NCFM NOTE: Sexual assault is wrong — period.
Sexual assault resulting in injury and emotional trauma should be severely dealt with. But ever-expanding elitist feminist ideologically driven definitions can turn good soldiers into dishonorably discharged soldiers, especially male soldiers. Definitions must not include making someone ” feel uncomfortable” or telling someone they have a nice ass, male or female, since asses are not gender specific.
I just received a phone call asking if we could give a speaker to come talk to group of soldiers about false accusations. Moral was low he said. A woman from base Family Services just finished another all men bad presentation about sexual assault. He said the men felt “hopeless,” were intimidated and afraid to speak up for fear of being labeled bad or a bigot. He said such trainings are mandatory and always from the perspective of women good, men bad. He and the troops he works with are sick and tired of being disrespected for no reason other than they are men. They feel as if they have no rights.He’s retired military now civil service whose entire career is in military public safety. I asked him if he thought there was an epidemic of sexual assault in the military. He didn’t hesitate. “Not that I’ve ever seen,” he said. Then he told me a story about a woman who falsely accused six different men of rape. She was protected by rape shield laws and her background, including the false accusations, could not be use to expose her for who she really was…
The legislative assault on the military over sexual assaults is a politically correct ideologically driven charade. First there’s the incident, in this case a general overturns a conviction. Then the outrage – how dare he overturn a military tribunal decision that found man guilty of sexual assault! Outcry in the media. Legislators elbowing each other for a place in the spot light. The SYSTEM IS FLAWED! OH MY GOD IT’S AN EPIDEMIC! ALL RAPISTS ARE GOING FREE! VICTIMS HAVE TO SALUTE THEIR ABUSERS! ALL NOT TRUE!! Then comes the inevitable study showing a horrendous increase in sexual assaults in the last ten minutes or so, in this case 38% more in a mere 365 days (bull), more elitist feminist fabrication and manipulation of emotions and not reality. All followed by expedited showmanship Congressional hearings populated with power-hungry politically correct legislators who wouldn’t know a military sexual assault victim from a missile carrying drone.
The First Ladies Chief of Staff even testified!
What’s next? The White House chef?
The whole thing is a power and control grab of which the ring leaders know will face little or no opposition because anyone opposing them are labeled “women-hater,” “rape-apologist,” “victim-blamer,” “misogynist…” thereby slamming shut debate; and, that’s how it always goes. Same old dance. Same old fabrications. Same old shame and blame game. Same old manipulation of statistics fed to the ever ravenous scandal driven media. Little or no substance, all overflowing with self-righteous indignation. You’ll hear inane hyperbolic cliches about the ever-increasing epidemic of sexual assaults in the military, and epidemic that is jeopardizing national security and undermining the trust of the American people. Same absolutely brilliant old everything that’s worked time and time again over the past four decades or so.
The following article explains things even better… and, there isn’t an MRA on the planet who endorses rape or sexual assault, so don’t go there. The military is on notice to root out real sexual abusers; and, that will happen. But allowing more intrusion into the military by Domestic Violence Industry operatives will do nothing but compromise the military criminal justice process and diminish the command structure; which, of course, is the intent… Be assured that the victims primarily be men, men who will be drummed out of the military for she-said-he-said situations with a total lack of supporting evidence. What a waste of the children we raise to protect us. What a waste or resources. All to pacify elitist feminists whose agendas have little or nothing to do with protecting anyone…
The epidemic of sexual assault in the military; or lack thereof
by Michael Conzachi
Today, in a hearing on Capitol Hill, lawmakers grilled the top brass of each branch of the military about the alleged problem of sexual assault in the military. While I don’t deny that sexual assaults do occur in the military, the recent figure being thrown around of 26,000 occurring last year is suspect. First of all, this figure was arrived at through an anonymous survey and constituted less than two percent of active duty military members. The real numbers reported are less than 3,400, and those who actually were disciplined in some form were around 1,100.
What also gets lost in the translation is that a significant level of these alleged sexual assaults involves male victims. Another missing fact is that alleged sexual assaults involving military members don’t always occur on military bases, thus subjecting the local authorities’ primary responsibility for the investigation. The definition of sexual assault in the Uniform Code of Military Justice includes everything from rape to unwanted fondling. Again, that decision is that of the victim to make. Just as in the recent example of the Department of Education’s definition of what is sexual harassment, the definitions keep getting expanded.
New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has proposed a bill that would effectively remove commanding officers from the decision making process, and turn over this responsibility to the Judge Advocate with added civilian participation. She made a claim to Fox News how traumatizing it is for women to have to salute their attackers. That would be true if it actually happened. Please Ms. Gillibrand; give me one, just one example.
First of all, it is standard military policy in any sexual assault that the alleged victim is removed from that unit, and usually is moved to a different base altogether in most cases to a base near their home of record. So Ms. Gillibrand’s claim of this part of the process simply does not exist. It might behoove her to actually learn of this policy before spewing this nonsense.
In a recent military.com survey of 53,000 Camp Pendleton Marines concerning the issue of women in combat revealed that one of their primary concerns of bringing women into the combat ranks is being falsely accused of some type of sexual assault or sexual harassment. Of the many in the military with whom I served and who now serve, many state that they refuse to work with or be placed in a scenario with a female member of the military, where they might be alone and where the possibility of a false allegation might occur.
Check the websites of any military base, and there are scores of resources for sex assault victims. Some military bases even list that victims don’t have to report incidents to commanders; they can have an advocate do it for them. There are specially trained military police, investigators, medical facilities, religious support, advocates of various types, response coordinators, and almost every type of resource that can be thought of.
Evans Georgia Attorney Michael Waddington who specializes in military criminal defense cases states on his website that of all cases he has defended, sexual assault cases are the ones that the military goes all out to convict, regardless of evidence or validity. Politically correct commanders when faced with a he-said she-said case, simply send the case to the Judge Advocate for court-martial, not wanting to fall into that pit and being labeled some type of enabler. I am not going to claim that the system is entirely foolproof; mistakes do happen, bad decisions are made, and we will have examples of bad judgment. But for the legislators in today’s hearing to make blanket statements like they did is simply wrong and another example of pandering to extremist feminist rhetoric.
Here is another little fact that gets lost in this discussion and that is the false allegation. It is common knowledge among the “ground-pounders” that the easiest way for a female to get out of being deployed, or to get out of a deployment area is to make a claim of sexual assault. Ask any rank and file guy; especially those who have been deployed in combat zones like Iraq and Afghanistan of that little ignored fact.
Another reason for the filing of false sexual assault claims is the problem of fraternization and adultery. Recently, military corruption.com reported on a female non-commissioned officer at Camp Pendleton who had an affair with a male non-commissioned officer, while her Warrant Officer husband was away. Well her husband found out about the affair, turned his wife in, and she resorted to making a claim of sexual assault. When her story began to unravel, she attempted to impede the investigation, lied to investigators and other transgressions, and was found guilty but received a slap on the wrist for punishment. The male non-com was cleared as it was proved that he did not know the female was married and cooperated fully with all parts of the investigation. In this case, the false allegation was discovered and the false accuser punished, but the weakness of the punishment will only invite more incidents of the same.
If you remember a while back, there was a national hysteria about the prevalence about rape at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Congress got involved and screamed and yelled and demanded changes and all kinds of accountability. The way Congress made it sound was that every Air Force cadet was drooling and lurking in the bushes with a butcher knife, leaping at the first female who walked by. A Congressional ordered 2004 Air Force Office of Inspector General investigation was launched and of 142 incidents reported over 10 years between 1993 and 2003, revealed that not one claim of sexual assault was intentionally mishandled. All were investigated properly.
During that inquiry, the Air Force Academy found sufficient evidence to investigate 56 out of those 142 incidents. Of those, six resulted in Courts-Martial with one cadet being acquitted. In about 11 other cases cadets were expelled or received Non-Judicial Punishment (Article 15). This should put to rest the claim the AFA never punished a male cadet for sexual offenses, or intentionally mishandled a claim of sexual assault; and that was a decade ago.During the course of the Inspector General’s inquiry, many of the alleged victims changed their stories over time and could not be corroborated by witnesses, making prosecution difficult. At least one soaked topless in a hot tub with her alleged rapist after the alleged rape. Others wrote e-mails indicating the sex was consensual. Others when faced with potential lie detector tests recanted or claimed they didn’t remember. The questions that arose suggested that some female cadets may have filed false charges to cover up their own misconduct, to manipulate cadets or to leave the Academy without having to pay for their Ivy League education.
One member of a Board of Regents of a California university, and an attorney who wished to remain anonymous spoke about the issue of false claims of sexual assault on college campuses. In some cases, part of the recovery process involves offers by the university to pay for the alleged victims tuition and expenses. He indicated that this expenditure is discussed routinely at all colleges across the country in the context of finances and budgeting concerns. He indicated that it is becoming more common that false claims of sexual assault are being used, and in later claims by victims against the school, a free tuition is part of the settlement package.
Neither I nor anyone else I know is going to deny that sexual assaults in the military do occur. When actual assaults occur and the evidence is present, then the proper measures are to taken, and the right punishment is levied. By all accounts, that is what has been happening and what continues to happen. In the times that it doesn’t, it is rare, not common.
What we are seeing; just as in the scenario of the whole rape hysteria at the Air Force Academy more than a decade ago is another hysteria, using controversial statistics, and claiming that there is an epidemic, and that the brass is sitting on their hands. Senator Gillibrand’s assertion that a rape victim has to salute her attacker is just plain false; any victim is immediately removed from the unit and usually the base. In a combat deployment area, female victims are always, and sometimes men are immediately removed from the deployment area. Females are usually deployed back to a base near their home, and men are usually deployed back to their original unit. There may be exceptions based on the circumstances
We also forget that a great many of the victims are male. What is also missing are the numbers of female perpetrators. And of course with the expanded definitions of what makes up a sexual assault, and the incidence of false allegations, what is the actual number?
There are about 1.3 million active duty military members. Even if we use this fantasy figure of 26,000 sexual assaults, that forms a .02 percentage of the military population. If we go by the actual reported incidents of approximately 3,400, then that drops to .0026 percentage of the military population. And if we figure in the number of disciplinary actions of about 1,100, that number drops again to .000084 percent of the military population. Hardly numbers that justify hysteria and a drastic change in policy and drastic reduction of moral.
I watched some of the hearings today, but had to turn it off when I had to listen to some of this dribble by some of these legislators with comments like “it’s not about sex, it’s about power and dominance,” “women have to salute their attackers” and the entire dribble of hormones and testosterone. Well folks, I want our fighting men, our combat troops, our warriors, our brave who are willing to go out there putting their lives on the line to have that level of hormones and testosterone to kick ass and take names against those who want to do our country harm; those who want to kill us
The next time we have an attack on an embassy or consulate, and we will, do we want to send Pee Wee Herman and the Three Stooges, or do we want to send Seal Team VI.
On “9/11” when the towers fell, the Pentagon attacked, the brave civilians on the plane who thwarted an even worse tragedy, and all the other incidents since, I have to agree with the comment by Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, “you called down the thunder; well now you got it.”
Rather than having no nothing feminists legislators (male and female) spewing all kinds of anonymous statistics and proposing legislation to remove commanders from these important decisions, they should get realistic and remind the troops that although sexual assault will not be tolerated, we will not trample on your rights, we will not violate your constitutional protections and we will afford you due process as outlined in the Constitution; that little piece of paper you are willing to give your life for.
