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Sunday, Jul 12, 2009
According to a Pentagon-ordered report, sexual violence against female soldiers is rampant -- and not nearly enough is being done to stop it.
May 18, 2004 | Former Army Capt. Jennifer Machmer was sexually assaulted three times before she left the military in early 2004. She was first molested in 2001, by a serviceman when she was a platoon leader in Poland; she reported the assailant and, as his superior, had him transferred. The second incident was in May 2002, when she was assaulted by a military chaplain she'd turned to for counseling for her failing marriage. Rather than complain, Machmer steeled herself to move on and forget the incident. Then, a month into her tour in Kuwait in 2003, she was raped by a master sergeant she knew well. "There was no way I could file away another sexual violation to myself, so I reported it within a half-hour," Machmer told the Women's Caucus congressional hearing on women in the military more than a month ago. "The aftermath of reporting has been terrifying." Terrifying because authorities questioned whether the assault should be considered rape; terrifying because she had no immediate counseling and had to continue to work in the same area with the assailant -- who was never prosecuted. Against her will, she received a medical discharge citing post-traumatic stress disorder, and had to argue for a good disability package during a formal hearing. In the end, it was Machmer, and not her assailant, who had to leave the military.
Cases like Machmer's, along with scores of other sexual assault scandals within the military, compelled the Pentagon to release a 99-page report last Thursday ("The Department of Defense Task Force Report on Care for Victims of Sexual Assault"), ordered in February by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, detailing how the U.S. military has mishandled sexual assault cases within the ranks. At the same time the Pentagon is being slammed for leadership failures in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse controversy, advocates for women in the military are railing against the Pentagon for releasing a report that neglects to make concrete recommendations on the problems of sexual assault within the military and, instead, asks for further summits to discuss the problem. Amnesty International released a response to the report last Friday: "While the review was an important step, years of sweeping this problem under the carpet and systematic silencing of its victims cannot be erased with yet another report."
The recently released report is hardly the whistle-blower that exposes the military's sexual abuse scandals. Since 1986, there have been dozens of other official reports on sexual harassment in the military -- with few major changes implemented in the services. "The military has set up a task force to study the issue and it's come to the same conclusions," says Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., co-chair of the Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues. "It's almost as if they think that if they can throw out enough information, things would be different -- but they're not."
Kate Summers, director of services for the Miles Foundation, an advocacy organization for military women who have been assaulted by fellow troops, says that the Defense Department's report "has substantiated the information available to this office, such as the military's failings to provide timely services, and substantiates the surveys that veterans have made, and the anecdotal evidence made by victims for decades. But as far as recommendations, it asks for meetings. Meetings and conferences do not constitute a plan of action."
Researched by an eight-member task force over a 90-day period, the Defense Department's current report concludes that there were more than 1,000 cases of reported sexual misconduct in the military in 2003, and 900 in 2002. (These figures are assumed to represent only a small fraction of the assaults, because of many victims' reluctance to come forward for fear of being stigmatized by their fellow soldiers.) According to the report, protective measures for victims are "inconsistent and incomplete"; the report calls for more education and programs to deal with sexual assault cases. Advocates argue that the report barely addresses how to implement the major reforms needed to transform the military into a safer environment for integrated troops -- like hiring a program manager to oversee sexual abuse cases, staffing victim advocates and establishing a chain of command for ensuring victims' privacy.
