Vice Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral James Winnefeld (file photo).
A US admiral says sexual assaults committed by American soldiers in the countryâ„¢s Army are similar to insider attacks carried out by Afghan troopers against US-led soldiers in war-torn Afghanistan.
Å“Any form of unwanted sexual contact or sexual harassment is a different kind of insider attack that is lethal,” said Admiral James Winnefeld, vice chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, during a meeting with a women’s military group on Thursday.
Å“We will not allow this to go on…We have worked hard on this but not hard enough,” he added.
Washington is facing a crisis resulting from the rising number of sexual assaults in the countryâ„¢s military.
On May 25, President Barack Obama said the problem would undermine trust in US military.
Å“Those who commit sexual assault are not only committing a crime, they threaten the trust and discipline that makes our military strong,” Obama said during the US Naval Academy graduation ceremony at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland.
A newly-released report by the Pentagon on sexual assaults in the military indicates that unwanted sexual contact protests involving military personnel jumped to 26,000 in 2012 from 19,000 a year before. The figure shows a 37-percent increase.
The sharp increase in the number of sexual assault cases comes as the Pentagon is planning to integrate women into front-line combat roles.
According to a survey conducted in 2011, about one out of five military women said they had been the victims of sexual assault by another service member since joining the military.
MAM/KA
This article originally appeared on: Press TV