Elaine Donnelly Blames Abu Ghraib on Women in Uniform

My BFF Elaine Donnelly is at it again. Every time a policy change that pushes equality in the ranks comes forward, she has to offer her views on how they are doing it wrong and why. This might not be such a problem if Donnelly had an iota of understanding on how the military worked from the inside. And while she claims to be working for a better life for women in uniform, the conservative morality-driven policies that she attempts to force on the Department of Defense lead me to believe otherwise.

Her misunderstanding doesn't end with women in the military, as is evident when she gave an interview on the DoD reviewing the DADT policy that forces homosexual servicemembers to hide and lie in order to serve their country. In that interview, Donnelly also revealed zero knowledge of military history when she stated that the cause of the horrendous crimes of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal was the result of men and women serving side by side, which she claims causes the break down of discipline. I guess vaginas are the reason that torture is considered A-OK in military prisons. Who knew?

As Think Progress notes, a bi-partisan report released by the Senate Armed Forces Committee showed that, while two of the assailants involved in the crimes had at one time been involved in a relationship, the incident was far more complex than just a few soldiers acting on their own.

Even the Courts today can not answer fully what caused the crimes of Abu Ghraib. The truth is that the implied approval of torture in military prisons from upper echelons of authority, racism directed towards prisoners, and combat related stress are all contributing factors, and none seems to play a bigger role than another. Donnelly, however, seems able to sum it up succinctly. It's all that sexual tension.

It troubles me that Donnelly and her Center for Military Readiness are given so much attention in military matters, given that Donnelly herself is frequently mistaken on so many issues about which she claims to be an expert. We too often allow people with no military experience or willingness to understand the military to have clout when it comes to forming (or in this case repealing) policy. (Kind of like how we allow men to have so much pull in making laws regarding reproductive health for women.) But no true military expert would blame the abuse of prisoners on women and men serving side by side, when that behavior was authorized by the culture of masculinity found in the chain of command above.

Photo credit: Mary Barry