A Call for Fundamental Change: An open letter to the Honorable Leon Panetta, Secretary of Defense, on the need to fix how rape and sexual assault is handled in the military

Protect Our Defenders and Service Women’s Action Network write:

Dear Secretary Panetta:

We appreciate your acknowledgment that efforts by the military to address sexual assault and rape in our armed forces have been inadequate. We very much agree that it is “no longer acceptable that we say we can just ‘do better’ on this. We need to take action.” We believe that the prevalence of rape and sexual assault is undermining readiness, unit cohesion and morale; and fixing this broken system will strengthen our military.

Read the full letter.