In the latest front in the “War on Sexual Assault” in the military, politicians are attempting to one-up each other in an effort to come out against what Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel calls a “scourge.” Senator Lindsey Graham stated that “commanders who allow this to continue to allow this to flourish quite frankly should be fired.”
Have we really gotten to the point where we think that military commanders “allow” sexual assault to flourish? Do we think that commanders know about incidents of sexual assault and state “Carry on?” What bizarro world’s military are we talking about?
We do have a problem with sexual assault in the military. When someone claims to have been sexually assaulted, the statement is believed and investigators look for evidence to corroborate it. They ignore any evidence that might call the alleged “victim’s” story into question. The investigators turn this information over to prosecutors who are quick to prosecute this weak-evidence, and often no-evidence, cases. Time and time again, it turns out that the victim had a motive to lie and did so to cover up her own mistakes.
There are real cases of sexual assault in the military, but that does not mean that we should assume that every allegation is true. Maybe we should consider firing the commanders who allow the culture of bad investigations and false allegations.
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