Thursday, May 9, 2013

R.REICH, SEXUAL ASSAULTS AND NUCLEAR MISSILES

FROM READER SUPPORTED NEWS


Sexual Assaults and Nuclear Missiles

By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog
09 May 13

fter years of repeated reports of sexual assaults - and years of promises to prevent them, and then years of studies and commissions to find the best way of doing so - a Defense Department studyreleased Tuesday estimates that some 26,000 people in the military were sexually assaulted in the last fiscal year, up from about 19,000 the year before.
Moreover, it turns out the Air Force lieutenant colonel in charge of preventing sexual assault has been arrested for  … sexual assault. According to the police report, a drunken Lt. Col. Jeff Krusinski allegedly approached a woman in a parking lot in Arlington, Va. Sunday night, and grabbed her breasts and buttocks.
Why has it been so difficult for the Air Force or the Defense Department to remedy this problem?
Speaking of which, the Air Force has just removed from duty seventeen launch officers at the Minot nuclear missile base in North Dakota - one of three bases responsible for controlling, and, if necessary, launching, strategic nuclear missiles - for violating weapons safety rules. The base commander characterized their negligence as "rot."
One officer was found to have intentionally broken a safety rule that could have compromised the secret codes enabling missiles to be launched.
Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley points to the removal of the seventeen as evidence that the Air Force has strengthened its oversight of the nuclear force. And he explains that members of the launch crew are usually relatively junior officers with limited service experience.
Reassuring?
Further steps will be taken to prevent one of our missiles from accidentally causing a nuclear holocaust. But I hope the Air Force does a better job remedying this problem than it's done preventing sexual assaults.
Robert B. Reich, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock" and "The Work of Nations." His latest is an e-book, "Beyond Outrage." He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.
 

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+14# BuzzDavis 2013-05-09 09:12
Well put! And we are worried about Iran and N. Korea having nuclear weapons?
We should conduct an investigation of the security lapses at USA, Russian, French, Israeli and other nuclear weapons sites and command structures to see how many are run well and which are not.
And also compare the sexual assault levels in each military system.
In a 1990's study be DOD, the results proved that nearly 30% of the women were sexually assaulted (raped or had to fight off an attacker) during their time in the military.
These were military women from WWII through Vietnam service.
We need to start firing generals, demoting them to private and retiring them on a private's pension until the problem is rectified.
Member, Veterans for Peace
-5# edge 2013-05-09 10:49
Quoting BuzzDavis:

We need to start firing generals, demoting them to private and retiring them on a private's pension until the problem is rectified.


Would you say that the Commander in Chief is higher than a General?
Is it happening under HIS watch?
Why stop at General?
+12# ganymede 2013-05-09 09:21
There seems to be a connection between our bloated and poorly run military and the whole issue of sexual abuse both in the military and in society as a whole. Rightwing people obviously have much less respect for women than us wussy liberals judging by the small number of Republican women in Congress and the outrageous stuff pulled by the Akins and the anti-abortion and anti Planned Parenthood crowd. According to these people women must be kept in their place whether it's the home, taking less pay or having to be subservient to men's needs. These men are out of touch with realty and are definitely not 'gentlemen'. There's a lot of sexual repression in all this and sexual repression is part of the make-up of fascism. I'm hopeful that there's now worldwide awareness of sexual abuse and that some of these disturbed men in denial will get the message. The ones who don't will eventually die off as there's not much of a future for misogyny.
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