Pentagon covers up widespread sexual abuse

The Pentagon is hiding a shocking secret: the rampant sexual harassment and abuse of women soldiers within the ranks of the U.S. military in Iraq. This sexual violence has even led to deaths, the causes of which have been deliberately concealed.

Col. Janis Karpinski, former commander of Abu Ghraib prison, charged recently that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, ex-senior U.S. military commander in Iraq, ordered cover-ups of some women soldiers’ deaths from dehydration there. These women, Karpinski charged, were terrified of being sexually assaulted by male soldiers. As a result, they did not drink sufficient fluids in order to avoid using latrines late at night.

Karpinski told an anti-war audience in New York City in January that a military surgeon told of women “dying from dehydration in their sleep” in over 120-degree heat, without air-conditioning. Doctors were told not to reveal causes of death publicly nor that it was women soldiers who had died. (Marjorie Cohn, Truthout.org)

Sanchez issued orders to hide these causes of death, Karpinski revealed. She also stated that he callously blamed the women for their predicament and said that since they chose to be in the military, “they should take what comes with the territory.”

The sexual attacks took place at Camp Victory, where the latrines were in isolated, unlit areas. In 2004, Karpinski said in an interview that “women were doubly easy targets in the dark of the night.” She added that there were many such incidents in U.S. military units stationed in Iraq and Kuwait “because female soldiers didn’t have a voice, individually or collectively.”

Although assaults could be reported to an 800 number, many female GIs had no access to a phone. Calls were not answered; women were instructed to leave a recorded message. Even after 83 attacks were reported in Iraq and Kuwait, the 24-hour rape hot line was connected to an answering machine, Karpinski said.

Women soldiers who have reported sexual assaults say that they’ve been denied proper medical care, and counselling, criminal investigations have been stymied, and the attackers were supported or the incidents were covered up. Many who’ve reported attacks have said their officers refused to believe them and threatened the women with punishment. Other women added that they were harassed by fellow soldiers or commanders or met with other forms of retaliation after reporting incidents of sexual violence.

Not isolated incidents

Sexual abuse of women is rife inside the ranks of the U.S. military. Two-thirds of women soldiers report having experienced unwanted, uninvited sexual behavior, reports Terry Spahr Nelson, in “For Love of Country: Confronting Rape and Sexual Harassment in the U.S. Military.”

The Denver Post has reported widespread and increasing sexual attacks on women in the military by male soldiers. And the Miles Foundation states that 30 percent of female veterans have reported rape or attempted rape while on active duty.

A Department of Defense report even found that women of color, and those who are younger, poorer, and lower in rank are more likely to be assaulted.

But the military brass and the Pentagon have never taken sexual violence seriously nor done anything substantial to stop it. In fact, they want to hush it up.

If the truth were revealed about assaults on women soldiers it would blow the cover off the lie that the U.S. war and occupation are for women’s rights in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And the military brass surely doesn’t want the real stories revealed in the U.S. when enlistment is at an all-time low and the armed forces are going all-out to recruit young people, including women.

But, the truth is that sexism, racism, and homophobia are inculcated into the ranks by Pentagon officials and permeates military culture. Attitudes of arrogance, superiority, and power over others are reinforced while soldiers are conditioned to engage in violent behavior.