http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/05/us/politics/joint-chiefs-testimony-on-sexual-assault-dismays-senators.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Jun 5, 2013 at 9:23 AM
Subject: re: Joint Chiefs’ Answers on Sex Crimes Dismay Senators
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

     The culture of our military has always been different from that of our society at large. As Senator Levin summarized "discipline is the heart of the military culture".  But where these two cultures conflict, we don't have to extemporize. Civilian control of the  military has been our established principal for two hundred years.

   So let the Joint Chiefs of Staff bluster.  We the People are determined that our sons and daughters in the military should enjoy legal protection from sex crimes no less than they would out in the larger world.  And that means due process or prosecutors and courts, not the old boys' handshake.

Barry Haskell Levine

Find more of my (largely one-sided) correspondence with the New York Times at:
htt://forgottencenter.blogspot.com/
Or write a letter of your own. Democracy only works when we engage in
the issues of our day

Joint Chiefs’ Answers on Sex Crimes Dismay Senators

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, center, chief of naval operations, testified with other military leaders Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER

Published: June 4, 2013HIS COLLEAGUES ON THE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE QUESTIONED ONE MILITARY LEADER AFTER ANOTHER ON TUESDAY ABOUT WHAT THEY WERE DOING TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEM OF SEXUAL ASSAULT IN THE MILITARY, AND THEN ASSESSED THEIR RESPONSES: “STUNNINGLY BAD.”

Multimedia

Senator McCaskill on Military Assaults

In particular, Mr. Blunt chided Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, the chief of naval operations, for displaying scant knowledge of how military allies of the United States had dealt with sexual assault in their ranks, and for thanking Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, for “the tip” that other countries had grappled with the issue.

“Has anybody who works for you been asking this?” Mr. Blunt, Republican of Missouri, asked with clear exasperation.

In a rare appearance together, a majority of the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — as well as the commandant of the Coast Guard and other military officials — testified before the committee about how the military should approach the problem as Congress prepares to vote on several measures that would significantly change military policy.

“Discipline is the heart of the military culture, and trust is its soul,” said Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan and the chairman of the committee. “The plague of sexual assault erodes both the heart and the soul.”

Senators from both parties pressed the leaders, at times using strong language, about why, decades after the full integration of women into the military, the problem seems to have worsened. Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, recalled meeting with a woman whose daughter was considering entering the military if Mr. McCain, a former naval aviator, could offer his “unqualified support” of the choice. “I could not,” he said.

Over hours of testimony, each officer expressed remorse. “I took my eye off the ball in the commands I had,” said Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

But they collectively resisted some of the more robust changes that have been proposed. “I recommend a measured approach,” said Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff.

The hearing followed several weeks of reports of sexual assault in the armed forces and aPentagon survey that estimated that 26,000 people in the armed forces were sexually assaulted last year, up from 19,000 in 2010. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, who on Tuesday called sexual assault in the military “beyond the pale,” said the Senate would move to address the problem in the coming defense bill. “Something has to be done about it,” he said.

Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, has introduced the most sweeping proposal, which would give military prosecutors, rather than commanders, the power to decide which sexual assault cases to try. She has said the measure is principally intended to increase the number of people who report crimes without fear of retaliation and professionalize the process, but it has been largely rejected by military brass.

“Making commanders less responsible and less accountable will not work,” General Odierno said.

Among other measures that the committee is considering are those that would limit a military commander’s ability to change or dismiss a court-martial conviction for sexual assault, require dismissal or a dishonorable discharge for anyone in the military convicted of rape or sexual assault, and expand to all service branches an Air Force program that provides a special counsel to victims of sexual assault.

This week, the House Armed Services Committee is expected to pass provisions aimed at combating sexual assault within its Defense Authorization Act; the full House is scheduled to consider that bill next week. The provisions include one similar to the Senate measure that would limit a commander’s ability to overturn sentences and another that would require minimum sentences for sexual assault convictions.

Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, is particularly interested in the ability of commanders to overturn sexual assault convictions, and repeatedly questioned why a service record could mitigate such a conviction. Ms. McCaskill called a letter from Lt. Gen. Craig A. Franklin explaining his reversal of a fighter pilot’s conviction “astoundingly ignorant.”

Ms. Gillibrand also chided the leaders for sometimes understating the gravity of some of the crimes before them, noting that one commander had told a victim that he believed her assailant had not “acted like a gentleman” but had not committed a crime. “Not every commander can distinguish between a slap on the ass and a rape,” Ms. Gillibrand said.

Several advocates for victims of sexual assault also testified, in some cases offering chilling testimony about women and men who had been sexually abused and then lost their careers by seeking justice. “The military does not create rapists,” said Anu Bhagwati, who served as a Marine captain and is executive director of the Service Women’s Action Network. But, she said, it does “condone sexual violence.”