Women in US military more likely raped by fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq

What do you expect?? I'll say it again: when people are brainwashed to kill, rape is an afterthought. AIN'T NO SUCH ANIMAL AS A CIVILIZED WAR OR WAR PREPARATION.

I'm not surprised. For people that are pretty much prisoned and trained to be torturers and murderers whats a little fellow rape? Go military...the few, the proud, the rapists.

Our military do not know the full potential of a woman combat soldier. Alot of men joke about them not realizing how important women soldiers are. The abuse and stress women endure has been around more than any kind of slavery ever recorded in history and to not treat women soldiers equal by men counterparts is terrible for quite some time. And also to worry about not just the enemy but the person next to you is really tough on a woman's prespective towards a trust factor. When you are out on the battlefield, the enemy doesn't see whether it's a guy or girl, it sees a target. To have both men and women trained up to a full ability as productive combat soldiers completing missions - it's a stronger defense.

I grew up as a military brat. Living under the umbrella of what I naively, believed the military to be. A society made up of upstanding, intelligent, and above average men & women who not only lived up to higher expectations, but who also put themselves at risk for death to protect the rest of us. It wasn't until I joined the U.S. Navy at the innocent age of 19, that I realized just how naive I was. By then, it was too late. My dreams of becoming something of a "Top Gun" in the Navy were immediately stomped on when I began to realize that I was being treated quite differently for being a female. But it wasn't until I was sexually assaulted by another shipmate, that all my dreams, goals, ambitions, spirit....you name it.....were completely obliviated. I couldn't believe the "dinosaur" reactions & the complete betrayal that my superior officers portrayed. Even going back on their own words and blaming me for what happened to me. I was treated as an "outcast" & a "man-hater" after that & wasn't allowed in certain areas of the ship.
Women need to know that "equality" is something that is preached but not practiced in the military. And there are many commands in which it definitely IS a conspiracy against us females & they will do whatever they can to "break" us. I am grateful that I got out when I did & avoided the 6-month long WestPac out to sea as I'm sure I would've been thrown overboard & it made to look like a suicide. My point in all of this is to say, I know as a female, we want to be treated equally & to have the honor of fighting for our country side by side with other soldiers....men & women alike. It's not all what it appears & what they make it out to seem like. I am now considered a 100% disabled veteran due to the PTSD that I have as a result of the scandalous behavior of my command. Get the facts, talk to women veterans & ask what it was really like for them.

This story is extremely sad and undoubtedly true. Another sad fact is that it is not just the women soldiers being raped by fellow soldiers but also the men. The difference is the men are a LOT less likely to ever admit it.

The other day I read an article about how more women are going into the airforce. I guess getting shot out of the air is better than being surrounded by your "peers."

Vanguard woman have had this same experience for centuries. Thank you for having the valor to persevere.

It must be hard to profile a rapest.but in the armed forces
with all the evaluations and screening you go through
you figure those perverts would be weeded out.Someone is sleeping on the job and its not no private
This has to stop now an example has to be made if the proof is positive long jail tears are in line even life.

I spent 10 years in the Army. I lived in tents with men, lived in the woods for weeks at a time with men, I experienced full immersion into the "boys club". Not ONCE- and I repeat- not ONCE, even while in Iraq was I threatened or sexualy assaulted. I was very blessed and lucky to have been surrounded by decent people, men and women, who respected one another (at least on that level)

I just felt like that needed to be said by a female (former) Soldier.

Not all Soldiers (or Sailors or Marines or Airmen) are bad and I know the assaults have happened. It makes me sick. It isn't something any soldier should have to worry about- especially while serving in a war.

So now that WE know, what are WE going to do about it???

wtf man, this is some sick shit, what is wrong with us wehen the people who are supposed to be protecting us do these unspeakable acts...

According to the research done by Susan Chenelle of Bitch Magazine, there were 1,344 investigations of military sexual assault cases reported in 2007, involving 1,469 subjects. 349 of those were responded to, and only 103 men were court-martialed. 78 to 85 percent of soldiers convicted of rape or sexual assault leave the military with honorable discharges.

"Rafay Siddiqui, a former Marine who has served in Africa and Iraq, testified during the hearings that masculinity is constantly challenged in the Marine Corps, and that a Marine is not considered a man until he's harassed, taken sexual advantage of, or abused a woman."

I like to believe that men in the military don't just violate women for the sake of their "manhood," but sometimes the evidence proves nothing else.

when you take our impressionable youth tell them they are men, train them to kill other men, and congradulate them when they do, why does any of this behavior seem shocking. this is the social collateral damage of war. when one is made to think killing is ok, what other awfull behaviors seem permissable too?

I don't know what environment these women are in.
But in stressful environments I noticed that people aren't quite themselves, especially when stressed for long periods of time. No excuse. Just an observation.
There is never an excuse for rape. Sometimes all one can do is think fast, make a move and escape.

My job in the Navy kept me on dry land. It also gave me more freedom.

The only similar experience I had in the military (perhaps my marine dad giving me pointers on self defense saved me, I don't know.)

I did have one man try for rape, we were in his truck, and he was hurting me, trying to put me into submission. In agressive sexual way. I just got closer to him..then I elbowed him hard in the throat, and the other half of that move is a fist in the face (fist backward), pure self defense. I know that move can really hurt the thorax, so later I felt kinda bad.

I never saw the person again. Needles to say he didn't come after me when I got out of the car and left. I would have hoped he learned his lesson. At the ER when he would have to explain his injuries.

And the MP's didn't come after me for beating up my would-be rapist. Like what could he possibly say?

Other than that, Am I lucky that I didn't get raped by my Marine or Navy buddies? I never associated with anyone who would do such a thing (except that one person). But, a person's disposition can have an impact on a situation.

From what I remember, women were regarded as merely morale and welfare.
And divorce, cheating, getting wasted, violence, murder, rape, suicide, and such, are so regular that one doesn't even shrug. Guys blow shit up and practice killing, inbetween time they are being worked rather heavily. Stress can seemingly blur your imaginary lines of morality, something inadvertently useful when being put in a situation to kill. Not saying it's right, just is...
I would suggest Air Force, or Navy, as far as a female being less likely abused/whateverthecase. But Marine and Army branches got some serious issues.
Of course, there are many exceptions to my opinion.

yes and just watch what happens to them when and if they try to complain...

Hasn't "burn, pillage, and rape" always been the military mind set? This comes as no surprise. Sad to say.

Damn.. women have it bad sometimes.

One has to wonder where the repect for humanity went? Ironically, females in this culture are treated like those in other cultures that we, as Americans, find horrifying and despicable.

The bad guys own the news media. Till we get a news media back.......we have no power to defend ourselves.

Reagan took our power away from us......by executive order. (by outlawing unions) Tell me a part of our culture that gives working people any power. We have no power. Until we stop fighting amongst ourselves, we have to keep enduring abuses by government and the military, and the corporations. We must go to the polls and vote our own best self interests. And we must stop allowing the bad guys to divide us by using phony, wedge issues that are, for the most part, non-issues.

here's a recommendation (for all genders)

DON'T JOIN THE F'ING MILITARY!!!

Women should join the Navy.

Rape is Rape. The "Perps" must pay, no matter what.

wow

Im not going to say rape is not a problem in the military. But to say killed by enemy fire in iraq? Woman rarely eave the wire in iraq. They can not hold combat positions so they rarely are put in the position where they can get hit. Most are basically secretaries or dental hygienist and such. They are not even issued guns for the most part.

Im so tired of people lumping together the few military personel who dont have a conscience with the rest of the men a women that make up our armed forces. Our military is made of people. If a teacher molest a student, we don't immediately say that we no longer support teachers do we? These men need to be held accountable for what they have done. They should be dishonorably discharged so they no longer will be able to tarnish the rest of the military personel. They need all the support they can get right now and its a shame that those few retards are fucking it up.

If we start making seperate branches for females or gays and lesbians, then we are taking a huge step back with regards to human rights. That would just open the door to further segregation.

"since we all came from a woman
Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman
I wonder why we take from our women
Why we rape our women, do we hate our women?
I think it's time to kill for our women
Time to heal our women, be real to our women" -2PAC

rape is a terror tool used by the US military. women in the private sectors of iraq and also women in the military not to mention iraqi women are all in the line of fire for these " horror stories "

its is bullshit like this that makes it hard for rational citizens to want to "support" the troops. Not to say that there aren't good people in the military, but when you hear and meet enough dirtbags it becomes really hard to separate the image from the people. They want to be respected at such a high standard then I think that they should be punished at the highest standards. I think the whole world is going fucking crazy.

men who join the military are men who love power. its the same for men in law enforcement. this isnt new. many women have been raped/killed/ beaten by their husbands who have control issues. they have a gun so they think they can do whatever they want.

What do you expect when you lower the standards for enlistment? All you need is a pulse and torso to stop bullets.

So if a female wants to join the military such as the Navy, would you all advise her not to join or it's okay to join? Is the rape statistics higher in certain military branches than another? Is it really true that the military has higher rape statistics than outside the military?

Maybe this is the true objection to having gays in the military. There afraid of giving these idiots a whole other set of targets to assault and harass. The sad fact is this isn't a new phenomenon. This madness has been going on for decades.

Absolutely appalling. The military accepts anyone these days. Even people with violent criminal records. But if women who sign up for the military actually expect to be treated equally and given adequate protection, then they're just naive. Maybe the solution is to create completely separate branches of the military for women, gays and straight misogynist gay homophobes.

How can we pretend to have the ability to protect Iraqis when we cannot and will not even protect our own soldiers from each other.

This type of behavior may not be avoidable in a violence charged 'boys club' but it can certainly be lessened by accountability through criminal prosecution -instead of cover-ups.

Last time I checked, all of the armed forces have a "zero tolerance" policy when it comes to sexual abuse and harassment. Unfortunately the general public often learns about these regulations only after a massive sex scandal breaks (..like the one at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in '96, among others), or someone points out that the incident rate is higher than that of the civilian population.

The truth is that it's been a problem ever since women were allowed to serve in the military, and tragically, I don't see it changing in any significant way in the foreseeable future. The pervasive "boys club" mentality that has always been a part of military life, the incredible stresses that come with too long deployments, and the general lack of personnel to effectively enforce policy are all contributing factors I'm sure.

Did the military run out of saltpeter? They used to dose the troops food with it when women weren't allowed to serve ...

It doesn't seem like the armed services are doing enough to train soldiers to restrain themselves from committing these assaults. And I wouldn't be surprised if in the event that conflicts that do arise, the reports are falling through the cracks up the chain of command so word never reaches the public and the military can keep their dignified image.

So, why are many women being raped in the military? Is the rate higher than like in the society?? If so, why is that?

I wish people would stop joining the military, but unfortunatley the way the economy is going, many people will have no choice. I think that is what the gov. wants.

Check out the story of a female soldier who was raped, beaten, bitten, flameable substances poured on her genital area and body and lit on fire. The military ruled it a suicide. Check it out everyone.