Posted on 05/08/2013 3:19:15 AM PDT by markomalley
President Obama on Tuesday said he had “no tolerance” for sexual assault in the military and urged the Pentagon to clean house after a new report revealed a sharp rise in incidents.
Obama also said that while sexual assault in the ranks was “not a new phenomenon,” he wouldn’t be satisfied with a response that did not seriously address the issue.
“Sexual assault is an outrage, it is a crime, and that’s true for society at large,” Obama said at a joint press conference with the visiting President of South Korea Park Geun-hye. “And if it happens inside our military, whoever is carrying it out is betraying the uniform that they’re wearing.”
Obama said those found to be responsible should be court-martialed, fired and dishonorably discharged.
“I expect consequences. I don’t want just more speeches, awareness programs or training where people ultimately look the other way,” the president said.
Obama said he had told Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that the Pentagon must do “everything we can to root this out.”
“I’ve … indicated to him that we not only have to step up our game but exponentially go after it,” Obama said.
The annual report from the Pentagon found 6.1 percent of female service members said they had received “unwanted sexual contact” along with 1.2 percent of males.
The Pentagon estimates 26,000 sexual assaults took place across the armed forces in 2012, based on the results of a confidential survey. The estimate is a 37 percent increase from the last survey completed in 2010, when the department estimated 19,000 total cases.
The report found that the number of reported sexual assaults rose to 3,374 last year, up from 3,192 in 2011. That’s the highest number of reported cases since the Pentagon began submitting annual reports to Congress on sexual assault in 2004.
Hagel announced several new initiatives on Tuesday designed to hold military leaders at all levels accountable for improving military culture.
“This department may be nearing a stage where the frequency of this crime and the perception that there is tolerance of it could very well undermine our ability to effectively carry out the mission and to recruit and retain the good people we need,” Hagel said.
The Pentagon has come under fire in recent weeks for how it handles sexual assault within its ranks.
Lawmakers say the military is not taking the issue seriously enough, with some seeking to overhaul how it investigates and prosecutes cases.
The action has been fueled by more than two dozen accusations of sexual misconduct by basic training instructors at Lackland Air Base last year, as well as the dismissal of a guilty verdict by a commander in a post-trial review in an Air Force sexual assault case.
The criticism escalated this week after revelations that an Air Force lieutenant colonel who was tasked with preventing sexual assaults was charged on Sunday with sexual battery.
“While under our legal system everyone is innocent until proven guilty, this arrest speaks volumes about the status and effectiveness of DOD’s efforts to address the plague of sexual assaults in the military,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said Tuesday at a hearing on the Air Force.
After learning of the charges against Lt. Col. Jeff Krusinski, the military dismissed him from his post Monday.
“We’re all outraged and disgusted over these very troubling allegations,” Hagel said.
The Pentagon estimates the total number of sexual assaults based on an anonymous survey of service members; experts say that most victims do not report the crime to their superiors or law enforcement.
The 2012 survey found that 66 percent of women and 76 percent of men did not report the sexual crimes, down from 71 percent of women and 85 percent of men in the 2010 survey.
Hagel suggested that one reason the number of reported claims may be up is that more victims are coming forward.
“It does say something that we’re seeing more and more people come forward,” he said. “There may well be some new confidence starting to develop that we will take it seriously.”
Lawmakers said the report shows the military is moving in the wrong direction.
They are eyeing changes to the military’s judicial code, particularly in the wake of the decision by a military commander at Aviano Air Base to overturn a guilty verdict.
“That is the crux of the problem here, because if a victim does not believe that the system is capable of believing her, there’s no point in risking your entire career,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.).
McCaskill has placed a hold on an appointment for Air Force Lt. Gen. Susan Helms because Helms also had overturned a sexual assault verdict. She said Tuesday she wants to meet with Helms before lifting the hold.
Hagel recommended last month that the military’s judicial code be changed to strip commanders of the ability to overturn guilty verdicts in a post-trial review.
Some lawmakers want the military to go further and remove the prosecution of sexual assault cases from the military’s chain of command altogether.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) pressed Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh on the issue at Tuesday’s Armed Services panel hearing.
Welsh defended the need for keeping the process within the chain of command, and he said that the reporting problems also existed in the civilian sector.
“I don’t think it’s any different in the military,” Welsh said.
“I think it’s very different in the military,” Gillibrand shot back. “I think you’re precisely wrong about that. Everything is about the chain of command.”
That will not be necessary, white heterosexual males simply will not join a feminized homosexual friendly armed forces.
Nowhere does the Constitution guarantee any male member to be over six inches, and quite frankly, we just can't defend or justify the danger to society posed by seven, eight, or (Heaven forbid!!!) nine inches long!
C'mon people?! Think about the kitties...
:^|
oh it’ all about sex, forcing the military to accept sexual deviants openly parading their depravity. That being said, the gang banger mentality has always been an issue in the military with the old “she must be gay” if she complains
we have too many dipshit leaders in the military silver. a true leader would not ask any subordinate to do something he wouldn’t do, wouldn’t hide in a tent during a firefight in Iraq, wouldn’t be poking some skank writing his autobiography.
totally agree, the freaking progressives have made it all about who you are lusting after
He wasn’t asleep he watched in real time like a Svengali
It is almost inevitable when you put women in close quarters with men who may have almost absolute command over their lives. Not to mention the same factors will increase homosexual assault with Obama pushing open homosexuals into the ranks.
And if the interracial rape stats of civilian society, which average 14 to 1 black on white, are a guide, I bet that this interracial metric is true or even enhanced in the military.
It seems the long march of the Cultural Marxists of the Frankfort School is bearing its rancid fruit through out our declining society.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_School
And this is just one example.
Boy, he’s all about consequences everywhere he turns.
Another crap article that tool not one but, two intellectual drain holes to peck out...
Patricia Schroeder assured the nation that this would not be a problem, when she and the Democrats pushed the military to go coed.
I could write a book about the failings of the US Navy's supposed Family Advocacy and how they did not protect my daughter and continue to fail her.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh
Welsh defended the need for keeping the process within the chain of command, and he said that the reporting problems also existed in the civilian sector.
______________________________________________
Of course he wants to keep the rapes and molestation secret...
its embarassing to the AF for the world to know whats going on in the “squeeking clean” service...
for years the AF has boasted that they are not like the Army...
that theres few rapes...
so he doesnt want women to report rapes to civilian authorities where something will be done...
The AF even put a perp in charge of reporting rape
how smirky and in-your-face is that ???
did any woman complain about this peice of stuff as he was coming up through the ranks
probably...
well what happens when women report sexual assualt in the AF ???
she is maligned and tossed out of the AF as unfit, etc and discredited...
nothing happens to the rapist...
especially if she is white and he is black...
During the 1970s it was a secret shame in the AF that there was open war on white women...
what woman would expose a black perp if she was going to be punished for telling ???
It was a back lash after blacks were accepted more into the services...
now its the mens turn to be victims...
who is going to dare turn in a homosexual for raping him ???
The one man who spoke at the 1st ever summit in Washington last year claims the guy who raped him was not homosexual..
No men raped by homosexuals were invited to speak...
Nor did any of the women allowed to speak say their perps were black...
they were all white...
and yet when I was in the AF mosty of the sexual assaults and molestation that I knew of (yes they were not secret to us) were committed by black guys who got a pass by white supervisors afraid to say anything..
Women were not protected then and they are still not...
Just as men are volnerable now...
this is just the usual lip service thats been going on for DECADES...
nothing will be done and it will just be swept under the rug with “We are shocked. we have it under control now”
Why is anyone surprised at anything the marxist muslim fraud does? His real GOAL is to take America down and he is doing a GREAT JOB. His real BOSS is the king of saudi arabia and his real goal is to restore the caliphate and help the MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD. Like I said, he is doing a great job. He clearly stated that when push came to shove he is on the muslim side. It is probably the only true statement he has made. Obama is an empty suit puppet. Any time he goes off teleprompter he puts his foot in his mouth. He is a clown and his administration consists of yes men, and like thinking buffoons. Biden, Panetta, Hagel, Brennan, Holder, Napolitano, Clapper, Dempsey, Mueller... one assclown bigger than the next.
the more women are integrated into combat arms of the military the more sexual encounters will occur - it is the way we are created - closeness, remote assignments, etc. leads to interaction between the sexes - bound to happen. Then the unit efficiency declnes, morale drops - and you look like the dutch military - completely ineffective.
He has already change the culture. This is his military without God.
What does he expect; He did the following:
1. Homosexuals openly serving with their straight counterparts (even in close quarters during combat).
2. Persecution of Christians in order to remove them from the ranks. *who are the most decent people.
3. Removing those who would follow the constitution and protect the American people rather than follow his orders.
4. Cut spending massively on DoD.
Obama and all demos are BAD for our military.
ANd forgot Now women serve in Combat with men!
These numbers are dubious. I do not believe a damn thing this administration says. Look at the deportation of illegal immigrants numbers. According to the one who we have been waiting for deportations are up; however, recently we find out that the way it is counted has been changed -NOW, they count illegals turned away at the border as deportations. What a load of B.S.
0zer0 is up to no good in the military and these sexual assault numbers are but another created problem he has tasked himself with solving by further imposing leftist ideological measures upon the citizenry.
Didn’t the admin also claim a poll which indicated the service members supported legalizing gays?
IMO its not just PC. Mixing the sexes in the same units is really bad for moral and discipline.
Maybe thats related to PC, I dunno.
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