknowledges that more than 1,000 incidents of sexual misconduct throughout the military were reported in 2003 alone. Army statistics also demonstrate that perpetrators are not likely to be tried and convicted; numbers from 1996 show that out of 440 reported rapes, only 33 resulted in convictions, according to the Memphis Flyer.

http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=549

snip

Former Army Captain Jennifer Machmer told the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues that she was sexually assaulted two separate times and sexually harassed once between 2001 and 2003, according to Salon.com. After being raped in Kuwait in 2003, the last of the two assaults, Machmer reported the incident "within a half-hour," according to her testimony. Though she followed military protocol for reporting such an incident, "The aftermath of the reporting has been terrifying," said Machmer.

According to Salon.com, military authorities questioned whether Machmer’s assault should be considered a rape, she was not provided any immediate counseling and she had to continue working in the same location as her assailant. Machmer says she was eventually given a medical discharge, against her wishes, for suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. In April, she told the PBS program Newshour that the soldier who raped her in Kuwait was still in the Army. "He is now serving at Fort Knox, Kentucky, finishing out his career, while I’m here being raped out of my career," she said.

[DarkPhenyx]

1. probably not entirely accurate...

...but hey, it made a great headline.

[Crowdance]

2. Which part of the article or headline are you contesting?

your remark was remarkably lacking in specifics, but hey, it made a great subject line.

[Scairp]

11. Hello?

Why don't you respond? You had such a snarky comment at first and now you're silent. Why don't you fill us in on what you meant, or are you merely a misogynist with nothing meaningful to say after all?

[MaineDem]

21. Anything to back up your claim?

Your dismissal of the issue is rather offensive.

[Crowdance]

3. Women and the draft

These facts raise alarms for me when folks start talking about women being eligible for the (possibly inevitable) pending draft. Do men face this level of sexual violence in the armed forces? If not, drafting women would be horribly cruel; they'd face the same dangers from the enemy as men, but then face additional, unprosecuted and unpunished dangers from their own allies.

[Soopercali]

6. Male rape...

with recruits as the targets happens often enough that most VA hospitals have a pysch unit specializing in it. The most common occurence is in basic training, and medics are often targets (labled "fags").

[pocket]

12. medics are labelled fags?

That's going to be a big suprise to a lot of corpsmen I know.

[Turley]

19. ?????????????????????????

Who made this crap up?

[ElectroPrincess]

7. No, IMO it's best for women to go in through ROTC or Military Academy

I would not wish my daughter to enlist. As a woman who served four years as an army officer, I attest to having many men make overt passes toward me, some physical, but the mere subdued threat of ruining their career was enough to make them back off.

Enlisted women, especially privates are easy prey. However, it depends on a number of factors: leadership, demeanor, make up of the particular unit, etc.

My time in service essentially paid for graduate school, but I'd prefer it if my daughter does not serve in the future. You have to be almost "in your face" assertive even as an officer to stave off sexual predators.

However, don't get me wrong. I'm all for women serving in the military in any capacity if they can meet the PT standards. But I also submit there's few women who have the temperament and demeanor to honestly enjoy the experience of essentially "hunt and kill" one's enemy.

[bossfish]

4. This will get spun as...

ONLY 122 rapes in a force of 130,000+

sort of like being in Iraq is safer than the streets of any big city

[mom cat]

5. That's only the reported rapes. Few report for obvious reasons.

[Warpy]

8. The biggest danger to female soldiers in a war zone

is from sexual assault by their fellow male soldiers. The military has never taken this seriously, and it doesn't appear they're about to start. The attitude seems to be "boys will be boys."

And these fools want to draft women? Are they nuts? Do you want your daughters put into this position?

[ElectroPrincess]

9. Yes, IMO women should *always* be included

I don't want anyone drafted but women should also serve with men if there's a draft. Really, this is a leadership problem not a distaff one. Women need to permeate the ranks and assert themselves. Unfortunately what mucks up the water is the fact that there are women (and men who figuratively do so) who do enjoy sleeping their way up. Every civilian corporation and/or military unit has their share of parasites. That's very unfortunate and I don't know what difficult situations this captain faced.

When sexual aggressors are drunk, one has to be inventive, i.e., promise to kill them or have your redneck brothers castrate them. I was fortunate but I also did my best to avoid socials where troops got tanked.

My point: Appropriate social and field (work) behavior is the responsibility of the leadership. Do not put women back in their place (discriminate in any manner) because of a false assumptions about feminine gender roles and a profound lack of troop supervision and guidance, i.e., leadership failures.

[Eloriel]

13. Uh, Lady Officer, Ma'am

You were doing fine with "this is a leadership problem," but you really dropkicked it with this:

Unfortunately what mucks up the water is the fact that there are women (and men who figuratively do so) who do enjoy sleeping their way up.

Got NOTHING to do with the problem of rape and other sexual assaults. Nothing whatsoever. Zip, nada, zilch, ZERO. And an attitude like that only helps perpetuate the problem because it misidentifies the causes of the problem. (Like I said, you were on the right track with "leadership problem.")

There is NOTHING any woman can do to "deserve" rape, or create/exacerbate the problem of rape in the first place.

Further, I rather doubt the entirely separate problem you identify is that big a one, but in any case it has nothing to do with the subject at hand (sexual assaults incl. rape).

[ElectroPrincess]

14. OK, your point is respected

Yes, I respect your point. Please refer to me as EP :-).

I've worked in Government, the Military and Corporate atmospheres. If one sets aside everything about "no one deserves this or that" we can also see the complexity of the work/field environment.

Unfortunately, the *few* members of our gender who enjoy sleeping their way up will always be with us and give other men the "wrong impression."

This is a sad situation. However, one thing different about me is that I take responsibility for "everything" that surrounds me. It's not fair that I took precautions in the military, but it also probably saved my butt from being assaulted on a number of occasions.

No, I don't want to blame the victim. Just asking you to please acknowledge that the situation is not always black and white but often a shade of gray. Nope, no way I wish to argue with you because I'm very PRO-women's advancement. Best Regards, EP

[jdj]

16. My best friend in the reserves went to the 9/11

commemoration in 2002 with her unit and was sexually harassed by her male travel mate the f@cking entire time. They rented cars paid for by the reserve, and any time they were in the car without others present this married man would say "so (her name) when are you going to have sex with me". He kept at her the entire time, over and over, all weekend, and kept discussing private details of his sex life with his wife, and how he slept around all the time, and how she (my friend) would sleep with him eventually, because everyone in the (her branch) does it. It was horrible to hear about, at such a solemn event. And she is obviously a dyke anyway, and he knew it. Another woman there suffered even worse harassment, and my friend was sure she was seriously affected by it and urged her to report her harassment, but my friend felt it would only work against her to report her own experience with this man's behaviour.

Just after this I read that a female in this branch had died suspiciously, she had fallen out of a hotel room window in which two male enlisted men were present, and there was an altercation, and suspicions of foul play, needless to say. After what happened with my friend, I was pretty freaked out by this.

[Turley]

18. Your friend is wrong

It is not only her right to report such abuse, it is also her responsibility. Any soldier who witnesses such abuse is required to report it. Your friend neglected her duty, the end result of which is that a sexual predator feels free to prey on other females.

She has sent him the perfect signal that his behavior can continue unabated and unpunished. She wimped out.

[salin]

20. Would add on to this

first remember, that rape - often - is less about sex and more about power/either domination of will and/or subjegation and humiliation of the victim (sometimes those motivations are slightly different - sometimes they blur into one.)

Now - add the continuing resistance to and outright resentment of women in the military - especially in particular roles.

Now - return to the point that there is knowledge that some (even if just a few... the reputation would spread - again due to that resentment against women succeeding in the military and the story doing the rounds serving as a "see... they don't really earn it" explanation suddenly for *all* women) women have slept their way up the ladder.

The latter can be used as a mental excuse to allow the former to be rationalized for the doer. Keep in mind - it is a rationalization - and the victim is not likely to be the individual around whom the "reputation" has formed (given if the story is "true" that person has continued to climb to higher ranks - while the story remains at each tier along the way.) - and the doer also uses the story to fuel the anger/resentment about women in the military (and subtext to that is the superiority of men in those roles and thus all women in similar roles are believed to be inferior and not really have earned those roles.)

Just pointing out, that for some personalities - esp under stress - these factors could easily be feeding into the phenomenon.

Helps explain what I started with... rape being more about power/domination/humiliation... than about good old sex.

[wickerwoman]

15. Exactly- when few women enlist they are isolated

and become targets.

I don't favor the draft for anyone, but if they're going to have one it should include women at all levels and in all fields. The reason these assholes get away with this is the fact that there are comparatively few female officers.

[rocketdem]

10. Well, just thank goodness there ain't any gays in the military...

...cause they'd just be out of control sexually.

[bobthedrummer]

17. Kick.

:dem::kick: