After reading Nancy Gibbs' essay "The War Within" in Time Magazine, I'm shocked that the United States military is taking so little action to protect their female soldiers. In this article, I read that most female soldiers have stopped drinking water after seven in the evening to avoid going out at night for fear of being assaulted in some way. The sense of betrayal runs deep in victims who joined the military to be part of a team pursuing a larger cause; experts compare the trauma to incest and the particular damage done when when assault is inflicted by a member of the military "family". Most victims choose not to report their assaults because they fear that they will be made fun of, demoted, or even discharged. Filing an assault charge can be a career killer. Not for the assailant but for the victim. Also, a civilian who knows her assailant has a much better chance of avoiding him than does a soldier at a remote base. The civilian has the opportunity to live somewhere else while the soldier is stuck in that same place. Only 8% of cases ends in prosecution.
