Political Controversy: American Military Sexual Assault,
published on Friday 18 October 2013
Background:
Wilkerson, is 44 and described as an "air force superstar" by
officials. Wilkerson was based at the Aviano air force base in Italy, where
he was serving as inspector general for the 31st Fighter Wing, when he was
accused by a 49-year old physician's assistant of assaulting her as she slept
in a guest bedroom at his home after a party. In November 2012, he was convicted of aggravated sexual assault
and sentenced to a year in jail.
Angle1:
Officials claimed that sex assault
cases are banned by government; once government finds sex assaults, the
offender will be punished severely.
Source
from:
‘In November 2012, he was convicted of
aggravated sexual assault and sentenced to a year in jail, dismissal and pay
forfeiture.’
"I have spent the last six
months quietly trying to live my life in peace and rebuild my career after
serving time in confinement for a crime I did not commit," Wilkerson said.
"All the while, I have watched as my name, and those of my family, have been dragged through the mud to satisfy
political agenda without
concern as to accuracy or fairness."
Basically, this news from The Guardian,
reports the miscarriage of Wilkerson’s sexual assault case. Because the
language expression of this article, it seems that it did not choose the neutral
angle to report this news. Instead, the report attempted to show sympathy for
Wilkerson’s issue and trended to indicate that the former reported US military
sexual assault news maybe not the truth. To analyze the words and phrases used
in this coverage, the
report or quotations in the report didn’t explain why the evidence to prosecute
Wilkerson was insufficient. Instead, it just emphasized how miserable life
Wilkerson led under this ‘miscarriage’, which intended to draw the sympathy
from public.
Source from：
Obama, traveling to Texas on Thursday, has not spoken much on the issue, but gave a brusque
response earlier in the week to reporters asking about the grim statistics. “The bottom line is, I have no tolerance for this,” he said. “If we find out somebody’s engaging in this stuff,
they’ve got to be held accountable, prosecuted, stripped of their positions,
court-martialed, fired, dishonorably discharged -- period.”
From the quotation of Obama, it is not to find that
the official angle of this issue is ‘no tolerance’. It indicates the protection
of victims and the determination of regulating soldiers’ behaviour.
Angle2:
In fact, measures taken
by government are not effective. Moreover, government also attempted to conceal
part of the data, even evidence.
Cases about sex assault
haven’t been treated justly and the right of victims haven’t be protected and
guaranteed.
Source from:
“Instead, the bill approved by the
committee last week would require review of prosecution decisions by more
senior leaders and would make it a crime to retaliate
against those who report an
assault.”
"Until you have the prosecutions
and people going to trial and have the transparency and accountability, you're
never going to change this culture within the military," she said.
These
quotations are from a blog of CNN’s journalist. Instead of talking about the
bright future of decreasing the high sexual assault, he focused on the dangerous situation of victims who
reported the assault. These victims were face to revenge from military, both
threaten mentally and for these victims future career. As indication from
former scholars, CNN has close cooperation with American government, and sometimes,
its news was provided by the American government. Thus, it is worth to be skeptical
about whether this news was deliberately released by the American government to
maintain the public debate into a proper degree.
Source from:
A new report shows up to 26,000
military members were sexually assaulted last year. Obama has said he has no
tolerance for the problem and the Pentagon must address it.
The officials weren't authorized to
speak on the record and thus requested anonymity.
Though Obama’s opinion is apparent and determined
for no tolerance on sexual assault issue, the official action is worth to be
doubt. Officials are reluctant to authorize the specific number of sexually
assaulted victims.
Source from: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/military/news/2013/06/06/65602/5-myths-about-military-sexual-assault/
Testimony was offered in the wake of the release of the Defense Department’s annual report showing that despite the military’s efforts to ramp up sexual assault prevention programs in recent years, rates of sexual assault in the military climbed by 34 percent between 2010 and 2012. A total of 26,000 service members are estimated to have experienced unwanted sexual contact in 2012 compared to 19,300 in 2010. Moreover, less than 3 out of every 100 estimated sexual assaults in the military in 2012 were ever prosecuted—a shockingly low percentage that has shown no sign of improvement.
Another reason why allowing women into combat positions is an insufficient explanation of rising rates of sexual assault is because it ignores the fact that more than half—53 percent—of victims of sexual assault in the military are men. In 2012 of the 26,000 military personnel estimated to have experienced sexual assault, 14,000 were men and 12,000 were women.
It is similarly incorrect to believe that the
higher number of male victims of sexual assault is a result of the repeal
of “Don’t Ask, Don’t
Tell,” the law that prohibited gay and lesbian military members from serving
openly. The data show that
repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” has not contributed to an increase of sexual
assaults committed against men.
For this America progress organization’s
report, it uses a set of data to question the effectiveness of American
government’s action on preventing sexual assault issue. It states that the data
comes from the annual report of American Defense Department, and makes the
comparison of different data. That aims to high light several arguments. First,
it indicates that public
ignore that more than half (53 percent) of victims are males. Second, the government demonstrates
that the repeal of “Don’t ask, Don’t Tell’’ (public and allow homosexual issue)
did not contribute to the increase of male sexual assaults crime. By contrast,
the number of victims is continuously increasing.
Ellen WANG
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