Pentagon should face facts to fight sexual abuse

The following editorial appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Thursday, March 18

Wednesday’s bombing in Baghdad makes clear just how much effort the United States will have to exert to conquer these sick enemies who see innocent civilians as combatants.

The enormity of that battle—not to mention the simple laws of decency and code of military discipline—should leave American soldiers no room for assaulting their own.

Yet Pentagon officials say more than 100 soldiers have been assaulted in the Middle East over the past year and a half. The victims are in the Army, Navy Air Force and Marines, each a servicewoman on duty along with the nearly 60,000 women deployed in the Iraq theater. The attackers are fellow soldiers.

Attacks on servicewomen serving in Iraq and at stateside military bases should be an affront to all Americans. Nearly as many sexual assaults are under investigation at Air Force bases in the Pacific. Those cases span a two-year period from 2001 to 2003.

For Pentagon officials, military brass, and Washington lawmakers with armed-service oversight, these latest statistics are worry enough. But their call to action is more than just the numbers of individual lives turned upside-down by these assaults. It’s the military’s troubling pattern of mishandling so many of these cases.

As revealed by the two-decade history of sexual assaults on cadets at the Air Force Academy in Colorado, the experience of too many servicewomen victims has been to be treated shabbily, and even penalized for reporting an attack. Dozens have been deprived counseling, while others have seen inquiries botched or allowed to languish for months.

Let’s be clear about one thing: This isn’t about women serving in uniform. No, sir. These attacks pose a direct challenge to the men in uniform: Can they serve with honor as women soldiers’ comrades in arms?

A panel of male commanders sat before a congressional committee last month and assured Congress that they’re at work on strategies to better protect American servicewomen. They brandished statistics showing that sexual assault in the military is down by half from what it was in 1995. For that, let the nation be thankful—while it grows ever more impatient for a solution to prevent all military sexual attacks.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has launched a task force review of the military’s handling of these assaults. Let’s hear about concrete reforms soon, before the shocking number of victims grows. Two quick fixes: Make sure rape counseling is mandatory. And professionalize shoddy evidence-gathering.

Facing a chilly reception from their own commanders, servicewomen show guts by coming forward merely to report their attacks. Witness Army Sgt. Audra Wood of Lancaster County, Pa., who last week went public about her terrifying attack at a Kuwait camp.

Military brass need to muster similar guts, and protect their troops.

— The opinions expressed in this editorial represent those of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Responses can be sent to collegian@csufresno.edu