Guardian: Sexual assault victims say military’s promises of reform don’t go far enough
The Guardian reports:
During this week’s battle of wills between legislators and military leaders at the Senate armed services committee hearing into sexual assault, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and other high-level witnesses admitted failure, expressing remorse and their desire to do better over a crisis that lawmakers warned threatened US troops’ recruitment and retention.
But the uniformed military leaders – who outnumbered victims’ advocates testifying by a ratio of 18 to two – staged a unified pushback on Senate proposals to strip military commanders of their power to decide whether to prosecute sexual assaults in the ranks. Victims’ advocates say the current system stops 86% of victims coming forward and fails many of the 14% who do.
Missing from the hearing were any victims of military sexual abuse – although some gave testimony at a previous subcommittee hearing in March – and advocates and senators cited cases that they said highlighted just how broken the current system of military justice is for victims of sexual assault.
