On March 6, 2014 Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa asked for and was granted permission to address the United States Senate for a few minutes regarding the Military Justice Improvement Act . The Military Justice Improvement Act is is legislation designed to curb the rampant rise of sex assaults against men and women in the military.
What he said was absolutely shocking:
“We know from the recent Defense Department report that 50 percent of female victims stated they did not report the crime because they believed nothing would be done as a result of their reporting; 74 percent of the females and 60 percent of the males perceived one or more barriers to reporting sexual assault; and 62 percent of the victims who reported sexual assault indicated they perceived some form of professional, social, and/or administrative retaliation.”
“We can talk about protecting victims, and we can enact more protections, as we did in the national defense authorization, but the fact remains that the current structure of the military justice system is having a deterrent effect on the reporting of these assaults. If sexual assault cases aren’t reported, they can’t be prosecuted. If sexual assault isn’t prosecuted, predators will remain in the military, which results in the perception that sexual assault is tolerated in this culture. That destroys morale and it destroys lives. If an enemy tried to sow that kind of discord among our military, we wouldn’t tolerate it, but we are doing it to ourselves”, said Grassley.
” The men and women who have volunteered to place their lives on the line deserve better, and our military readiness obviously demands it. Taking prosecutions out of the hands of commanders and giving them to professional prosecutors who are independent of the chain of command will help ensure impartial justice for the men and women of our forces”, he continued.
” I know some Senators will be nervous about the fact that the military is lobbying against this legislation. I have the greatest respect for our military leaders, but Congress has given the military leadership more than enough time to fix this current system. We can’t wait any longer. We should not be intimidated by people coming to the Hill because of their stars and ribbons. They deserve our respect but not deference to their opinion. We also hear that this measure will affect the ability of commanders to retain “good order and discipline.” Our legislation in no way takes away the ability of commanders to punish troops under their command for military infractions. Commanders also can and should be held accountable for the climate under their command. But the point here is that sexual assault is a law enforcement matter, not a military one”, said Senator Grassley (source: Congressional Record http://thomas.loc.gov/).
See related report: Senate blocks military sexual assault bill. Read more here: http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/06/politics/military-sex-assault/index.html
See also website: http://www.sapr.mil/