[Peace-discuss] letter to the editor

[msimon at uiuc.edu]

I've heard that the MicWord attachment didn't work for some.  Here is my letter again:


"On the request of James Mortland ("Letters," 9/10/03), the finding that 30% of servicewomen report being raped while in the military comes from a study funded by the Department of Army Medical Research of the U.S. Department of Defense.  Conducted by Anne Sadler, Ph.D., Brenda Booth, Ph.D., Brian Cook, D.O., and Bradley Doebbeling, M.D. of the Iowa City Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of Iowa, the report shows that of "556 [sampled] female veterans who served in the Vietnam, post-Vietnam and Persian Gulf War eras," 79% were sexually harassed and 30% raped.  

These violations are not just reminders of past military mentalities.  In a University of Iowa News Release (http://www.uiowa.edu/~ournews/2003/march/031103military-rape.html), Dr. Sadler notes, "'[The] rates of rape were consistent from all eras of military service among the women we interviewed, this issue remains an unresolved health concern.'"  

The full study can be found in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine 43,3 (Mar. 2003): 262-73.

The rate of extreme spousal abuse in the military is also significantly higher than in the civilian population.  In the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 67(2), 239-242, researchers R.E. Heyman and P. Neidig found that "severe aggression was significantly higher in the Army (2.5%) than in the civilian sample (0.7%)."  Let us also remember the killing of four Ft. Bragg military wives by their spouses in June-July 2002.  (http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/07/26/army.wives/index.html)

Violence towards women not only occurs frequently within the military, it has a long and terrible history as a strategy of war.  Dr. Shana Swill and Joan E. Giller of Physicians for Human Rights note, "As well as an attempt to dominate, humiliate, and control behavior, rape in war can also be intended to disable an enemy by destroying the bonds of family and society." (http://www.phrusa.org/research/health_effects/humrape.html)

Michael Simon
Undergraduate, LAS