Not My Uncle Dick’s Military
28 December 2009 9:13 am by Taylor Marsh
As regulars know, my uncle Dick flew missions in WWII, ending up with what they called “battle fatigue.” A lot has changed since the old days of the mid-20th century military joined the world to fight. Some of it not good.
Whether it’s in Iraq or Afghanistan, the multiple deployments that began under Bush-Cheney has stressed our military to its seams. But that’s not the only thing going on inside our armed forces. Sexual assault is a concern that’s been around for years and even as only 10% are reported, the rise in women standing up in the last couple of years is a good sign. It’s hard to compare sexual assault with an IED explosive that just blew US soldiers to smithereens, but the lasting impact is deadly, especially in the armed forces where every soldier is needed.
It’s not just something women have to face either, even if they are the majority silent sufferers. From the New York Times:
“A woman in the military is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq,” Representative Jane Harman, a Democrat from California, said at a Congressional hearing this year, repeating an assertion she has made a refrain in a campaign of hers to force the military to do more to address abuses.
At least 10 percent of the victims in the last year were men, a reality that the Pentagon’s task force said the armed services had done practically nothing to address in terms of counseling, treatment and prosecution. Men are considered even less likely to report attacks, officials said, because of the stigma, and fears that their own sexual orientation would be questioned. In the majority of the reported cases, the attacker was male.
DADT is not helping. Further stigmatizing a group of soldiers by demanding they stay silent about their very nature spurs on a sexual assault atmosphere. The sooner DADT is repealed the sooner the military can begin dealing with this reality, which may be more difficult to grapple with than women’s rising roles in the military.
But the military doesn’t change quickly, with the career, top brass likely the hardest to move. That’s why people and veterans groups need to start talking about the issue of sexual assault openly, which the media must help highlight and de-stigmatize the importance of reporting the incidences, even as the wingnuts rally ’round the abusers, saying it’s only a small few, which is hardly the point.
This issue gets to the foundational code of honor our soldiers must uphold, but also the juvenile patriarchy and frat boy mentality that is embedded in our armed forces, but must be continually confronted, with the media’s willingness to make this a topic of discussion so that silence can be exchanged for transparency.
This is an apalling and unaceptable situation. Sexual assault is occuring in epidemic numbers through out our society. Virtually EVERY woman I know has been the a object of at the very LEAST sexual harrasment on the job and street and upwards of 90% of them actual assault to outright rape.
A BIG part of this attitude is the repression of normal (and by normal I simply mean acknowledging that SEX is a healthy normal activitey for consenting adults)sexuality through out our society.
Once it is OK to deny certain people’s sexuality as ligitamit based on nonsense like “natural law” and the bogus crap served up by in particular rightwing UUUUberchristiansit is OK to then exert dominance over and claim as your own their sexuality because they are now less then human.
Until Officers are in place in the military who obey the orders of their superiors and not allow their compliance to be colored by their OWN religion/societal prejudices (and this is in referance to the UUUUberchristian push to stack the military with evangelical zomboids) but according to their oaths nothing will change. They just don’t see it as a problem much like the politicion who said “Ladies, if you’re gonna be raped, might as well lay back and enjoy it”
How in the world the brass doesn’t get that DADT provides cover for sexual assault against men is beyond me.
As for female soldiers, they simply have to approach it as being the next line of suffragettes, this time standing a line for the biggest change of all, equality among men who hold guns.
According to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Netwowrk, since 1994, more than 13,500 service members have been fired under DADT. How many women, and men, have been targets of sexual assault during the same period is, no doubt, equally as horrendous. And no doubt, as you say Taylor, DADT provides cover for those responsible.
While efforts continue, by SLDN and others, to repeal DADT, word from the Obama administration makes it clear this isn’t anything like a priority. At a time of multiple deployments, high suicide rates, as well as high rates of sexual assault, repeal of DADT would be one significant step.