Book tells of female U.S. soldiers raped by comrades

Reuters ^ | April 16, 2009 | Christine Kearney

[Zakeet]

Female U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have more to fear than roadside bombs or enemy ambushes. They also are at risk of being raped or sexually assaulted by fellow soldiers.

"The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq," a book based on 40 in-depth interviews, recounts the stories of female veterans who served in combat zones and tells of rape, sexual assault and harassment by male counterparts.

Some were warned by officers not to go to the latrine by themselves. One began carrying a knife in case she was attacked by comrades. Others said they felt discouraged to report assaults.

"The horror of it is that it is their own side that is doing this to them," said the book's author, Helen Benedict, a journalism professor at Columbia University in New York. The book was released in the United States on Wednesday.

One in 10 U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are female, and more women have fought and died in the Iraq war than any since World War Two, according to U.S. Department of Defense statistics cited in the book.

Benedict said the book's title comes from the isolation female U.S. soldiers experience when combining the trauma of their combat duties with sexual harassment by fellow soldiers.

"Because women are under so much more danger now and actually in the battle, it's a particularly tragic situation because all soldiers are supposed to be able to rely on one another to watch their backs," Benedict said.

"And how can you feel that way if your fellow soldiers are harassing you all day or trying to rape you or actually even raping you?"

[Star Traveler]

Here’s an interesting story where the military is backing off kicking out as many recruits...

---

US lowers standards in army numbers crisis
Jamie Wilson in Washington
The Guardian, Saturday 4 June 2005 00.11 BST

The US military has stopped battalion commanders from dismissing new recruits for drug abuse, alcohol, poor fitness and pregnancy in an attempt to halt the rising attrition rate in an army under growing strain as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

An internal memo sent to senior commanders said the growing dropout rate was “a matter of great concern” in an army at war. It told officers: “We need your concerted effort to reverse the negative trend. By reducing attrition 1%, we can save up to 3,000 initial-term soldiers. That’s 3,000 more soldiers in our formations.”

Officially, the memo, reported in the Wall Street Journal and posted on Slate.com, ordered battalion commanders to refer cases of problem soldiers up to brigade level. Military experts warned that the move would make it more difficult to remove poor soldiers and would lower quality in the ranks.

A military spokesman told the Guardian yesterday: “It was merely a question of an additional set of eyes looking at an issue before we release potential recruits.”

The Wall Street Journal quoted a battalion commander as saying: “It is the guys on weight control ... school no-shows, drug users, etc, who eat up my time and cause my hair to grey prematurely ... Often they have more than one of these issues simultaneously.”

Asked what the new policy meant, John Pike from the thinktank Globalsecurity.org said: “It means there is a war on. They need all the soldiers they can get. But it is a dilemma. You need good soldiers more in wartime than peacetime.”

[ ... ]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/jun/04/usa.jamiewilson

[Big_Monkey]

You may not be aware of this, but all branches of service carry out random urine analysis test per direction of the DOD. These random tests screen for all manner of illicit drugs including marijuana, opiates, methamphetamine and even alcohol. Yes, if you're drunk on duty, that's an offense for which you can be discharged, forfeit pay or even see some confinement.

America has a drug problem. And, as an American institution the Military has it's problems with drugs. But, to insinuate that there's a systemic drug problem in the military, is insane and completely uninformed.

As Mr. Rogers said earlier, the military has FAR LESS drug use than a typical high-school, and I would add grade school.

[Star Traveler]

And here is an interesting Public Service Film by the US Military, which shows the problems with street drugs (and their usage). They’re obviously using this for the “education” of their own people... (which shows something by implication...)

The Enemy Ecstasy US Military Anti-Drug Training Video PSA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhJoKnoCDnQ

[Star Traveler]

Note post #181...

[Star Traveler]

It’s also not a problem that is limited to the US military..., this is the smaller British military...

It just goes to show that it’s more or less a product of the Western culture that we’re in, and not so much as a result of the military, itself...

---

The statistics are in. The use of drugs among soldiers is rising and is not tolerated because the misuse of drugs is incompatible with life in the Armed Forces according to an Army spokesman.

The Press Association reports that official Ministry of Defense statistics indicate that the use of cocaine among service personnel has tripled since the beginning of the war in Iraq in 2003.

In total, more than 1,500 have tested positive since the start of 2006 in the MoD’s random drugs testing programme - 80% of them for class A drugs.

In 2006 alone, 769 members of the Army tested positive compared to 518 in 2003 - a 48% increase. Cocaine accounted for more than half the failed tests - 423 - far ahead of cannabis (221) and ecstasy (95).

The Army does not tolerate this type of misuse of drugs as it is incompatible with life in the Armed Forces. Personnel need to be in top shape mentally, emotionally as well as physically and mind/mood altering substances will hinder performance.

“A positive test result or the refusal to provide a specimen will normally lead to soldiers being administratively discharged.

In spite of the apparent increase in drug abuse in the Armed Forces, it appears that the statistics are still relatively low considering the number of individuals that comprise the total number of Army personnel.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/243383/Soldiers_Drug_Use_on_the_Rise

[ansel12]

"By the way, to correct myself. Those waivers weren't granted since the end of the Vietnam war. 36 years ago, not 46 years ago."

At some point even those that are pro women in the military have to come to an answer of how many are too many, and ask is it already the reason that we can't get males to enlist even though our population is now vast and our military is now small.

Thanks it was the Vietnam mention that was troubling me. Here are some numbers

Notably, the Army and Marine Corps had raised their recruiting goals for fiscal 2008, as both services continue to grow their ranks to meet the demands of the wars on two fronts. In fact, the Army was the sole active-duty service to exceed its goal by a full 1 percent, recruiting 517 more soldiers than its 80,000 target.

Retention was strong for the active-duty Army and Navy, as each exceeded its fiscal 2008 target. The Marine Corps did not reach its goal for retaining first-time recruits, and its retention rate dropped to 95 percent.

[Big_Monkey]

You're quoting an article on from The Guardian?

You might as well quote the Easter Bunny. I'd be equally as impressed with him as I am with the Guardian.

[Star Traveler]

It was a news story about the British military. I don’t find too many of those “British stories” in the U.S. news... LOL...

[Star Traveler]

Here’s one from the Mail Online...

---

More soldiers than ever are using cocaine - and being dishonourably dismissed
By DANIEL MARTIN
Last updated at 07:39 14 December 2007

In action: But cocaine use among British soldiers is soaring (file picture)

Cocaine use among soldiers is soaring, according to research.

The number testing positive for the class A drug has quadrupled since 2003.

Research into compulsory drug testing in the Army found that 769 soldiers tested positive for illegal drugs in 2006 - up from 517 just three years before.

Soldiers who test positive for illegal drugs are usually dishonourably discharged.

The Journal of the Royal United Services Institute, which published the report, said the loss of personnel was higher than the number of fatalities and serious casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.

Christianne Tipping, defence management analyst from RUSI, said: “The issue of an increasing number of drug-related discharges, at a time when recruitment and retention are problematic, needs to be examined by the Ministry of Defence.”

The survey comes just weeks after 17 soldiers from the 5th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland (Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) tested positive for drugs after a rest and relaxation period in Cancun, Mexico.

They were all dismissed.

Professor Sheila Bird, senior scientist at the Medical Research Council, said the Army’s cocaine positive rate was probably the tip of the iceberg.

The positive rate is up from 1.4 per 1,000 in 2003 to 5.7 in 2007 - a more than four-fold increase.

[ ... ]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-502037/More-soldiers-using-cocaine—dishonourably-dismissed.html

---

Again, noting that it’s the British Military, but they’re “over there”, too and the American servicemen face the same issues...

[Big_Monkey]

That chart is about what I had imagined. I'm guessing that the increase in Felony waivers are the ones that I mentioned - grand theft, vehicular manslaughter and the like.

What's more, although the Army and to a much lesser degree the Marines struggled with recruiting during the bloody years of 2006-2007, neither struggled with the equally important retention. In fact, the Marines (don't know about the Army) actually set record retention levels in '04 through '08. This was a fact that was never mentioned in the press, especially when they brought up the recruiting problems or the so-called "back door draft".

To answer your original question more directly, I'm not really hung up on the percentages of WMs, so long as the Marine Corps doesn't relax its standard with respect to women filling combat billets. If that starts, then I'm going to have serious problems.

[Star Traveler]

Here’s one that is apparently some research on the issue...

---

Alcohol and Other Drugs Plague Soldiers in Iraq
July 25, 2005

Alcohol and drug offenses are the second and third most common charges (after dereliction of duty) brought against soldiers of a National Guard unit in Iraq, and military officials say that alcohol and other drug problems are common throughout the forces deployed in Iraq, Stars and Stripes reported July 25.

“The Army is a microcosm of society,” said Lt. Col. John Dunlap, the lead prosecutor for the 256th Brigade Combat Team, a National Guard unit from Louisiana. Dunlap said that soldiers involved in alcohol or other drugs at home typically bring their problems along overseas, and that alcohol and other drug use is especially prevalent among soldiers in their late teens or early 20s.

A review of the 256th’s records show that between October 2004 and June 2005, the unit charged 99 soldiers with dereliction of duty, followed by 53 alcohol-related charges and 48 drug-related charges. The brigade has about 4,000 soldiers.

A recent cocaine bust got a lot of attention, but military officials in Iraq said that problems with alcohol, marijuana, Valium, hashish, and prescription drugs are more common. Contract workers on bases like Camp Liberty sell alcohol to soldiers, while soldiers on patrol can often buy hashish or Valium from locals. Marijuana is typically shipped via the mail from overseas.

“Some of the young soldiers just can’t handle the stress” and turn to alcohol or drugs to self-medicate, said military defense lawyer Capt. Christopher Krafchek.

[ ... ]

http://www.jointogether.org/news/research/summaries/2005/alcohol-and-other-drugs-in.html

[Star Traveler]

Here’s an interesting twist on drugs given by the Military, itself, and then some comment on “self-medicating”, too...

I have no idea that these stories existed, since I’ve never looked for them before. But, they’ve apparently been out there for a while. And I would suspect, given the nature of war, that military medication and self-medicaton, along with illegal drugs, are prevalent, as is being reported.

At the same time, I’m sure that a lot of military people are being discharged for these things, because of the military checking on drug usage...

---

The Iraq War—On Drugs
By TERRY J. ALLEN

Ready for deployment is not the same as mentally healthy, and the army’s long-term interests smack hard against its need for warm bodies, no matter how dangerous continued action may be to an individual’s mental health.

Wounded U.S. soldiers are being patched up and returned to battle before they are healed. The wounds in this case are to the psyche, caused by the trauma and horror that are as integral to war as guns and death.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, when “suck it up” fails to snap a soldier out of depression or panic, the Army turns to drugs. “Soldiers I talked to were receiving bags of antidepressants and sleeping meds in Iraq, but not the trauma care they needed,” says Steve Robinson, a Defense Department intelligence analyst during the Clinton administration.

Sometimes sleeping pills, antidepressants and tranquilizers are prescribed by qualified personnel. Sometimes not. Sgt. Georg Anderas Pogany told Salon that after he broke down in Iraq, his team sergeant told him “to pull himself together, gave him two Ambien, a prescription sleep aid, and ordered him to sleep.”

Other soldiers self-medicate. “We were so junked out on Valium, we had no emotions anymore,” Iraq vet John Crawford told “Fresh Air” host Terry Gross. He and others in his unit in Iraq became addicted to Valium.

The issues around mental health and medication are exacerbated for the more than 378,000 troops who have served multiple tours to Iraq and Afghanistan. Post traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) caused by a previous tour are cropping up in later ones.

“It concerns us when we hear military doctors say, ‘It’s wonderful that we have these drugs available to cope with second or third deployments,’” Joyce Raezer of the National Military Family Association told In These Times.

“But that statement makes military spouses cringe,” she continues, “Soldiers are saying ‘we don’t have time to recover.’”

Marine psychiatrist Cmdr. Paul S. Hammer confirmed to San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Rick Rogers that Marines with PTSD are returning to Iraq.

In many cases, their problem is labeled stress. “Army docs have told me that commanders pressured them not to diagnose PTSD because it would cut into combat power—the ability to project men and women into war,” says Robinson. “The docs admit that the decision [to misdiagnose] is unethical, but are unwilling to take the huge career risk of becoming a whistle blower.”

“The military has an obligation to ensure your readiness,” says Raezer. “It is in its long-term benefit to have the person healthy.” But those goals may conflict with themselves and with reality. Ready for deployment is not the same as mentally healthy, and the army’s long-term interests smack hard against its need for warm bodies, no matter how dangerous continued action may be to an individual’s mental health.

All these factors promote that classic American solution: Better living through chemistry. When effective, antidepressants and sleeping pills can enable a soldier to get back in action—either from a huddle of terror and disgust, or increasingly, from back home to serve an additional tour.

But the use of brain-altering medications must be monitored for effectiveness and safety, which is beyond the Army’s capability in Iraq. The medications can take weeks to kick in, dangerously interact with other medications or fail to work at all. Side effects can include organ damage and thoughts of suicide.

But if the problem is bad for the occupying army, it is far worse for the Iraqi civilians, who have few medical resources and no end in sight to the constant fear and deprivation that occupation has brought.

“The [Iraqi] Ministry of Health says since the U.S. invasion there’s been a 35 percent jump in cases of post-traumatic stress disorder [in Iraqis],” reported NPR Baghdad correspondent Jamie Tarabay.

Keith Humphreys of U.S. Veterans Affairs documented a substantial rise in drug use in Iraq resulting from the terrible stress of daily life. Drugs that would require a prescription in the United States are available in drug stores and many Iraqis are turning to them for relief.

Former biology undergraduate Rorla Monere began taking sleeping pills to dull the pain and fear after witnessing the kidnapping of a close friend who was thrown into a car and later raped; a suicide car bomb left another of Monere’s close friends in a wheelchair. Afraid to go out, Monere stays at home, terrified that someone will storm the house.

[ ... ]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2670/

[Big_Monkey]

"Here’s one that is apparently some research on the issue...

If you were to go the LA County, or New York or Miami county jails, I'm guessing that a MUCH greater percentage of those either incarcerated or awaiting trial are there for drug related charges.

Again, this "drug problem" in the armed forces is a overblown or even fabricated story. And, surprise surprise, is one that has almost magically disappeared from press accounts since Barry's taken over.

If you were to go to any Ivy League school today and forced drug tests on the student body, I would wager a years salary that between 40-50% of the students would test positive for drugs.

In my 20+ years of service, including my time in Iraq, I never saw more than two people out of 800 ever pop positive on a piss test. The problem is hyper-exaggerated.

[Star Traveler]

I didn’t post it here, but in scanning the news on the subject, I just came across one article that said 18 soldiers a week test positive (but this was the British Military, which has a very much smaller force there)...

So, at 18 soldiers a week with a smaller force, I would just “guess” that we’re not so much culturally different than the British and that the U.S. would have something similar happening. And there are reports there, about it...

You mention not seeing hardly anything in 20 years, but that doesn’t match up with the articles that I’m coming across...

[Star Traveler]

At a PTSD blog, the blog owner was quoting a story on ABC about drug usage back in the field and what happens when they come back home... here is a little blurb of it...

---

“Lots of soldiers coming back from Iraq have been using drugs,” said Spc. William Swenson, who was deployed to Iraq from Fort Carson. “Right when we got back, there were people using cocaine in the barracks; there were people smoking marijuana at strip clubs; one guy started shooting up,” he said.

Fort Carson, just outside Colorado Springs, is home to 17,500 active duty personnel. Four thousand eight hundred service members are currently deployed in the “sand box,” as soldiers call Iraq and Afghanistan. ABC News spoke to more than a dozen soldiers who described widespread abuse of illegal drugs at Fort Carson by service members back from the war. ...

---

http://ptsdcombat.blogspot.com/2007/11/2020-abc-news-uncovers-soldiers-and.html

—

It’s like I said, in scanning through a bunch of articles (and I’m definitely not including them all here... LOL...), I’m seeing a whole lot of this kind of thing...

I would say that there is a problem...

[ansel12]

What's more, although the Army and to a much lesser degree the Marines struggled with recruiting during the bloody years of 2006-2007, neither struggled with the equally important retention. In fact, the Marines (don't know about the Army) actually set record retention levels in '04 through '08. This was a fact that was never mentioned in the press, especially when they brought up the recruiting problems or the so-called "back door draft".

Actually it is 2005 that you are thinking of that had some shortfalls in enlistments. In 2006 and 2007 the Army exceeded enlistment goals.

Post 186 mentions that the Marines fell short in their retention goals of 2008.

[jacquej]

Star Traveler, I am the mother of a retired Army son. I know how hard he worked to bring distinction and achievement to the troops serving under him, and how hard he worked to set the highest of standards.

The young 2nd Lts. hope to get a platoon that has a few problems, and shape them up, so they get good reviews and evaluations, and their promotions. And it goes up the chain of command this way.

Not that there aren’t exceptions, for certainly these do exist. But, compared to life in many of our college campuses, suburbs and inner cities for the same age population, the military does an excellent job of instilling discipline, dealing with abuse, and keeping track of those weapons you mention. I have heard stories of tracking down the last missing piece of whatever, for fear of being called out for having anything missing.

I agree, you do not know much about the military today, and how much better off our young men and women are in that environment than those mentioned above.

That said, I am not happy about women being in combat zones. But, I do think they have certain skill sets and talents that our military can truly benefit from using. They should be behind the front lines, and in support positions. We should make the rules to suit the average, not the exceptional.

[Mr Rogers]

At the last base I was at, the goal was to urine test everyone on the base at least twice per year. Obviously, this means some folks use drugs. It ALSO means they regularly get caught and punished.

I was in from 1983-2008. We had a much bigger problem is the 80s than now. But with new recruits coming in, you always have some who think they can beat the system. The guy we gave 11 months confinement and a BCD to had been in 10 months.

[Mr Rogers]

“...but that doesn’t match up with the articles that I’m coming across...”

Golly. Who are you going to trust - the military folks on FR, or the newspapers?

[Star Traveler]

Well, remember, I’m also talking to military people... (said it up above..., so not just news articles...)