Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
A record number of women on the Senate Armed Services Committee means some
questions are being asked that haven't gotten much serious attention from the boys' clubs of the past, the
New York Times' Jennifer Steinhauer reports:
“When I raised the issue of rape in the military seven years ago, there was dead silence,” said Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat and member of the committee. “Clearly they are changing things around here.”
At a widely watched committee hearing last month, Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, narrowed her eyes with disdain as Michael B. Donley, the secretary of the Air Force, expressed regret about recent assault cases. She then excoriated him and Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, the chief of staff of the Air Force, when they suggested that they were making progress on the problem.
“I do not think you should pat yourself on the back,” Ms. Gillibrand admonished them. Sexual assault, she said, is “undermining the credibility of the greatest military force in the world.” She has since introduced legislation that would give military prosecutors rather than commanders the power to decide which sexual assault cases to try. Her goal is to increase the number of people who report sex crimes without fear of retaliation.
According to Steinhauer, past efforts by Maine Republican Susan Collins to push the military to get serious about sexual assault prevention and response left her "largely dismissed at the time by military brass."
It's not that sexual assault is the only area of competency held by the new cadre of women on the committee—it's that it's a massively important area, a huge problem for the military that has not been taken seriously enough. It's past time for the military to get tough on this particular crime, and if women on the Senate Armed Services Committee are the only way to make that happen ... well, it's pitiful, but it's also time.