Always A Reason

News-Flash: The military has had an ongoing problem with handling cases of rape. There have been no shortage of policies, power-point presentations and not-so-clever acronyms thrown at Soldiers over the last several decades regarding reporting , I guess in the eyes of military leadership this is how they solve problems: Make them watch a slide-show and make them carry a stupid little card with them everywhere. At present, if a Soldier (male or female) is raped or harassed it is typically handled through their Chain of Command. Depending on what measures the victim wants to take (Restricted vs. Unrestricted Reporting) their Commanding Officer is supposed to have the final say.

There is a huge problem with this: About 9 times out of 10 the perp is someone the victim knows, usually via said Chain of Command.
 

I didn't want to be gender specific here, I understand that men are often victims as well and they often have more difficulties finding help after such an ordeal that female victims. REGARDLESS of who it was or what organs they were born with, raping a fellow Soldier, or even considering doing so, is un-fucking-acceptable and individuals who do so don't deserve to wear the uniform.

But something I've noticed over the last few years of my military career is a disturbing trend of what I can only describe as "Blame-Game Burn-Out" due to Ad Nauseam rehashes and repeats of power-point slides, briefings, counseling sessions... there are some units where these take place so frequently that Soldiers often fall asleep halfway through these presentations.

Whenever there was an incident on my post, there was a mandatory gathering of each Company and we were all given the same lecture by an NCO: No means no, you could get kicked out of the Army, blah blah blah obviously they still aren't getting the message because Soldiers just keep raping each other.

These days our military seems to be spending A LOT of time and effort putting digi-camo Band-Aids over self-inflicted bullet-wounds. 

We can't even defend ourselves from OURSELVES! How the bloody grunge-fuck are we supposed to defend our Country if we can't get our own shit together? The Army is drowning in ad-hoc policy and outdated paperwork and insists on solving the problem by tying the boulders of "tradition" around their own ankles. Yeah, you guys have fun with that, say 'hi' to Cthulu for me.

Obviously, this issue is too serious to be trusted with the Chain of Command. There have even been incidents of brazen silencing of victims by their own so-called 'Leadership' by just dismissing them as "oh the bitch is nuts." Someone obviously hasn't been carrying their card around, maybe they need a power-point slideshow to remind them. PLEASE!

I have another idea: Instead of relying on possibly biased and burned-out commanders to babysit their own Soldiers, someone forms independent units and organizations to investigate and prosecute suspects? There's no middle-management, no more "Bros Before Ho's, even if he's a piece of shit" an outside entity is called and they handle it like the crime scene it fucking is.

And if you honestly think this is all just a matter of 'getting attention' or crucifying one of your buddies because 'she doesn't like him,' have you ever stopped and considered the possibility that maybe there might be a very good reason WHY that female Soldier 'just doesn't like' your bestest-buddy ol-pal?

If you honestly think anyone deserves that or was "asking for it," you clearly cannot be trusted with an Automatic Weapon and a uniform. 

Hang it up, give it back and report to your nearest prison cell ASAP: Male or female, you are part of the problem.