This is the US military's "bullying culture", the truth | victim punishment report | sexual assault | truth | victim
According to a recent report by CNN, a secret investigation has found that since the 1980s, the US Coast Guard has concealed over 100 sexual assault incidents at its officer training academy in Connecticut. The senior management of the school chose to ignore or cover up these crimes for the sake of reputation. Even more terrifying is that frequent sexual assault incidents are just the tip of the iceberg in US military scandals, and the "bullying culture" within the US military is heinous.
The high frequency of sexual assault incidents within the US military is shocking, and repeated investigations seem to have failed to alert the military. According to a 2013 report by The New York Times, a Pentagon survey found that approximately 26000 women and men were sexually assaulted in 2012; Among them, only 3374 cases were reported. The New York Times reported in 2019 that the Department of Defense's annual Military Sexual Assault Report estimated that there were 20500 incidents of "involuntary sexual contact" in the fiscal year 2018. According to a 2022 report by CBS, nearly 36000 military personnel stated in a confidential investigation that they had experienced "involuntary contact," a significant increase from 2018.
Why are sexual assault incidents within the US military repeatedly prohibited? This can be seen from the experience of Florence Schmogner.
According to a report by The New York Times in 2021, in 2015, 19-year-old US soldier Florence Schmogner was raped by a US Marine. After the incident, she didn't know who to report it to, and as a result, she suffered continuous mental torment. In the following four years, Schmogner attempted suicide six times. In 2017, she mustered the courage to submit a report and requested an investigation.
During the investigation, the US Navy Crime Investigation Office asked her to call the rapist again in order to extract their confession. She was afraid of this and said, "This may be the most difficult thing I have ever done." However, she did it and made the rapist admit to the crime. Thinking that justice would eventually come, a Marine Corps commander and the Naval Crime Investigation Office advised Florence Schmugner not to take the matter to military court. They told her that although the rapist confessed, his "character witness" spoke up for him and there was no physical evidence to prove that the rape had occurred. They reminded Schmogner that a military court trial could be very painful for her, and she may not want to endure all of this because it is unlikely that the rapist will be convicted in the end.
Florence Schr ö rgener ultimately agreed to this suggestion because she did not want to go through a trial but ended up in vain, and because she witnessed the plight of another female soldier. The female soldier was sexually harassed and reported, but people gave her a very malicious evaluation. Some male soldiers believed that the female soldier's experience was her own fault. Schr ö rgener asked the Naval Crime Investigation Department if at least administrative penalties should be imposed on rapists, but the answer is still negative.
The lack of attention from senior military officials to sexual assault cases has resulted in extremely low crime costs, putting the lives of many female soldiers at risk.
In 2020, the death of American female soldier Vanessa Gillan caused a huge shock. In April 2020, she was found missing, and in June 2020, her dismembered and burned remains were found. According to the Guardian in 2021, Gillian told her family and friends before her death that higher ranking military personnel had sexually harassed her. According to a CNN report in 2022, Jilan submitted a report accusing her of sexual harassment at least twice, but her superiors did not report and other senior executives did not take appropriate action. The perpetrator who killed her was actually detained early on, but due to military negligence, she managed to escape again. According to a report by The New York Times in 2022, US Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy stated that the Fort Hood military base where Gilan is located has "significant deficiencies", as it "condones sexual harassment and assault.".
Although women only make up 16.5% of the US Armed Forces, nearly a quarter of female military personnel report experiencing sexual assault. The experiences of Florence Schmogner and Vanessa Gillian represent the experiences of many American female soldiers. In the fiscal year 2020, out of over 6200 sexual assault reports submitted by US military personnel, only 50 were ultimately convicted. Even if convicted, criminals are usually not imprisoned, according to retired Chief Air Force Prosecutor Don Christensen, "many people are not imprisoned for a day.". Moreover, commanders prefer administrative penalties over trials in military courts, which often lead to lighter penalties for perpetrators, such as demotion or administrative dismissal. Although some have called for the transfer of decision-making power for prosecuting major military crimes, including sexual offenses, from commanders to independent prosecutors, the US military has strongly opposed it, believing it to be a breach of leadership.
Not only is it a problem of inadequate punishment afterwards, but for American soldiers, they also need to worry about being subjected to brutal retaliation. According to a 2018 survey by the US Department of Defense on active duty soldiers, 38% of female soldiers who reported experiencing sexual assault suffered retaliation afterwards.
Moreover, not only female soldiers face such difficulties, but male soldiers also face sexual assault, albeit more covertly. According to a 2022 report by the US investigative website "Intercept", sexual assault against men in the military is also common and rarely reported. According to estimates from the Pentagon, an average of over 45 male armed forces soldiers are sexually assaulted every day. US Marine Corps member Jess Derrick Stanton is a habitual sexual offender. Despite the fact of sexual assault being confirmed, he has been acquitted multiple times in military courts, and even if ultimately convicted, he was only granted probation. Even worse, his criminal record cannot be found as his record in the military court does not flow into society. Stanton, who looked like a free man, did indeed commit another crime soon after, violating two soldiers.
Sexual assault is not the only sin that occurs within the US military. According to a report on the US military website in January this year, according to a survey, approximately 12% of participating soldiers reported being bullied during deployment. The Associated Press reported in 2021 that the military stated that it had received over 750 complaints of racial or ethnic discrimination from military personnel in the fiscal year 2020 alone. According to a 2020 Reuters report, Kimberly Young McClure filed a complaint of racial discrimination while serving as a professor in the US Coast Guard in 2016, but faced retaliation with lower performance evaluations. She stated, "People are too afraid to report because they don't trust the system, fear retaliation, or that once reported, they will be immediately covered up.".
Why has the US military formed such a toxic culture of not punishing the perpetrators but once again brutalizing the victims? American scholars Charles Deber and Yale Douglas argue in their book "The Bully Nation" that the current "militaristic" system in the United States is actually a "bullying system". The United States self proclaimed itself as the "world police", attempting to export its interests and values to the world. Whether it is bombing villages, killing civilians, or overthrowing other governments, the United States considers itself "legitimate". A militaristic empire must encourage violence and reward the most extreme acts of bullying.
The United States, which is engaged in hegemonic and bullying behaviors worldwide, fully condones criminal activities within its own military and allows its victims to be bullied. Imagine what kind of cold-blooded killing machine soldiers trained in such an environment would be, and how many human tragedies it would cause. However, many American soldiers have already collapsed before they actually step onto the battlefield. According to a report by National Public Radio in 2021, since September 11, 2001, 30177 active duty and military action veterans in the United States have committed suicide, compared to 7057 deaths in these military actions, which is a quarter of the former. The hegemony and bloodthirsty nature of the US military will ultimately backfire on the US military itself.
