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stevenleser

(32,886 posts)
3. I think it is a military wide issue for a number of reasons. There is definitely an issue at
Thu Nov 15, 2012, 02:13 PM
Nov 2012

Lackland AFB. But as this link shows: http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/14/health/military-sexual-assaults-personality-disorder/index.html there are big problems across the board.

I think there are a number of problems that contribute to this.

1. The military segregates itself somewhat from the civilian community. There is a separate culture in the military and in each of the branches from the civilian community.

2. That separate culture tends to be further to the conservative right than the civilian community. The kinds of things the women in the link related as to what was said to them after their assaults, you hear those things on the farthest right message forums. The right wingers who enlist or commission tend to reinforce each others viewpoints on things and make each other even more extreme. That includes attitudes towards women, minorities and the LGBT community. Obviously that is not the case everywhere, many places have no issues with women or any diversity group. But you see how this happens in certain places. The average ideological bent in the military is not far from what it is at Free Republic. The Air Force and Navy actually tend to be the more progressive services. The Army and Marine Corps tend to be the furthest right wing, to the point that they found neo-nazi paraphernalia and kkk in various marine and army baracks and an active KKK group at one marine base http://www.salon.com/2009/06/15/neo_nazis_army/ .

3. Military training environments where trainees/recruits are subject to emotional hazing have a lot of good people in command and in their NCO cadres, but they also tend to attract those people who want to emotionally haze people, i.e. for lack of a better term, people with some sadistic tendencies. But I want to stress, most of the drill/training instructors are really good people. In the Lackland situation, there are 500+ drill/training instructors and less than 20 or so were under investigation.

More soon...

On edit: Fulldisclosure - I am former USAF enlisted and yes, went through Basic Training at Lackland AFB

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k and r--cannot say what I think right now niyad Nov 2012 #1
The Air Force is the worst of the different Services for some reason obamanut2012 Nov 2012 #2
I think it is a military wide issue for a number of reasons. There is definitely an issue at stevenleser Nov 2012 #3
there are the ongoing scandals at the AFA, as well. however, I know from experience that the navy niyad Nov 2012 #6
Link for the group in B-Game. Starry Messenger Nov 2012 #4
Terrific, thanks! obamanut2012 Nov 2012 #5
Sometimes when overseas we had to be in groups in order to go on liberty Kaleva Nov 2012 #7
Was it to protect yourselves from being raped by fellow service members obamanut2012 Nov 2012 #8
No but don't you think it wise to take precautionary measures? Kaleva Nov 2012 #9
A rape culture isn't stopped by putting the onus on the potential victims obamanut2012 Nov 2012 #10
A rape culture is stopped by years, maybe decades, of education and zero tolerence. Kaleva Nov 2012 #11
Correct, and the "buddy system" in the OP is 100% tolerance obamanut2012 Nov 2012 #14
How do you stop a rapist before he/she commits the act? Kaleva Nov 2012 #15
Give the higher ranking officer a buddy mythology Nov 2012 #18
The buddy system wasn't meant to protect service members from their own kind though, was it? Gormy Cuss Nov 2012 #12
Rapists should never be considered to be part of one's own kind. Kaleva Nov 2012 #13
See, it's that "lawful order" part that is awkward because it's blaming the trainees Gormy Cuss Nov 2012 #16
The rapist is still entirely responsible for his/her crime. Kaleva Nov 2012 #17
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