Two-Front Attacks

The most encouraging sign from a Senate Armed Services hearing Wednesday on reports that dozens of servicewomen in the Persian Gulf area and elsewhere were sexually assaulted or raped by fellow troops was the expression of outrage by the senators themselves. Committee members should follow up their displeasure with the way the military has handled this unacceptable behavior with a swift, thorough review of the officers alleged to have allowed it to happen and to prosecute the troops directly responsible.

Some female troops at the front of the fighting have found themselves in two battles – against enemy soldiers and against supposed comrades. No soldier can fight effectively if she can’t tell friend from foe, if she can’t trust the fellow next to her. The committee heard of 112 reports of sexual misconduct in an area of operations that includes Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. And it heard of two dozen more reports of sexual abuse dating to 2002 and filed at a local rape-crisis center near Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas.

Military officials testifying before the committee said they had investigated some of the charges and were investigating others, and the Pentagon reportedly moved up the release of a congressionally mandated survey from two years ago that concluded the number of military women who said they had been sexually assaulted had declined since 1995.

The only response needed to this was the one provided Republican Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia: “Why in the world did it take two years to take a survey?”

It is an appropriate question, and other senators expressed similar doubts about the Pentagon’s commitment to investigating these assaults. Sen. Susan Collins, also on the committee, said, “Women have served honorably in the U.S. military longer than we have had the right to vote. … It is a serious concern that sexual assault victims in the military often have a difficult time accessing the medical treatment and counseling services they need, particularly when they are serving in a war zone.”

And Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska: “I don’t get a sense of outrage by military leadership.”

The committee should supply the outrage. It should push the Pentagon beyond its investigations and the beginning steps it has taken to make reporting these crimes easier. It should determine whether these assaults are as underreported as some have said and ensure that appropriate medical care is available to those who have been assaulted.

Most important, as Sen. Collins noted, it should ensure the Pentagon vigorously expands its efforts to prevent these assaults from happening.