Contributing
Editor David DeBatto is a former Army staff
sergeant and Counterintelligent Special Agent
who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom where
he was injured in combat. He is the Sr. Editor
of CI
Advisor and is currently writing the first
of a four book fiction series for Warner Books
called "CI" which is due out in May 2005.
Mr. DeBatto can be reached at david@CIAdvisor.net.
These articles and commentaries are provided
courtesy of DefenseWatch, the official
magazine for Soldiers For The Truth (SFTT),
a grass-roots educational organization started
by a small group of concerned veterans and
citizens to inform the public, the Congress,
and the media on the decline in readiness
of our armed forces. Inspired by the outspoken
idealism of retired Colonel
David Hackworth, SFTT aims to give our
service people, veterans, and retirees a clear
voice with the media, Congress, the public
and their services.
In the past week or so, several news reports have appeared concerning
a large number of allegations of sexual assaults toward women in the
U.S. military, primarily within the Army
and Air
Force. Congress has launched hearings into the matter and Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has directed an internal inquiry into how
DoD currently handles such allegations.
Let me say from the outset, that as a former police officer who investigated dozens of rapes and successfully apprehended many of the perpetrators of those rapes, I consider sexual assault a horrific crime and consider rapists one of the lowest forms of life. I took great satisfaction in helping to place behind bars those responsible for destroying the lives of others.
I state this because what I am about to say may upset some of the politically correct crowd.
The U.S. active-duty military today (including mobilized reservists and National Guard troops) is composed of hundreds of thousands of young, healthy, hormone-charged men and women, mostly in their late teens to mid-twenties, who often find themselves working and living together 24/7.
While deployed, they often retreat to a gender-neutral tent or other living facility at the end of their shift and sleep on cots that are often no more than 12 to 18 inches apart. Up to sixty men and women may sleep in one tent or one large room. It is not uncommon in certain field units for soldiers to sleep in their vehicles together.
Privacy is essentially non-existent. Showers and toilets, when available at all, are also shared among the sexes, although at different, pre-set times. Military personnel are constantly crammed into vehicles of all sorts, bunched up together and forced to - as my drill sergeant used say, "make your buddy smile!" Well, today, that "buddy is more than ever before, likely to be a member of the opposite sex.
Another dynamic that enters into the mix is the very fact that we are at war and many of these people are serving in areas with continuing hostile actions taking place. Combat duty creates unusually high levels of stress, frustration and anger.
Rape is a violent, angry crime. We have numerous situations where young, physically strong male service members are serving in high-stress environments, day in and day out. They are away from home, possibly for the first time. Some of them are also scared, lonely, depressed and exhibiting other mental health issues. Many of them are also extremely immature.
Add to that mixture the easy access to alcohol on or near most military
installations for service members of all ages (yes, even in Iraq)
as well as drugs (zero tolerance or not) and you have everything you
need for a real problem.
Again, rape is a crime of violence, of asserting one's power over another. I am stressing this because I was personally aware of two incidents while in Iraq of male-on-male rape. I am sure there were other incidents that went unreported. The military should vigorously prosecute all non-consensual sexual advances.
Having said all that, it is my assessment that what is truly extraordinary
is that given conditions in the field in Iraq and Afghanistan,
there are not more sexual assault allegations in the military than
there are. You simply cannot put men and women of those demographics
together in those situations for an extended period of time and not
expect them to get physical with each other, both consensually and
non-consensually.
We should all try to keep in mind that compared with a typical American city with a population of similar size to the U.S. military (roughly 1.2 million people) the sexual assault statistics in the military are actually quite low. They are even lower when you factor in that all of the population in question is sexually active, unlike the population of any city that might be used for a comparison.
While no set of circumstances in any way can justify rape or any other unwarranted sexual advance, maintaining the force structure and op tempo the way it currently stands guarantees that this problem will continue for the foreseeable future.
The military should strengthen its programs that advise military recruits of the consequences of their sexual assault when they enter service, and DoD would be well-advised to consider some form of in-theater refresher briefings for deployed troops. The military should - and will - aggressively investigate and prosecute all allegations of rape and sexual assault that surface.
