Suicide and Sexual Abuse at a Navy Kennel

This is probably the most under reported military story of 2009. The investigation by Youth Radio International details the suicide of a female sailor assigned to a military working dog group with the United States Navy, Jennifer Valdivia. The piece details a sordid and complicated chain of events in which she was both the victim and perpetrator of abuse during her time in the military that ultimately led to her suicide. This story is made all the more disturbing given the role that dogs played in the Abu Gharib incident and it highlights the prevalence of hostility towards women in the military more generally.

U.N. Fails to Protect women in the Congo from rape

A new report is out from Human Rights Watch that details the deaths of more than 1,400 Congolese civilians at the hands of rebel and government forces during UN. backed operations in the eastern part of the country this year. Several thousand women were also raped by both sides as punishment for alleged collaboration with one side or the other. This is not the first time a U.N. Peace Keeping mission has failed to protect civilians.

- 1992 Militias are able to stay in control of the county of Somalia after U.N pull out.

- 1994 U.N. fails to allow its peacekeepers to intervene in Rwanda allowing for the deaths of over 800,000 Rwandans in 100 days.

- 1995 U.N. forces failed to protect the safe haven of Srebrenica, Bosnia allowing the deaths of 8,000 Bosnian men and boys.

A Peril in War Zones: Sexual Abuse by Fellow G.I.’s

This was the headline in a story that ran today in the New York Times regarding sexual misconduct and rape in the military. It is perennial problem that continues to be largely discounted by the U.S. military despite recent steps combat it. The article states according to the Pentagon that fewer than 10% of sexual assault incidents are reported. In 2005, Congresswoman Jane Harman, of the House Armed Services Committee received an unreleased Pentagon study detailing the extent of sexual misconduct in the reserve components of the U.S. Armed Forces. It revealed that 27 % of male soldiers experienced what the report termed "military sexual trauma" which includes verbal harassment as well as touching and other unwanted sexual behavior. The prevalence of women experiencing the same behavior is at 60%. 3% of males reported actually having been sexually assaulted (i.e. raped, sodomized, etc) and 23 % of women reported the same. The GAO recently released a report that the article links to which details the poor implemetation of the Petagon's anti-sexual violence measures. The report also states that services for men who have been raped are almost nonexistent. This conclusion is bolstered by a 2004 Boston Globe story "Sexual Assault in the Shadows" that details how the military has labeled the male victim of rape in the military as being homosexual in the past.