US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan have produced quagmires of crime, corruption and abuse, beginning with the torture of prisoners, the creation of offshore penal colonies, and repeated airborne attacks on shepherd boys, wedding parties, TV crews and allied troops \u2013 and ending with atrocity-producing chauvinism, bigotry, night-time home invasions and indefinite detention without charges. We don\u2019t so much spread democracy as shred a mockery.<\/p>\n
This war system has produced epidemic suicide rates, boot camp fatalities, plane and copter crash losses, friendly fire deaths, \u201cgreen-on-blue insider\u201d attacks by Afghan trainees, combat wounds and amputations, PTSD and several unknown or undiagnosed syndromes many of which are permanently debilitating. The abuse and even murder of spouses are on the rise among returning vets while sexual battery, assault and rape have reached staggering rates.<\/p>\n
The Department of Defense\u2019s 2012 Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military estimates there were 26,000 sexual assaults in the military last year, up 35 percent from 19,000 in 2011. You know that sexual predators are rampaging through the services when the president calls the rape statistics \u201cshameful\u201d and \u201cdisgraceful,\u201d when Pentagon Chief Chuck Hagel calls the chronic outrages a \u201cbetrayal\u201d and a \u201cscourge that must be stamped out,\u201d and when the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey says, \u201cWe\u2019re losing the confidence of the women who serve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why would Dempsey admit such a thing? Because, according to Kirby Dick, director of the film \u201cThe Invisible War,\u201d less than one percent of the 26,000 cases resulted in a court-martial conviction. Kirby\u2019s documentary reviews the scandal of military commanders \u2013 not prosecutors and judges \u2013 deciding whether to prosecute \u201cembedded serial sexual predators.\u201d \u00a0In a recent editorial, Dick writes, \u201c500,000 uniformed men and women have been assaulted since 1991\u201d (the year of the Navy\u2019s Tailhook sexual assaults in\u00a0Las Vegas), and fewer than 15 percent were ever reported. In 1996, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland\u00a0was the site of infamous sexual assaults on female recruits. In 2003, it was the Air Force Academy in\u00a0Colorado\u00a0that represented the military\u2019s rape scene.<\/p>\n
The problem of unreported and unprosecuted sexual assaults in the military is notorious. Of the estimated 26,000 cases last year, the Department of Defense claims only 3,374 were reported. Tens of thousands of victims keep quiet out of fear of retribution by superior officers and a distrust of the military court system.<\/p>\n
One such case came to light June 1, 2013 as the\u00a0Naval\u00a0Academy announced that three of its football players were under investigation for the serial rape of a female midshipman in 2012. The victim\u2019s lawyer, Susan Burke, has said that after reporting her attack the sophomore was harassed and taunted by other midshipmen and ostracized and retaliated against by the\u00a0Naval\u00a0Academy\u00a0community. While still under investigation, the three perpetrators were allowed to play football while the victim was disciplined for underage drinking. They were formally charged June 19, 2013. In a second case, on\u00a0May 1, 2013, the Air Force said it disciplined five former commanders for not reporting sexual assault allegations at Joint Base San Antonio \u2014 Lackland in Texas\u00a0\u2013 where 18 sexual assault trials have taken place and 32 basic training instructors are under investigation for assaulting recruits. In addition, on\u00a0May 14, 2013 Sgt. Michael McClendon at\u00a0West Point\u00a0was charged with secretly videotaping a dozen women, sometimes in the shower. In December 2012, a Pentagon report warned that sexual assaults reported by students at its three prestigious military academies jumped 23 percent in one year.<\/p>\n
Three more current cases \u2013 beyond being too ironic for words \u2013 telegraph just how pervasive the culture of male sexual violence is in the military and how unlikely it is to be abolished by committee. First, Army Lt. Col. Darin Haas, sexual assault prevention officer at Fort Campbell in Ky., was removed from his position after being charged with and arrested for stalking and violating a restraining order procured by his ex-wife. Second, an Army sergeant first class that served as a sexual assault prevention and response coordinator at\u00a0Fort Hood, Texas,\u00a0is now accused of abusive sexual contact, assault, pandering and maltreatment of subordinates. Third, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski \u2013 who until\u00a0May 7, 2013\u00a0was in charge of the Air Force\u2019s sexual assault prevention and response branch \u2013 was arrested on a charge of sexual battery for allegedly groping a women after\u00a0midnight\u00a0in a parking lot.<\/p>\n
The case of Virginia Messick, who was raped at basic training in\u00a0Texas,\u00a0is grimly representative, although her assailant, Staff Sgt. Luis Walker, went to prison last July for raping 10 trainees. Messick didn\u2019t initially report being raped. She was staggered by the dilemma that the rapist was the same officer she was supposed to inform.<\/p>\n
Under pressure from Pentagon brass, Congress rejected a bill by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of N.Y. that would have given military prosecutors, not commanding officers, the power to decide which sexual assault cases to try. Without fear of retaliation, the law would have increased the number of reported crimes, but the generals objected, saying it would negatively affect \u201cgood order and discipline.\u201d Gillibrand didn\u2019t\u00a0buy the clich\u00c3\u00a9. She told the generals at a senate hearing in March 2012, \u201cI don\u2019t know how you can say having 19,000 sexual assaults and rapes a year is discipline and order.\u201d<\/p>\n
John LaForge<\/strong> is a co-director of Nukewatch, a nuclear watchdog and environmental justice group in\u00a0Wisconsin,\u00a0edits its Quarterly, and writes for PeaceVoice<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n