Senators Push for Legislation to Help Curb Sexual Assaults in the Military
Thirty-three senators — including some high-profile Republicans — have now signed on to bipartisan legislation to create a separate military legal command to prosecute serious crimes.
GOP Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas and Charles Grassley of Iowa have joined Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Barbara Boxer of California in support for a measure that attempts to remove the military chain of command from decisions about prosecution and sentencing for crimes not directly related to military duties.
Sex crimes such as rape and sexual assault are the chief reasons the Military Justice Improvement Act was proposed, but it would apply to most offenses where a service member faced a year or longer in jail as the possible punishment, unless it involves military-specific offenses such as failure to obey an order or being absent without leave.
Gillibrand, chairwoman of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s personnel panel, said rape and sexual assault appear to be under-reported in the military because of fear of retaliation for coming forward and a belief that a command will not fully investigate.
Making decisions about the investigation, prosecution and punishment outside of the chain of command could lead more victims to come forward, she said.
At a Tuesday press conference to announce his support, Paul said he believes “victims of assault may be deterred if they have to report it to their boss.”
Cruz said the failure to report crimes makes them difficult to stop. “We can have no prosecution, no deterrence without reporting of crime,” he said.
Even though it pains me to have to agree with Cruz and Paul, I’ll agree with Cruz and Paul. Though I wonder if William Kristol had an opinion on this what would it be?
The Obama administration has worked diligently to shrink, underfund, and demoralize the military. Now, Politico reports, two Republican senators, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, are joining an effort led by New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand that goes beyond where even the Obama administration is willing to go in weakening the military.
Sens. Paul and Cruz are signing on to Sen. Gillibrand’s proposal to undermine the military’s chain of command on behalf of the pseudo-crisis of military sexual assault.
Maybe he missed the recent cases of Brig. Gen. Bryan Roberts and Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair. Because the problem in the military is just not in the ranks, it’s at the flag level too. For people like Kristol, I guess their military fetish let’s them turn a blind eye to all this.
Well since Kristol never served let’s hear from Pfc. Natasha Schuette, a Soldier and sexual assault victim.