Sexual Assault in the United States Military
I think something should be done about sexual assault in the United States military. This is wrong and should not happen at all. It is sad that our women troops not only have to defend themselves from terrorist attacks but also from our allied soldiers. Today, female troops are one hundred and eighty times more likely to be sexually assaulted by an ally solder than killed by an attacking enemy. Female troops who have been sexually assaulted rarely ever report it. In two thousand and eleven it was estimated that there were about three thousand official cases of sexual assault. The Department of Veterans Affairs gave an anonymous survey last year to more than eleven hundred female troops who served in Afghanistan and Iraq. Almost half admitted to being sexually harassed and about one quarter confessed to being sexually assaulted. Victims tend to be the younger and lower rank female soldiers and often they cannot report this crime to anyone because the person who they would report it to is the same person who assaulted them. I believe that this is wrong and something must be done about this awful crime. Thankfully a Special Victims Unit has been added in each branch of the United States military. This allows victims of sexual assault to be transferred out of their military unit and placed in a different one so they no longer have to deal with those individuals. After the case is reported, high ranking colonels would decide if the case in question should be brought to court or not. I think this is a great idea so our women troops have less to worry about and no longer have to protect themselves against other male allied soldiers. This is also a great idea because the guilty soldiers will be brought to justice in court and will have to pay for their crime.