Sexual Assaults and Nuclear Missiles: What's the Matter With the Military?

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Sexual-Assaults-and-Nuclea-by-Robert-Reich-130509-348.html



Sexual Assaults and Nuclear Missiles: What's the Matter With the Military?
By Robert Reich
OpEdNews Op Eds 5/9/2013 at 10:33:18

After 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 study released 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 17 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."