There is no excuse for rape, it is not about sex, but power, it is likewise inexcusable for military commanders not to take reports of rape, sexual abuse or harrassment seriously. However, it was predicted many decades ago that the mixing of male and female soldiers in the military would inevitably raise sexual tensions and result in a negative impact on military discipline and unit cohesion in combat units.
For the more than 200,000 women serving on active duty in the U.S. military, sexual assault and harassment are issues not to be ignored – and now that the armed forces are taking steps to correct the problem, some wonder if it is doing enough.
Carolyn Schapper
In the fiscal year ‘07, ending Oct. 1, military members serving in Iraq and Afghanistan reported 131 cases of rape and assault. The Department of Defense recorded 2,688 cases of sexual assault last year; 60 percent were allegations of rape.
Some women claim the military does not respond adequately to allegations of sexual harassment and assault. Carolyn Schapper, 35, told the Associated Press an Army National Guard soldier repeatedly stormed into her room while she was dressing in Iraq. She began changing in her shower stall to ensure she had privacy. Schapper said she wouldn’t think of reporting the incident, because she believed administrative action would be taken against her instead of the other soldier.
Maria Lauterbach
Missing pregnant Marine Maria Lauterbach’s body was found burned in a shallow fire pit located in Cpl.Cesar Armando Lauren’s backyard earlier this year. She had accused Lauren of sexually assaulting her and planned to testify against him before she vanished.
After the hearing was dismissed, Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., said there is an “epidemic of assault and rape against women in our military.” “Women serving in the military today are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than be killed by enemy fire in Iraq,” she said.
According to a Government Accountability Office report released July 31, incidents of rape and sexual assault in the military are under-reported by nearly half. Many soldiers fail to report assaults because they worry “that nothing will be done; fear of ostracism, harassment, or ridicule; and concern that peers would gossip.”
Some victims argue that the military chain of command would punish or move them if they complained, rather than discipline the person responsible for the assault.
> Most soldiers are very young men with hormones raging, expressing itself in macho self-images, bravado, and an exceptionally strong interest in the opposite gender, the strongest of their lives.
> When in combat, shortly before or after, there is a sense of the shortness of life and a desire to make hay while the sun shines. Thus, throughout military history the high increases in pregnancies among married soldiers, venereal diseases and other sexually related problems during war. Liberals demand self-control, something totally foreign to a man with an erection and/or in close proximity to someone of the opposite gender.
> Many, if not most rapes are actually the result of passions gone to far, especially when drinking is involved and a female having regrets about not making her “no’ clear enough, to protect themselves find it easier to charge rape than take responsibility for their role in the sexual intercourse.
My point is this; I think it is unnatural in a combat setting, with long times away from a place where sexual needs can find a safe outlet, to have hormone raging young men and women in close proximity to each other for long periods of time. The nation understood this when mixing of men and women in combat was first proposed, but more liberal minded people prevailed and now we have a situation where normal, horny young men are being viewed as rapists and uncontrolled animals, while the all the females are of course innocent victims, all the result of social experimentation and political meddling in the military, all in the damnable name of political correctness.
Lastly, to all the morons that may comment, this is not an attack on women and as earlier expressed, it is not an excuse for the sexual misconduct of rapists, sexual abusers or the sexual harassment of women. It is my view that such close relationships in combat units will always breed such sexual tensions and even misconduct, unless we castrate all men in the military; or, go back to the successful no women in combat policies of the past.
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