“A woman in the military is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq,” said Jane Harman, Democratic Representative from California, at a Congressional hearing this year.
Sexual abuse in the military is not a new phenomenon, but the numbers of reported incidents are higher than ever and steadily rising. Victims of abuse and government officials say that these numbers reflect only a fraction of what really goes on.
Captain Margaret H. White is just one of the thousands of women who have left the military with a story to tell. Her story, like many others, is one of fear and injustice. Throughout the time she was in Iraq, she was harassed, stalked, and eventually raped by a warrant officer that she had begun a relationship with during their training.
She says she began to feel “creepy vibes” and tried to cut off the relationship when they arrived at Camp Taji in Iraq, but the officer had a different agenda. He continued to pursue her against her will, constantly sending her notes and presents, waiting for hours outside her quarters, and finally forcing her to have sex.
“It got to the point that I felt safer outside the wire than I did taking a shower,” Captain White said, in reference to the operations that took place outside of the protection of the base.
She compared her life in the military to living in a fish bowl, saying, “You can’t really get away from someone. You see him in the chow hall. You see him in the gym.” It even got to a point where she stopped drinking water after 7:00 p.m. out of fear of going alone to the latrine and meeting him.
Another story comes from Sergeant Tracy R. Phillips, who, after telling a superior about being sexually harassed by a private, was kicked out of Iraq and out of the Army entirely, receiving an honorable discharge with “serious misconduct” as the reason. The private remained with no punishment whatsoever.
In at interview at her parents’ home, Phillips said, “If I would have never, ever, ever said anything, I wouldn’t be sitting here, I’d still be in Iraq.”
In Afghanistan in 2006, former Air Force sergeant Marti Ribeiro was raped by another soldier while walking away from her guard post to smoke a cigarette. When she tried to report the incident, Ribeiro was threatened with prosecution for leaving her weapon at her post unattended.
Although Sgt. White’s case finally ended with a restraining order and the resignation of the offending officer, most of the abuse victims are not willing to come forth because the outcome might very well be more than they bargained for. In many cases, they have to just live with consequences of abuse and handle them alone, all while eating, drinking, and working in close quarters with their predators.
Oftentimes, victims are reluctant to come forth not only out of fear of punishment, but because they don’t want to interfere with their mission and reason for being there.
“Service members risk their lives for one another and bear the responsibility of keeping fellow service members out of harm’s way. Sexual assault in the military breaks this bond,” said the Pentagon’s annual report on sexual abuse.
“You’re in the middle of a war zone,” said Captain White, who thought no one would ever take her seriously. “So it’s kind of like that one little thing is nothing compared with ‘There is an I.E.D. [improvised explosive device] that went off in this convoy today and three people were injured.’”
The predators themselves often have no fear of repercussions for the very same reasons.
“Some military personnel indicated that predators may believe they will not be held accountable for their misconduct during deployment because commanders’ focus on the mission overshadows other concerns,” the Pentagon report said
This is not far from the truth if you look at the numbers. Only 317 out of 2,171 investigation suspects in the fiscal year ending September 2008 ever faced a court-martial.
Military and government officials claim to be cracking down on their policies toward sexual abuse, but there has been a strict “no tolerance” policy for a long time. What will these new policies accomplish that the others didn’t?
Although the military itself can not prevent sexual abuse from occurring, tolerance in any way is unacceptable. Men and women at war have enough to deal with without having to worry about being stalked or raped by a fellow soldier, and if these soldiers know they can get away with it, as many of them have, they are just going to continue in their ways like any other criminal.
What saddened me the most was to hear that even the commanding officers, in many cases, did not attempt to assist those who came forth as victims, but instead either punished or released them because they didn’t want their own image to be tainted. Is that what the military is about? Image? Men and women like that are not fit to lead. True leaders don’t behave like this.
Hopefully, the new policies being enforced will actually make a difference, but awareness is needed too. 2,908 incidents of abuse were actually reported, but just imagine how many others did not report their story. This issue is not something that will solve itself, but the more who come forth, the less chance anyone has of being ignored. This is an issue that can’t be ignored any longer. These are our sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers and cousins, and they deserve to be heard.
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