Friday, December 24, 2010

Rape in the Imperial Army.....Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Military sexual abuse 'staggering'


In part two of our series, Al Jazeera examines the often hidden world of rape and abuse in the US military.

Dahr Jamail
Al-Jazeera

"Every year, rape increases at an alarming rate within American military institutions – and even males are victims of the cycle.

In fact, due to raw demographics, one can roughly surmise that most victims of sexual abuse in the military are male.

Regardless of gender, reports of victims of military sexual assault have been increasing. In 2007, there were 2,200 reports of rape in the military, whilst in 2009 saw an increase up to 3,230 reports of sexual assault.

Many of the victims suffer from Military Sexual Trauma (MST) and are shamed into silence, with numerous cases not even reported.

A disturbing trend, however, is how military officials seem to be sweeping this damaging issue under the rug and deflecting blame.......

She is putting together a class action suit against the DOD for failure to protect service-members from MST, aims to file it in February, and hopes the case will bring significant and lasting reform in the DOD’s stance on MST.

They’ve been saying for years that they just need more time, that they’re getting their act together," Burke adds, "You can’t expect to have a properly functioning military without discipline problems being addressed, and if you can’t address rape, you have a real problem.""

No comments: