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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
In the U.S. military, rapists often go unpunished, several female victims attest.
Oct 25, 2004 | The worst thing for Capt. Jennifer Machmer was knowing that the U.S. Army had actually promoted her rapist. Four years in the military, from proud [passing out] at West Point to humiliating discharge, had provided an education into the Pentagon's thinking on sexual assault in the ranks, but Machmer never expected an accused rapist to be rewarded.
Her story, narrated to a hushed congressional committee in April of this year, was a rare first-person account of the dangers faced by women soldiers during the Iraq war from their fellow troops. With thousands of women on the front line of America's war on terror, the Pentagon has been forced to acknowledge that female soldiers are at risk from their comrades in arms, and that, in the U.S. military, rapists often go unpunished.
As Machmer's experiences in uniform reveal, the culture of violence runs deep. In her first command, she was nominally in charge of a soldier who regularly abused and threatened her. Machmer had the soldier transferred, and he was punished with an $875 fine. In her second posting, in 2002, the military chaplain she was seeing for marriage counseling sexually abused her. Machmer opted for discretion and did not file a complaint.
Later, in Kuwait, during the run-up to the American invasion of Iraq in early 2003, she was raped. "There was no way I could file away another violation," she told the congressional committee. After asking herself, "Do I stay quiet and just suck up the life that has been ruined, or do I speak out and try to go back to that route I was on," the captain reported the attack within 30 minutes. Then she watched her career implode. Under the narrow definition of military law, the assault was not considered rape -- though it would have been under criminal law in most states.
Machmer was discharged from the military against her wishes, on a partial pension because of post-traumatic stress disorder. Her assailant was transferred to a prized post. "The aftermath of the report has been terrifying," she told the Congressional Women's Caucus. "Every time you turn around, you are revictimized, and retraumatized."
It has been 10 years since the Clinton administration opened up 90 percent of military jobs to women. More than 200,000 women now serve in the U.S. military, with at least 15,000 stationed in Iraq. Some of the women who put on the uniform and went off to war came home as heroines, like Pvt. Jessica Lynch, whose capture by Iraqi forces was spun by the Pentagon into a tale of military derring-do; or Rachel and Charity Witmer, who returned to their grieving parents in Wisconsin in April after a third sister was killed in Baghdad. Lynndie England, a young soldier from a poor town in West Virginia, became instead the symbol of the ugly American, grinning and giving the thumbs-up to scenes of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison.
As now seems clear, the Pentagon could not sustain its military presence in Iraq without women soldiers. However, activists say the military establishment has done little to protect its female troops. As the committee hearing broke up, Machmer told reporters that she came to trust the Iraqis more than her fellow soldiers.
As in the civilian world, the greatest threat comes from known colleagues, says Christine Hansen, director of the Miles Foundation, an independent advocacy organization for victims of violence. "Predominantly, we are seeing that these are acquaintance rapes, that the victims and the alleged assailant know each other. It might be your battle buddy, or a friend of your battle buddy who is in another squad."
As of September 2004, the Miles Foundation had received credible reports of rape or sexual assault (in the period August 2002 to August 2003) from 243 women serving in the U.S. military in Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain and Afghanistan. An additional 431 instances of assault were reported elsewhere. No figures are available for the rape of male soldiers serving in Iraq, although campaigners say there are such cases. Meanwhile, the Miles Foundation says it has charted a sharp increase in reports of domestic violence among military families with soldiers returned from the war.
Hansen believes the reported rapes account for just a fraction of the attacks. Most of the known victims were senior noncommissioned officers or officers -- which Hansen says suggests that junior personnel are even more afraid of coming forward.
And who could blame them? A woman who reports a rape often suffers hazing or and retaliation. She may be forced to continue serving with her attacker. In extreme cases, she may be thrown in the brig and be accused of sexual misconduct. "It's a career ender," says Louise Slaughter, a Democratic congresswoman from New York and leader of the women's caucus. "The sad thing is that, in addition to everything else, we are losing brainpower, and people who would be extraordinary soldiers."
Meanwhile, the U.S. military has become notorious as an institution reluctant to confront a culture of abuse. Since 1991, when 83 women were assaulted at the annual Tailhook pilots' convention, the Pentagon has had ample evidence of the abuse of women within the ranks. In 2002, a civilian rape crisis center near Sheppard Air Base in Texas saw two dozen new recruits who were victims of assaults. Last year, the U.S. Air Force Academy was shaken by reports from women cadets of rape and humiliation that went unpunished by their superiors.
