The War Within: Sexual Violence in America’s Military

When Glenda was a 21-year-old recruit in the US Army, her unit’s first sergeant held her down while her commanding officer raped her. Afterward, her attacker intimidated her into silence with threats of dishonorable discharge and reports that she was “unsuitable for service.”

Glenda and many women like her joined the military to serve their country and protect the rights and freedoms of their fellow citizens only to have their own human rights violated. These crimes are often covered up by an organization that has its own police and judicial system firmly under its command, where civilian laws cannot penetrate the “thin green line.”

Women who join the US Armed Forces are being raped and sexually assaulted by their colleagues in record numbers. An estimated 26,000 rapes and sexual assaults took place in the armed forces in 2012, an increase of 35% over 2011 numbers and only one in seven victims reported their attacks. Many fear retaliation, demotion or being kicked out of the military on erroneous claims that they have mental disorders, because they have seen it happen to others.

Victims are labeled crazy, liars, and sexually promiscuous by their fellow troops and commanders. Many are forced to continue working for the perpetrators. The violence of the rape and the ensuing emotional trauma are compounded by the futility of reporting the attacks to their commands. Lack of compassion is often the most favorable response a victim of rape can expect. Often their accusations against their supposed comrades are met with outrage, not towards the attackers, but towards the victims themselves. Ironically, U.S. military culture considers whistle blowing within its ranks a larger threat to unit cohesion and effectiveness than rape. It is such a pervasive conviction among the troops and their officers, that victims are shunned and blackballed, not just by the men, but also by other women in their units. The Military Rape Crisis Center estimates that 92% of all military rape survivors are forced out of service.

The effects of Military Sexual Trauma, (MST), include depression, substance abuse, paranoia and feelings of isolation. Victims spend years drowning in shame and fear as the psychological damage silently eats away at their lives: many frequently end up addicted to drugs and alcohol, homeless or take their own lives.

With the United States promoting itself as a beacon of freedom and human dignity to the rest of the world, how does it win the war of ideas in places like Afghanistan, where our leaders decry the abuse of women by the Taliban, while allowing the same abuse within the organization that is the initial point of contact for most Afghanis: the tip of the American foreign policy spear?