I was unspeakably saddened by the Guardian article out of the UK: "Rape in the US Military: America's Dirty Little Secret." The subtitle reads that "a female soldier in Iraq is more likely to be attacked by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire," although I think the article brings up more startling systematic failures in military culture, military justice, and the V.A. health care system -- for both women and men.
It is, regrettably, not difficult to find troubling statistics on sexual assault. RAINN (the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network) reports that someone in the United States is the victim of sexual assault every two minutes, and fifteen of sixteen rapists will never see a jail cell. In the aftermath/midst (depending on how you look at it) of the Penn State scandal, the website 1in6.org offers support to the estimated one in six men who is sexually abused before the age of eighteen, as well as their friends and families.
I used to spend quite a bit of time thinking about these sorts of things, during my involvement with a sexual assault crisis hot line as an undergraduate. Commitments, involvements, and the simple passage of time have shifted my focus away from sexual assault -- but my convictions remain the same. I think the article from the Guardian suggest some key opportunities for change in the military which addresses the problematic truths set forth in the stories to too many abused soldiers.
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