Nancy Gibbs begins her article, Sexual Assaults on Female Soldiers: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, by talking about how female soldiers overseas are told not to go get a drink a water after 7 pm to avoid the risk of being raped or how a female soldier went out for a cigarette and was assaulted but afraid to report it because she didn’t want to be demoted for not bringing her weapon with her. Gibbs explains that lately the news has covered only the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” story but has neglected the news on women assault. “Maybe that’s because too many commanders still don’t ask, and too many victims still won’t tell, about the levels of violence endured by women in uniform (Gibbs 1).” Nancy Gibbs explains how 3,000 women were sexually assaulted in 2008, up 25% in Iraq and Afghanistan, and looking at all the female veterans one third say they were victims of rape or assault which is twice the rate in civilian population (1). Gibbs points out that the major problem is not these high (even though they are big problem) but the fact that 80 percent to 90 percent of sexual assaults go unreported. These women feel they need to stay silence because they believe that nothing will be done, that they will be ostracized, or will be subject to ridicule and gossip; women don’t want to be labeled as troublemakers. They don’t want to make it seem like that their problem is more important than the mission and they don’t want to ruin the unit’s bond. “And then some just do the math: only 8% of cases that are investigated end in prosecution, compared with 40% for civilians arrested for sex crimes. Astonishingly, about 80% of those convicted are honorably discharged nonetheless (1).” Mental- health professionals are not readily available to women. Gibbs says that some experts try to offer theories for the causes of these high numbers of assault like how the military culture is intrinsically violent and hyper masculine, that the military is slow to identify potential risks among raw young recruits, that too many commanders wound rather look the other way than acknowledge a breakdown in their units, or that it has simply not been made a high enough priority (2). Nancy Gibbs feels that the government is trying to do something about this problem, women can now seek medical treatment with out having to report it to their chain of command and that more field hospitals have trained nurses to treat victims and have more rape kits available.
This article really struck me because it sounds so insane for some reason, how can the men in the military be doing this to fellow soldiers. They are fighting for our country, normal citizens hold them to such high standards, I don’t think anyone can imagine our soldiers doing this to one another. A female soldier can’t go get a drink of water after seven that sounds like she is in the ghetto. Is the military like a ghetto, if it is then something needs to be done. The numbers Nancy Gibbs are quite outrageous to me, ONE THIRD of female vets have been sexually assaulted or raped, and that’s a bit crazy. These men and women are fighting for the safety of the people in America, yet these women aren’t safe from the male soldiers. If these women are willing to risk their lives for the betterment of American people then they shouldn’t have to deal with any other stress. To add to that most of the women who have been harassed don’t report what has happened to them because they’re afraid what will happen or don’t think anything will happen is ridiculous. These women need a safe outlet from this abuse. The theories experts give for the reason of this abuse I think are pretty accurate. The military is this hyper-masculine over violent atmosphere where men get all hyped up. It is still no excuse for what some of them do. There is no way around this, the military is violent because they are trying to kill the enemy but they need to realize this violence needs to be aimed at the enemy not fellow soldiers. Hopefully the government can do something to lower the numbers of female soldiers being sexually harassed.
Many authors have taken an interest in the topic of sexual assault on military bases. Steven Lee Myers is a writer for the New York Times and wrote about women in the military also. His two articles, “A Peril in War Zones: Sexual Abuse by Fellow G.I.’s” and “Living and Fighting Alongside Men, and Fitting In,” explain sexual harassment in the Military. He also sees it as a big problem that the government needs to address, but he doesn’t make it out as a big of problem as Nancy Gibbs, he feels that the numbers are going down and the government is making some attempts to lower the numbers. Myers and Gibbs have very similar facts and figures and ideas about why women don’t report assault. This demonstrates that these figures aren’t a secret and that many people know this. The people that know this need to exploit this information so that more of the public knows, if more of the public knows I’m sure that they would speak out and the government would be forced to do something. Right now this information is under the media’s spotlight, but if TV did shine some light on it, maybe the government would feel more pressure to change some things.
Female Soldiers are being sexually abused at an alarming rate, these numbers need to be made more public to force the United States government to take action and lower the numbers Women are being harassed and have no where to go and no one to really turn to, this leads them to keep it internalized which can lead to even more serious problems later on. Authors like Nancy Gibbs and Steven Lee Myers need to band together to expose these facts on a larger scale, which may cause the Government to act. Hopefully, these numbers will decline with time and women will only have to worry about attacks from their enemy instead of both enemy and fellow soldier.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1968110,00.html
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