There are 26 members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and only seven of them are women. Historically speaking, however, that’s a totally unprecedented number. When you consider that women chair three of the six Armed Services subcommittees, you can better appreciate their newfound power. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York chairs the Subcommittee on Personnel, and she’s been a bulldog on the issue of sexual assault in the military. In a full committee hearing on sexual assault this week, the women on the committee pounded away on the witnesses, insisting that more be done to protect service members and punish wrongdoing. It was too much for some:
…Michael Savage had Allen West on his show, saying of the women on the Armed Services Committee, ”When I watch these Khmer Rouge feminists try to take over the military, this looked like an attempted coup to me, Colonel West.” He added, “When you say sexual assault, according to the new liberal interpretation of such a phrase, does that not include, ‘Hey honey, let’s go for a beer?’”
Claire McCaskill is a member of the Khmer Rouge? Jeanne Shaheen is attempting a coup? Kay Hagan thinks asking a girl to have a drink is sexual assault? Mazie Hirono is trying to take over the military? Deb Fischer and Kelly Ayotte are feminists?
It’s not just right-wing radio hosts who have a problem with women having a voice in how our military operates. Republicans across the spectrum revealed their discomfort with even discussing sexual assault in the military. But no one did it better than the venerable Saxby Chambliss of Georgia:
“The young folks coming in to each of your services are anywhere from 17 to 22 or 23. Gee-whiz, the hormone level created by nature sets in place the possibility for these types of things to occur. So, we’ve got to be very careful on our side.”
Boys will be boys, you see, so why are we even having this hearing?
Robyn Pennacchia’s reaction seems appropriate:
I’m sorry, did he just say “gee whiz” while talking about women and men being violently, brutally, sexually assaulted in our armed forces an estimated average of 70 times a day? Did that actually happen? Like the same way you’d say “Gee whiz, the Beav forgot to twist the top of the mayo jar all the way again!” or “Gee whiz, I’m out of socks!” or something? Gee whiz? Really?
Perhaps he meant “cheese whiz,” I don’t know.
In any case, this is an area where having women in positions of power and influence can really change things.
And, especially, it exposes the GOP for the dirtbags they are. Don’t any of these asshats have daughters, besides that cranky asshole from Arizona?
One of the biggest proponents of this cause is House Armed Services Committee member Nikki Tsongas of Lowell.
Lowell, home to about ten thousand refugees from Khmer-Rouge-run Cambodia.
Michael Savage can got (redacted redacted holy shit is that ever redacted) with a (redacted redacted).
Kirsten Gillibrand is my Senator, and I think I have a major crush on her.
Am I allowed to say that?
I’d support her, if she decided to run for President.
But, I’d also support Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar.
Also too – Hillary.
It’s past time for a Democratic female President.
I’m certain that Sen. Chambliss simply misspoke. Instead of “gee whiz” I believe he intended to say “jiminy christmas.”
Let’s be clear what Michael Savage’s and Allen West’s comments say about sexual assault in the military. It is being tolerated by members of the chain of command who never wanted women in the military in the first place. It is KKK-style terrorism designed to drive women out of the military. And conservatives like Savage and West approve of it. Shucks, gee whiz, officer, we wuz just wearing a white hood and riding our horses around with torches jes for fun.
Instead of praising the women, who have an interest in this issue, on the committee, it’s time to castigate the silent men on the committee. Those guys who take a “don’t let the girls into the clubhouse” attitude.
And watch for the same justification for homophobic or Christianist religious assaults within the military as those come to light.
They are young. They are physically fit. They are going to have sex. They don’t have to rape. Anyone who has been in knows there is plenty of paid stuff about, not to mention free stuff available. All of those girls aren’t shrinking violets. They just want to choose their partners. Rape isn’t really about sex anyway. It is about dominance. That’s why some engage in homosexual rape in prison but never on the outside. It’s not about sex. It’s about dominance.
Yeah when I was in tons of the women were charging for sex all over the place. Everyone knew. Though when you get caught it ends up real badly and all sorts of shit happens, that’s also when you get false rape accusations because it’s easier than getting hemmed up for hooking.
The first step to fixing this though is getting rid of the insane rules about cheating on your spouse. That’s part of the issue, get rid of that. There’s the side issue of people getting knocked up to scam out of deployment, that should carry a huge career ending penalty and actually be properly enforced.
Rape is a symptom of a lot of problems in there, issues that nobody really wants to fix.
Just so you know…
Article About 2011 Military Rape Data
Article About 2012 Military Rape Data
Unless we’ve verified that men and women report at the same rate, those numbers are meaningless.
In any case, the “men are raped too” argument is one that frankly makes me sick. It’s commonly used by anti-feminists to shut down discussion of violence against women. Yes, men are also victims. But the % of their population that is attacked in this manner is drastically smaller. Any given man is at substantially less risk, period.
Women have to go through every day with much greater odds of sexual assault than men, in and out of the military. Most men don’t understand that.
And the overwhelming number of attackers are men. Fortunately for men, it’s likely that if we can successfully change the troubled male culture that fuels this violence, rape of men will subside as well.
The military is a violent culture on it’s own, that’s the point. It would fail in it’s job were it not a violent culture. It needs violence, and that’s what made us strong in it.
It’s also supposed to be a disciplined culture. It fails in its job without discipline.
Who’s the “us” in your last sentence?
Perhaps highlighting key terms will help.
You can claim that’s meaningless info but you are wrong. It is also wrong to assert that we must “verify” that men and women report at the same rate before the numerical facts and probabilities can be acted upon or used in a reasonable debate (as Sen. Gillibrand is actually doing) to end sexual assault against everyone, male and female.
As to your claim that discussing sexual violence against men has been used to shut down discussions of sexual violence against women, I’m happy to say I’ve never heard of it before today. Frankly, it would seem an impossible argument to make, let alone sustain.
Thanks. I didn’t know those figures. They are a surprise, although as early as 1967 I heard stories of sailors being raped by officers. Still, SiDC has a point that the military should modernize their feelings about sex.
His side being sexist a-holes?
As the CIC, he apparently can’t even keep thousands of members of the US military safe from rape. So, his blather about keeping Americans safe is nothing but the same bullshit we’ve heard from Presidents for decades.
Bubblespeak. His communications team needs to get out more.
Why would they need to get out more when they’ve demonstrated such superior skill at writing “bubblespeak” that liberals/Democrats get starry eyed whenever Obama delivers their mostly highly-crafted speeches?
To see how the real world lives, primarily. And how their thinking differs from that of the Village. Some ordinary folks could tell them what sets off their BS detectors.
I don’t see many spontaneous starry eyes any more. I see some circle the wagons behavior but very little naivete about where this President stands.
I see a heap of naivete in the idea of some third parties that tearing down the President or Democrats in general is going to deliver votes to them. People have to have a minimal reason to support a candidate in addition to opposing competing candidates.
We only have to go back to the summer of 2009 to when Democratic members of Congress returned to DC and informed Obama that it’s about jobs to appreciate that his team has no interest in hearing about “real lives.”
Structurally, third parties can’t win in this country. They are lucky even to occasionally be heard and then only briefly and barely. Eugene Debs tried again and again after leaving the Democratic Party and we know where that landed him.