Baltimore Sun: Military sexual assaults: reforms not dead yet
Baltimore Sun Editorial writes:
That someone like Senator Cruz — the darling of the Club for Growth, the Tea Party Express and former senator Jim DeMint — would endorse a bill that also has strong backing from Barbara Boxer, one of the Senate’s most liberal Democrats, demonstrates that it surely isn’t a partisan issue. Opponents include Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who has said he wants to change the military’s culture but not its command structure.
Yet how can the Pentagon perpetuate the status quo when it’s already been proven so ineffective? Recently, the department’s inspector general reviewed 501 closed sexual assault cases since 2010 and found that 89 percent were not investigated sufficiently. In some cases, key evidence was not collected, interviews were not complete and the cases lacked a thorough crime scene investigation, according to the IG report released earlier this week. That should not inspire confidence in Congress or the Pentagon.
