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From Denny: This week two new lawsuits against the military were brought concerning sexual assaults in the military academies. It was necessary because the women were unable to get investigations into the crimes. They were also wrongfully discharged as retaliation for reporting their rapes.
This past year sexual assault reports in the military have increased by 60 percent. Sec. of Defense Leon Panetta reads that as women are more comfortable and trusting to make those reports. Well, that's one optimistic way to view it.
One one court martial for all those reports
Of the 65 reports, only one resulted in a court martial. It makes you wonder if only one out of the 65 was truly investigated so the Pentagon threw out this bone to the women's groups to look like they were achieving something significant. And did I mention the White House declared April as Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month?
Rapists rise in command structure and remain
What is most annoying is how these rapists are allowed to remain in the academies, graduate and then rise in the chain of command all the way up to the Pentagon while the women's careers are destroyed as much as their lives.
How about the hard reality of what this increased percentage of reporting really means? What is really going on here is that finally there is a sizable crack in the military command. Some of them, a few good men, have developed a conscience and chose to allow the reports up the chain of command to be seen instead of buried and long forgotten or, worse, ripped up reports and immediately dismissed as unimportant.
