Ignoring Military Sexual Assault Is a Matter of Life and Death

While I like to believe that I am not alone in the thought that war is not an ideal situation, I am not so naïve as to believe that we live yet in a world where it can be avoided. As long as we have wars, we will need military forces. So long as we will need military forces, anyone willing and capable of serving should be permitted to do so freely without fear of harm, prejudice, or anything else that will hamper them from performing the job that they step to the line to do every day. That is part of what I advocate for: a military that throws wide its hatches for everyone irrespective of what is under their uniform and regardless of their orientation, and pushes to ensure we send those troops to fight fair wars.

But the way that we insist on segregating and tucking our women in uniform away, as if they are second rate military tools to be called upon at will, puts them at risk and subverts that ideal.

Despite what our laws may say officially, we can not deny that women are already kicking ass by doing jobs that must be done, in and out of combat zones. I find it incredibly shady, to put it lightly, that we will write laws with one hand that say they can not be in combat, yet put them there nearly every day, sometimes without proper training because of the laws we write.

It makes it more difficult for them to speak out when violent things happen to them, often at the hands of their own peers.

While mulling over statistics handed down from Stars and Stripes last year, I noticed that they glossed over the fact that 15% of women are evacuated for "genitourinary disorders" (can't pee because their lady bits were all messed up), because women will stop drinking water in "certain situations," but not intimating what those certain situations might be. I found them in a quick search. Turns out, lady soldiers don't like to be raped, and all that heat mucks up your parts pretty good if you don't hydrate. Since Blog Action Day 2010 is about water, it's important to note in how many ways it is so vital to women.

In 2006, senior ranking officials at Camp Victory were instructed not to report that it was women, specifically, who were dying of dehydration, because "[they] asked to be here, so now let them take what comes with the territory." Women were afraid of using latrines after dark or being the only female soldier in a convoy and having to pull over and "drop trow," and were dying of dehydration in their sleep due to temperatures of 120 or more. Death or rape. Great options.

We are not doing enough to take military sexual assault seriously. It is a matter of life and death. Many women are risking their lives, not only to defend our freedoms, but to also take extreme measures to protect their own from people who should be their allies.

That shouldn't be.

Photo Credit: isafmedia