If these articles provide no statistics to show that rapes are higher in the war zone than they are in civilian life, than all you who pile on to put down U.S. soldiers are the real scumbags. Nothing worse than a bunch of hypocrits.

What percentage of men are potential rapists?

What percentage of men commit rapes in the military. If these numbers are roughly the same as in the civilian world, then all you civilians should be laying all these harsh judgements on yourselves that you are so eager to lay on U.S. soldiers.

Are you as readily willing to condemn other groups who are also known for high rates of rape? The same groups willing to put down U.S. soldiers for rapes that occur in the military without looking closer at the facts, would probably bend over backwards protecting other groups that are shown to have higher incidents of rape.

Um, not it's not. That's why they call it a "RATE" and don't do it by raw numbers. It's already a per capita basis. Are you trolling or something? Who doesn't know that?

I don't know if anyone's mentioned this but, college american football teams also cover up rape.

(apparently there are some mixed teams and sometimes the girls get raped after the win.)

Yep women get raped in the military. They also get raped in big cities, small towns and in their own homes. Men also get raped in the military, big cities, small towns, prisons and their own homes.

I am in the military and work in the medical field. I have been to Iraq and Afganistan. I have had to use rape kits on both male and females. Those who report their rapes go through a series of medical tests and the results of those tests are never given to the commander. He has nothing to do with the investigation. They are handled by the CID. The person accused is held on the charge of rape until he/her is cleared of any wrong doing. If they are not cleared then they are sent to prison. They are guilty until proven innocent. I have yet come across any commander covering up a rape. Kind of hard for that to happen when they are not involved with the investigation.

Of course like all things that have to do with criminal investigations, some that are guilty are bound to go free, nothing is perfect. Then you have those that are innocent who for some reason get accused of rape.

I was involved in a case where a female accused another soldier of rape, we did all the tests and CID did the interview. It turned out that she wasn't raped at all. She was a married soldier who got caught in the act. She started screaming rape so that she would not get into trouble(in the military cheating is punishable by UCMJ) and to save her marriage.

She still claims to this day that she was raped and is still happily married. I know because she is still in my unit. The other soldier was stationed else where after the investigation closed.

I'm not saying that all rapes are false reports. I just take articles like these with a grain of salt. This soldier could be one who is making such statements to the media or authors.

Originally posted by jpm1602
The news story I read on Yahoo stated that as many as 1 in 7 women female soldiers have either been sexually harassed, groped, or raped.
The military tries to turn a blind eye.

Whomever is in charge over there needs to face a military tribunal.

If an F-15 or whatever exhibits a major malfunction, they ground the whole fleet for combdowns.

Nothing less than a full review of commanders and officers and troops should occur. And a special council made to allow females to voice concers or incidents without risk of retribution. If I was a female soldier right now in Iraq or Afghanistan I'd have my M-16 to walk to the loo.

There is a special council. Its called the CID. Read my post, I stated that commanders have nothing to do with the investigations. I went through everything that happens.

Forgive me if I have been addressed on this, but I will not have American serivcemen maligned in this way.
I am here to tell that, yeah, bad things went on.
NOBODY raped or gang banged ANYBODY on my watch, and I was senior P.O.
I watched all of my people very carefully as it was the start of women getting into combat "type" situations.
Late 70's
just so you know,
the blue bag in my av is filled with kitty-litter, and the scope is a green dot tasco, the rifle, I leave to you all to I.D.

[edit on 11/2/2008 by LAUGHING-CAT]

Originally posted by jpm1602
The news story I read on Yahoo stated that as many as 1 in 7 women female soldiers have either been sexually harassed, groped, or raped.
The military tries to turn a blind eye.

That's the issue, exactly -- that (unlike in the civilian world) they are pressured and harrassed to not report it. Some who have reported it to their superiors have been punished for reporting it. The rate of deaths associated with rapes and the number of post-rape suicides is higher than it is in the civilian world.

Two of my friends went through this, including the whole bit with a superior officer who treated them dismissively and refused to punish the guilty parties (although they had been reported by other women.) One has PTSD from the last rape (it was a horrible story.)

I think we can all agree that this is something that needs being addressed. War is a high-stress situation and people do some very horrible things in that kind of situation. But we need things in place to make sure that all our soldiers are safe (including the gay soldiers, the Pagan soldiers, women soldiers, Islamic soldiers in the US Army, non-citizen soldiers in the military (under some circumstances non-citizens can apply for the military. It's a fast track to citizenship).

I think this is part of a larger picture, too -- the overall way people treat each other in the war. I think it's part of what leads to the mental and health problems of the soldiers returning from Iraq.

Something needs to be done now, and there are recommendations that would make a tiny start in the picture -- things that would make women safer while being able to serve the country they love in a manner that they want.

Meanwhile, the superiors who ignored this and who punished the women reporting this need to be called out and court-martialed... and the judges hearing the case should all be women.

Originally posted by jd140
There is a special council. Its called the CID. Read my post, I stated that commanders have nothing to do with the investigations. I went through everything that happens.

These have been occurring for awhile. I understand that there are very good units out there like yours, which do investigate and prosecute and take every measure to protect everyone.

But there's some real bad apples out there... and I think you can probably remember a few, can't you? And there really have in the past been abuses of power.

Perhaps with your insights you should see if you could work with any of these groups to help stem the problem before it starts.

Originally posted by Sonya610
I don't know, I do believe rapes occur, absolutely. But the bit about women not drinking and dying of dehydration sounds too odd. Maybe those women had mental health issues or something that caused the behavior.

I simply cannot believe they were incapable of finding other female soldiers, or sympathetic male soldiers that would walk with them to the bathrooms at night. Women do get abused, but they also weild a LOT of power in those situations because they will have lots of men vying for their attention. Surely they could have used that as protection if they were all that concerned.

Plus sheesh they could have peed in a cup if it came down to it. Surely they knew that lack of water would kill them far faster than anything else.



[edit on 2-11-2008 by Sonya610]

Sonya sometimes there is no one to go with you- there are not a lot of women in the same unit - sometimes only one or two. NO, they are not going to ask a man to go with them. It is widely known amongst female soldiers that they can't be trusting of the males. I used to be in the military- I escaped a few traumatic experiences where I was almost raped and even a crazy stalker, and I was not even deployed. Its a scary thing. Couldn't even say hello or walk near a group of men or I would be targeted and harassed, sometimes touched inappropriately. I fully believe those women stopped drinking to avoid the walk to the latrine. Probably a well meaning female advised them- they passed it along to each other to try to keep each other safe, but they underestimated the danger of not hydrating.

Edit to add/move- Personally, I would rather die than be raped. I am a survivor of a sexual assualt, and as mentioned , several incidents of sexual harassment. It kills a part of you and should be treated like murder, IMO. Hopefully it was peaceful to die in ones sleep from dehydration. Bless them, I wish it didn't have to end like that for them.

Edit to move that little addition- I put it in the wrong place the first time I edited, if that makes sense

[edit on 2-11-2008 by raven bombshell]

[edit on 2-11-2008 by raven bombshell]

Is it really hard to believe that this is happening. We are only hearing about this now because the victim is an American. There are very little female prisoners for them to be raping. I wonder how many Iraqi women have been raped by our servicemen. And don't think that this is a first time. This has been documented in war back through the centuries. The invading armies always raped the local women. They looked at them as spoils of war. You can see this in the American military history with all the kids left by servicemen in most every action we have been in the last century. Especially in Korea and Vietnam. This was documented in movies, books and TV about the era of these wars. In the civil was General Hooker had whores who followed his troop and became known as Hooker's Army. They were attracted to the way he ran his command with a lack of discipline. Soldiers have been either taking or paying for sex for along time. It is nothing that we should be shocked about. It is like people magically think that humans have mentally evolved by some great means. Don't get me wrong. I don't approve of what they did. It is appalling, It is appalling that it has been going on for so long, mostly unpunished and it is only now that we are doing something about it.

Originally posted by Sonya610
the bit about women not drinking and dying of dehydration sounds too odd.

sheesh they could have peed in a cup if it came down to it. Surely they knew that lack of water would kill them far faster than anything else.

I have to agree with Sonya610.

This whole story stinks of BS. Col. Janis Karpinski is not a reliable source. Do some research on her and you may question her testimony in this case.

Combat veterans, male or female, allowing themselves to be raped? These are trained warriors, more than capable of defending themselves. The US military veterans that I am friends with have all said they would use their combat training and fight to the death before allowing themselves to be subjected to this.

[edit on 2-11-2008 by craig732]