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February 23, 2012

The Invisible War

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Amy Goodman
Democracy Now!
January 30, 2012

On the heels of a new military survey that the number of reported violent sex crimes jumped 30 percent in 2011, with active-duty female soldiers ages 18 to 21 accounting for more than half of the of the victims, we speak with Trina McDonald and Kori Cioca, two subjects of “The Invisible War,” a new documentary that examines the epidemic of rape of soldiers within the U.S. military, which won the Audience Award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

“Not only was I astounded by the numbers, but when I started talking to the women and men who had experienced this, I was just so devastated by their stories,” says the film’s Academy Award-nominated director, Kirby Dick. “These are women and men who are very idealistic. They joined the military because they wanted to serve their country. They were incredible soldiers. And then, when they were assaulted, they had the courage to come forward, even though many people advised them not to,” Dick says.

For the full interview with Amy Goodman, visit the Democracy Now! web site, here.

To visit the site for the movie,  The Invisible War, click here.

 

 

February 21, 2012

Liz Trotta Doesn’t Back Down From Statements

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Fox News’ Liz Trotta Doubles Down On Statements About Rape In The Military

 

Rebecca Shapiro
The Huffington Post
February 21, 2012

Fox News pundit Liz Trotta responded to the barrage of criticism that was unleashed after she made a series incendiary statements regarding rape in the military.

Trotta appeared on Fox News on Sunday. Fox News host Eric Shawn said Trotta “indicated that women who put their lives on the line for their country in close proximity to men are courting sexual assault. Some people understood [Trotta] to be saying that because of this, they are less deserving of protection from violent crime from their male counterparts, particularly because [she] criticize[s] the Pentagon’s sex abuse programs that are put in place to protect them.”

 

To read the full post at The Huffington Post, click here.

To view the Protect Our Defenders petition asking Fox News to fire Liz Trotta, click here.

 

February 13, 2012

‘What Did They Expect? These People Are In Close Contact’

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Fox News’ Liz Trotta On Women Raped In Military:

 

‘What Did They Expect? These People Are In Close Contact’

 

Huffington Post
February 13, 2012

Fox News pundit Liz Trotta made a series of incendiary statements about rape in the military during a Sunday appearance on the network.

Trotta was reacting to news that the military will allow women to work closer to the front lines. Speaking to Fox News host Eric Shawn, she alleged that feminists wanted “to be warriors and victims at the same time.”

To watch and read the full story at the Huffington Post, click here.

 

Additional Reporting on Women Serving Closer to the Front Lines:

Military Women To Serve Closer To Front Lines, According To Pentagon Report

‘Men get emotional seeing women in harm’s way’: Santorum claims more female soldiers on front-line could compromise missions

Foreign Policy: Women On The Front Lines

Women In Combat: Inevitable?

 

February 12, 2012

A More Peaceful World if Women Were in Charge?

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A More Peaceful World if Women Were in Charge?

Joseph Nye
CNN Global Public Square
February 8, 2012

Would the world be more peaceful if women were in charge? A challenging new book by the Harvard University psychologist Steven Pinker says that the answer is “yes.”

In The Better Angels of Our Nature, Pinker presents data showing that human violence, while still very much with us today, has been gradually declining. Moreover, he says, “over the long sweep of history, women have been and will be a pacifying force. Traditional war is a man’s game: tribal women never band together to raid neighboring villages.” As mothers, women have evolutionary incentives to maintain peaceful conditions in which to nurture their offspring and ensure that their genes survive into the next generation.

Skeptics immediately reply that women have not made war simply because they have rarely been in power. If they were empowered as leaders, the conditions of an anarchic world would force them to make the same bellicose decisions that men do. Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir, and Indira Gandhi were powerful women; all of them led their countries to war.

But it is also true that these women rose to leadership by playing according to the political rules of “a man’s world.” It was their success in conforming to male values that enabled their rise to leadership in the first place. In a world in which women held a proportionate share (one-half) of leadership positions, they might behave differently in power.

To read the full article at CNN.com, click here.

 

February 7, 2012

Rep. Jackie Speier: Victims of Military Rape Deserve Justice

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Victims of Military Rape Deserve Justice

 

Rep. Jackie Speier
Special to CNN.com
February 7, 2012

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has announced new initiatives to curtail what he calls “the epidemic” of rape and sexual assaults in our armed forces. In 2010, an estimated 19,000 service members were raped or sexually assaulted by other service members. Clearly, more resources devoted to counseling for victims and training for prosecutors and judges will help.

But the incidence of unpunished rapes will continue and so will the damaging effects these illegal acts have on troop morale and preparedness. This epidemic requires an overhaul of the military justice system.

To read Rep. Speier’s  opinion piece at CNN.com, click here.

 

January 31, 2012

Women in the Battlefield and the Barracks

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Women in the Battlefield
and the Barracks:
A Five-Part Series on
Two War Fronts for Women Soldiers

 

H. Patricia Hynes
Truthout
January 10, 2012

(Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)

The first decade of the 21st century was a record one for women serving in the US military: Women constituted 14 percent of all active duty military (over 200,000), with one in ten serving in the Middle East and 17 percent in the National Guard. Women soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, though barred from ground combat, have worked in as dangerous situations as men. These same women have found themselves, concurrently, the target of sexual assault by “brothers in arms” at nearly twice the rate of US society. Military sexual trauma is so severe that it is more likely to cause post-traumatic stress disorder in women than combat trauma and civilian sexual trauma – because of military culture.

In this series, “The Battlefield and the Barracks: Two War Fronts for Women Soldiers,” we will probe the magnitude of sexual assault and harassment of women in the military. What is it about military culture that results in such extreme sexual crime? Why is sexual assault so traumatizing for women soldiers? What are the responses of the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration to the epidemic of sexual crime in their midst, with its multiple health consequences? And what are the radical changes necessary to reform a recalcitrant military?

To read the full article at Truthout, click here.

 

December 13, 2011

It Only Takes a Girl

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It Only Takes a Girl

 

November 18, 2011

The Sexual Assault Training Oversight and Prevention Act—the STOP Act

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The Sexual Assault Training Oversight and Prevention Act
The STOP Act

 

Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-San Francisco, San Mateo) introduced legislation on November 16, 2011 to dramatically reform how sexual assaults and rape in the military are treated (download bill summary.) Speier stated, “For too long the military’s response to rape victims has been: ‘take an aspirin and go to bed.’ We owe our brave women and men in the military a justice system that protects them, not punishes them when they become victims of sexual assaults and rape committed by other service members.”

“To end this needless injustice, I am proposing a legislative remedy and fully endorsing the website, Protect Our Defenders, which will provide the grass roots mechanics required to make our military leaders and Congress understand that what has been going on before their very eyes for decades is unconscionable and must be stopped. We owe our brave women and men in the military a justice process that protects them, not punishes them when they become victims of sexual assaults and rape.”

 

 

 

To visit the web site of Protect Our Defenders, click here.

And consider signing their petition demanding that Congress create a NEW method for reporting sexual assault in the military.

 

Congresswoman Speier has made over a dozen speeches to Congress on the topic of rape and sexual assault in the military, to view them on her web site, click here. Or view the videos on usmvaw.com, here.

Helen Benedict has written a piece on the STOP Act and why it matters at the Ms. Blog. To read it, click here.

 

For a look at the media reports on The Sexual Assault Training Oversight and Prevention Act — the  STOP Act, click the links below:

Sexual Assault in the Military: New Legislation Seeks to Alter Reporting Process,  ABC News,  November 17, 2011

Lawmaker Wants Military Rape Cases Shifted to New Office, Miami Herald, November 18, 2011

A Crisis in Our Military, Rep. Jackie Speier, Huffington Post,  November 17. 2011

Legislation Aims to Remove Rape Accusations from Military ‘Chain of Command,’   The Daily Caller,   November 18, 2011

Rep. Speier Wants New Office to Investigate Military Sexual Assaults, The Hill, November 17, 2011

Democrat Jackie Speier Introduces Military Rape Bill,  89.3 KPPC,   November 17, 2011

 

November 1, 2011

Helen Benedict on the Private Wars of Military Women

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Helen Benedict on the Private Wars of Military Women

 

“Award winning author and journalist, Helen Benedict, who testified twice before Congress regarding the issues of women in the military, is interviewed by Cindy Piester of Pulse TV and Maverick Media. Topics include, The Lonely Soldier, military sexual trauma, rape, and the new class action law suit against the Pentagon, Donald Rumsfeld, and Robert Gates.”

 

 

Learn more about Maverick Media at the links below:

Maverick Media on Vimeo           Maverick Media Blog

 

October 30, 2011

Rep. Jackie Speier Delivers Tenth Speech on Rape and Sexual Assault in the Military

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Send Representative Speier
your personal story at

StopMilitaryRape@Mail.House.Gov

 

If you choose to share your experience with the Congresswoman,
please indicate whether or not you are willing to give her your permission to share it on the House floor.

 

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