Fair or unfair ?

[ironglow]

  I readily admit that crimes happen within the military and perhaps being a veteran, I am acting defensively but I disagree with this MSNBC article, based upon it's own figures;
  http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/21/12304042-documentary-film-the-invisible-war-takes-on-military-sexual-assault-epidemic?lite
 
   I think it is just another case of unfairly sensationalizing some very sad but real events.  Of course, no decent person approves of any kind of assault or rape, but the numbers and situationas I see it, does not make an epidemic..  True, if you're the victim it is a catastrophy..but I think MSNBC is reaching for a story, to say the least.
  They say 3,192 such cases have been reported..which ranged from outright rape to unwanted touching.  Note; that is reported not, not necessarily proven.
  So I dug up latest figures I could find, from 2010.  The "documentary" didn't differentiate between regulars and reserve components, so I will include both..
 
     1,458,327  regulars
        857,261  reserve components
     _________
     2,315,588   total military
 
     Now, let's consider any city of 2.3 million people..can we expect as many as 3,192 cases of everything from rape to inappropriate touching ?  I think the civilian figures might be much higher among 2.3 million people.  Yes, some cases will go unreported, but this is also true in civilian circumstances.
    Now consider that the military is being used as a "social engineering" project, throwing together all types of people in very trying conditions.
  During my time with Uncle Sam the WACs were billeted seperately and in most jobs did not have 24 hour contact with the men.  They were also excluded from combat units and basic training was segregated, and a soldier had best not be caught 'hanging around' the WACs barracks.  By billeting the sexes together, I believe the "smart heads" in Washington are inviting a whole host of unnecessary problems.
   Now the administration has insisted that gays may operate openly..has that helped with raising the figures ?
 
  Again, nobody should condone rape ...or inappropriate touching but by comparing this with any city of 2.3 million.. I think MSNBC in this article is treating the military shabbily.  Perhaps that is their aim..
 

[ironglow]

  Come on vets..any thoughts ?

[magooch]

I'm not interested in anything that comes from MSNBC.

[bilmac]

MSNBC lies to further it's liberal agenda. Not hardly worth the trouble to analyse the ways they skew the statistics to get the results they want to prove.

[yellowtail3]

  Come on vets..any thoughts ?

Yeah, this vet has a thought on the subject: sexual polytics, which means there is a feminist in there somewhere, with a lawyer (or lawyerette) behind her. They're related to the divorce lawyer & 'domestic violence' industry scum.


That, enabled by some bad behavior by some of the troops... now being generalized into an epidemic.


That's be two cents, please...

[hardertr]

Here are this vet's thought:


I served as an Equal Opportunity/Sexual Harassment Advocate for my unit for almost 2 years.  Two things I encountered that REALLY pissed me off-
1) Some young women have discovered they are given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to a sexual assault charge.  I dealt with 2 cases where the female wanted nothing more than to be exempt from an upcoming deployment (some get pregnant, some use their children's welfare as an excuse, and some just claim to be crazy...and SOME claim to be assaulted so they can stay back for "counseling").  Granted, both cases were questionable, but "assault"/"rape" was not the official classification.  Never-the-less..... assault charges were filed, investigations did ensue, and both females got out of their deployment obligation.  Funny how they both seemed to be able to move on with their lives as soon as the rest of us were in the air on our way to the sandbox.
2) SOME young women realized anything THEY deem as sexual assault will likely get them an automatic 20% disability through the VA when they get out....if they keep their story straight.  It falls under the same label as PTSD...you know....like when you give your all in battle and can't quite shake those skeletons when you get back.  Pretty disgusting that sexual assault falls falls under the same category in most cases.


What most people who have never served don't realize is that the military lifestyle is an awful lot like college dorm life.  There is a LOT of drinking, and LOT of promiscuity, a LOT of poor judgement in the heat of the moment and a LOT of "soldiers" who really never should be called Soldiers.  Females are given the upper hand form the get go.  I'm not saying true assaults and rapes don't happen, just not as often as the story makes it out to occur.  My thought is that they base these numbers on CLAIMS rather than convictions.


Don't get me wrong in thinking I don't want women in the military.  Hell, my wife is finishing up her 18th year as we speak and has done an amazing job.  What I am saying is that we are getting a lot of very unstable and malicious young Soldiers in our ranks today. Some of this should be cleaned up again with our pending draw-down.  The worst thing that ever happened to the military was when they told us (leaders) it is next to impossible to kick unfit Soldiers out of our ranks.

[Empty Quiver]

As far as a representative sample, I'm not sure. Two things concern me.
 
One, I would like to think those in our military are a substantial margin better than average. Two, they are by and large, young, strong, full of hormones, and pretty much as cock sure as they can be trained to be.
 
In answer to your question, scenario one would tell me you are correct in assumeing MSNBC is full of bull excrement.
 
Scenario two would tell me it isn't really that representative of a sample after all, and MSNBC is just as full of bull excrement as in situation one.

[Brett]

Know what I tell my daughter when she protests "That's not fair!!!"?    I say: "You right, fair's where you ride the ferris wheel and eat cotton candy."   

[ironglow]

  Butit Ia always MSNBC which continnually parrots Obama,,and demands "fairness"..