Military Recruiters Raping Potential Recruits
War is hell, even at home. The following is a long article from the AP. Please read it in its entirety and pass it on to your lists.
More than 100 young women who expressed interest in joining the military in the past year were preyed upon sexually by their recruiters. Women were raped on recruiting office couches, assaulted in government cars and groped en route to entrance exams.
A six-month Associated Press investigation found that more than 80 military recruiters were disciplined last year for sexual misconduct with potential enlistees. The cases occurred across all branches of the military and in all regions of the country.
"This should never be allowed to happen," said one 18-year-old victim. "The recruiter had all the power. He had the uniform. He had my future. I trusted him."
At least 35 Army recruiters, 18 Marine Corps recruiters, 18 Navy recruiters and 12 Air Force recruiters were disciplined for sexual misconduct or other inappropriate behavior with potential enlistees in 2005, according to records obtained by the AP under dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests. That's significantly more than the handful of cases disclosed in the past decade.
The AP also found:
_The Army, which accounts for almost half of the military, has had 722 recruiters accused of rape and sexual misconduct since 1996.
_Across all services, one out of 200 frontline recruiters — the ones who deal directly with young people — was disciplined for sexual misconduct last year.
_Some cases of improper behavior involved romantic relationships, and sometimes those relationships were initiated by the women.
_Most recruiters found guilty of sexual misconduct are disciplined administratively, facing a reduction in rank or forfeiture of pay; military and civilian prosecutions are rare.
_The increase in sexual misconduct incidents is consistent with overall recruiter wrongdoing, which has increased from just over 400 cases in 2004 to 630 cases in 2005, according to a General Accounting Office report released this week.
posted by storiesinamerica @ 3:59 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
I've been reading this blog for a while now, so let's see if I have this straight.
The military promotes torture.
The military is saturated with racist gangs.
The military is a breeding ground for rapists.
The military is rife with sexists.
The military teaches men to confuse their bodies with weapons.
The military recruiters rape potential recruits.
BUT....all you proggs keep saying that you "support the troops."
One question:
WHY?
Some of these women were only 16 years old. That's rape, according to civilian law. Too bad it's not, according to military law.
Support Troops Who Don't Rape
Israeli soldiers are also dealing with sexual harassment cases. Israeli soldiers are also openly criticizing their horrible "leaders." U.S. soldiers should take note:
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday ruled out peace negotiations with Syria and rejected criticisms of the Lebanon war as reserve soldiers expanded their protests over the government's handling of the conflict.
"We don't have a lot of time to talk about what happened. We have to talk about what will happen," Olmert said. His government has faced growing criticism and calls for investigations into the conduct of the 33-day conflict.
More than 100 protesters, many of them Israeli reservists, staged a demonstration Monday in Jerusalem over shortfalls in the army operation. Another group of paratroops addressed an open letter in the Haaretz newspaper to Olmert, complaining about indecisiveness in the military's top ranks. Hundreds of soldiers signed the letter.
"I won't be part of this game of self-flagellation," Olmert responded as he toured Kiryat Shemona, a northern border town hit repeatedly by Hezbollah rockets during the war.
Olmert suggested that he does not want a formal judicial inquiry, which the Knesset, Israel's parliament, is demanding. Defense Minister Amir Peretz reportedly has appointed an investigating committee to review the war, but various political leaders are calling for an outside, independent commission of inquiry.
"What are we going to do now?" Olmert said. "Stand them in a line and give them a slap on the face? Try them? Put them in front of commissions of inquiry each and every day, so they won't be able to properly assess the next conflict?"
Many complaints have been directed at Olmert and Peretz for a war plan that critics say was disorganized and relied too heavily on intensive air bombing in Lebanon. Reserve soldiers returned from the war also have complained of disorganization in the officer ranks and missing supplies.
The letter from the reservists argued that policymakers got "cold feet" and left soldiers in the field, directionless. Since the cease-fire began a week ago, soldiers have given accounts of orders that were unclear or contradicted, of operations postponed and postponed again, and of having to forage for food, water and equipment.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/08/22/MNGRNKMO4C1.DTL&type=politics
I'll still take the men and women serving in the American military over any other nation's military, either historical or current.
And that goes double when you compare them to U.N. "Peacekeepers"...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1445537,00.html
the U.N. is pathetic.
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