A Scandal Bigger than Walter Reed – The Rape, Assault and Harassment of Women in the Military

[babylonsister]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_kevin_ze_070411_a_scandal_bigger_tha.htm

A Scandal Bigger than Walter Reed – The Rape, Assault and Harassment of Women in the Military

by Kevin Zeese


Women are facing widespread sexual harassment and even rape by their male comrades in the military. The threat of sexual violence against female soldiers by their male colleagues is so great that women are warned not to out to the bathroom alone at night. This has resulted in women stopping drinking fluids at 3:00 in the afternoon and has even led to deaths due to dehydration.

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- A 2004 study of veterans from Vietnam and all the wars since, who were seeking help for post-traumatic stress disorder, found that 71 percent of the women said they were sexually assaulted or raped while in the military.

- An earlier study, conducted in 1992-93 with female veterans of the Gulf War and earlier wars, 90 percent said they had been sexually harassed in the military, which means anything from being pressured for sex to being relentlessly teased and stared at.

- The results of a change in policy in 2005 allowing sexual assaults to be reported confidentially in “restricted reports” resulted in the number of reported assaults across the military jumping 40 percent, to 2,374, but still most are not reported.

- The V.A. has diagnosed possible PTSD in some 34,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans; nearly 3,800 of them are women. With regard to women, nearly every expert interviewed by writer Sarah Corbett mentioned the reportedly high rates of sexual harassment and sexual assault in the military.


- A nine-month study of military rape by the Denver Post in 2003 found that nearly 5,000 accused military sex offenders had avoided prosecution since 1992.

more...

[Monkeyman]

1. Yep The Story The Military Does Not Want You To Hear

[PDJane]

2. All things considered..........

The lack of veterans care, the lack of employment rules enforcement, the rape and harassment of women and gays, the use that the government has made of military persons as guinea pigs, the use of DU munitions.......why the hell does anyone join a volunteer military down there?

It's time to educate your kids before they get caught up by the recruiters. There is no amount of cash that will pay for their children's birth defects.

[Monkeyman]

3. You Said What I been saying

We didn't have women on the front lines in Nam but this crap is being done by dam cowards

[TexasLinda]

4. Most military men are decent, caring adults.

The problems with rape and harassment of women is due to a lack of leadership that goes all the way to the Commander-in-Chief. Bush has put so much pressure on the military to get troops to Iraq that they're sending wounded and brain-damaged troops back knowing they are not fit for combat. There's no way they're going to yank an able-bodied troop just because he's a rapist.

It was not always like this. I spent 20 years in the Air Force and served with some really great guys -- honest, hard-working men who did not harass female troops and who did not cheat on their wives. Yes, I experienced some harassment, but no more than I would have in the civilian world. And much less than I experienced as a child in my own home. The animals who prey on members of their own unit should do hard time before they are dishonorably discharged. Unfortunately our military is currently operating under George Bush's "frat boy" rules -- if it's anything he may have done as a frat boy it's okay.