Near 14,000 Men Have Been Sexually Assaulted In the Military

 

 

NBC News is reporting on a little covered story and that is the long time epidemic of sexual assaults on men. Estimates are that near 14,000 men have been sexually assaulted which comes to 38 men per day. However, because of the stigma, humiliation and disbelief by superiors, very few of them are reported by the victims.

There is still the belief by many that men can't be sexually assaulted or victims of domestic violence. It is a huge myth. Often gay soldiers are the victims of sexual assault by straights looking for a quick 'outlet'.  The same horrendous excuses directed to females victims are also applied to male victims.  Such as, 'he really wanted it'.  

Journalist Bill Briggs reports:

“As a culture, we’ve somewhat moved past the idea that a female wanted this trauma to occur, but we haven’t moved past that for male survivors,” said Brian Lewis, a rape survivor who served in the Navy. “In a lot of areas of the military, men are still viewed as having wanted it or of being homosexual. That’s not correct at all. It’s a crime of power and control.

“But also, you’re instantly viewed as a liar and a troublemaker (when a man reports a sex crime), and there’s the notion that you have abandoned your shipmates, that you took a crap all over your shipmates, that you misconstrued their horseplay,” he added.

Lewis, who was raped by a male superior officer aboard a Navy ship in 2000, spoke Thursday at a press conference introducing a bill that seeks to strip serious sex assaults from the military’s chain of command. At that event, he said: “Too often male survivors are ignored and marginalized.”

“The biggest reasons men don’t come forward (with sex assault reports) are the fear of retaliation (from fellow troops), the fear of being viewed in a weaker light, and the fact there are very few, if any, services for male survivors,” Lewis told NBC News.

All sexual assault response coordinators within the military are instructed to provide “gender-responsive, culturally competent and recovery-oriented” resources, said Cynthia O. Smith, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

“Based on that guidance, each of the services customizes its training and implementation specific to their service,” Smith said. DOD offers a 24/7 “safe helpline” providing anonymous victim support, and its staffers “have been trained to assist male victims.”

Still, the Defense Department acknowledges it must do more to help male victims.

“A focus of our prevention efforts over the next several months is specifically geared towards male survivors and will include (learning) why male survivors report at much lower rates than female survivors, and determining the unique support and assistance male survivors need,” Smith said.

The Pentagon “has reached out to organizations supporting male survivors for assistance and information to help inform our way ahead,” she added.

“I applaud that stand on behalf of male survivors,” Lewis said. “However, I would be interested in hearing what organizations they are partnering with considering there are none especially geared for male survivors of military sexual trauma.”

VIDEO: Major Shannon McLaughlin, Her Wife Casey and The Impact of DOMA!

 

 

Freedom to Marry and Out-Serve-SLDN has been releasing powerful and informative video's of the impact of DOMA on individual lives around the country. This video is about Major Shannon McLaughlin, her wife Casey and their twins. The impact of DOMA is real and painful for them.

Take a minute to honor them by watching this video.

Do Americans Want To Intervene In North Korea Crisis?

 

 

 

Korean War by David Douglas Duncan

With everyone in the world wondering what in the hell the North Korean leader is thinking, what are Americans thoughts on the crisis? Gallup Polling asked that question and here are the results:

-If North Korea attacks South Korea, 55% of American believe that United States military forces should be used to protect the southern nation. Only 34% are opposed to U.S. military action.

-Americans are evenly split if such military action in Korea will be necessary in the next six months - 43% says it will be needed and 44% says it won't be needed.

-An amazing 28% believe North Korea could some how attack the United States in the next six months.

-About a third of Americans are following the crisis very closely and over another third are following it closely.

-If you just take those that are following the crisis closely, a whopping 66% believe we should intervene with troops if North Korea invades South Korea.

The Korean Crisis Is An Extremely Dangerous One

 

 

At first, there was the temptation to make jokes about North Korea's bellicose challenges to its neighbors and against the United States. After all, they really couldn't be serious about starting a full fledge war on the Korean Peninsula. The entire North Korean leadership has a 'Dr. Strangelove' feel to them. The entire situation solicits humor and dismissal.

However, the Korean Crisis could lead us to the most serious confrontation since the Cuban Missile Crisis. The United States must start preparing for any eventuality.

To fully understand our current situation, just imagine a 29 year old young man addicted to war video games. He sits all day playing fake war and seeing if he can run up a huge score and become a winner. The person is clearly addicted, delusional and not really operating in the real world of politics. You have just read a description of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Kim Jong-un has no grasp on reality. He process nuclear weapons. At the worse, he can maybe reach remote Alaska with some of them. Most of the near East is in range of his warheads. Certainly he is also capable of smuggling in nuclear devices into the United States. He is a very dangerous man.

Our great hope is that through diplomatic channels that a consensus will be reached with China about North Korea and they will step to the plate to bring him to his senses. If that is not possible, we can only hope that China will be appalled at having someone so unstable at their doorstep that they will intercede and bring stability back to their sphere of influence.

If he suddenly uses nuclear weapons and invades South Korea, remember there are at least 30,000 to 50,000 Americans in South Korea. 

What is clear is that the world can't expect a twenty-nine year old delusional leader who has lived in total isolation all his life and is a self-proclaimed deity to make sane and rational decisions. This is a very serious situation.

PHOTOJOURNALISM: Ten Years Since Iraq War Began; 58% Of Americans Say It Was A Waste!

 

 

 

On March 19, 2003 the American government led us into a horrible prolonged war with Iraq based on total lies, misinformation and hysteria. This week marks the 10th anniversary since the beginning of that war and the toll is bloody and horrible.

Civilian Deaths: 130,000 plus

American Dead: 4,422

Allied Dead: 318

Combat Veterans: 2.5 million

Percentage Treated For Post Traumatic Stress: 30%

Deployed More Than Once: 1 million soldiers.

Americans Wounded:  Over 30,000

Now 58% of the American people feel the War was not worth fighting according to the latest ABC/Washington Post Poll. An amazing 43% feel strongly that it wasn't worth fighting.

56% of the Iraq people now say it was wrong for the United States to invade it and they are worse off.

When Americans were asked if the War contributed to long term security an astounding 83% said NO.

How do you explain to those who lost loved ones that their loss was in vain and caused by their government leading us into an unnecessary war based on untruths?

Photographs from.....

VIDEO: Waltzing Matilda! Out Aussie Military Marches In Sydney Mardi Gras!

 

 

The legendary Sydney, Australia Mardi Gras had few 'firsts' left in its long exciting history. This year was another benchmark for our friends down under. For the first time ever, out members of the Australian Defense Forces marched in uniform in the Sydney Mardi Gras. The video captures it all!

Editorial Cartoon of the Week: Women in Combat

 

 

 

Largest Collection Of Photographs Of Soldiers In The Civil War Given To Library of Congress

 

 

Mail Online has published a photography essay and photographs of young soldiers who served in the civil war. This huge collection was collected by the Liljenquist Family - the father and three young sons. Here is the description of the 700 images given to the Library of Congress.

The Lijenquist boys became fascinated with Civil War photography after collecting this picture and set about amassing their enormous and impressive collection.

Traveling to memorabilia shows with their father as far away as Tennessee, they networked with dealers and made purchases on eBay.

Some pictures they bought cost hundred of dollars and some set the family back thousands.

Each picture had to speak to them as men and it was necessary for every one to have the 'Wow' factor.

'We looked for compelling faces that seemed to be saying something across time to us.'

The photographs which are the size of a grown man's palm are committed to glass, an ambrotype, or onto metal, a tintype.

It is thought that the majority were taken by local photographers just before a soldier was sent to the front and in the past 50 years the Library of Congress had only collected 30 images of infantry men before the Liljenquist collection was donated."

Here are more photographs and a video by the collection at the end.

VIDEO: Robert Reich's Amazing Five Points On Why Romeny/Ryan Economics Is A Disaster

Romney's Disturbing Foreign Policy Speech

 

 

Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright said would give Romney a failing grade regarding his 'foreign policy' speech at VMI this week. This was his seventh speech on foreign policy and he has taken about that many different positions over the course of the campaign.

Romney has never met an issue he didn't like to change positions.

In his rush to run away from his past positions and establish new ones that might get him elected, Romney nevertheless had some very disturbing hints in what many thought was a speech absent once again of species. As with every position the Republican candidate takes, you have to read between the lines to find out hints of his true feelings.

Reading this speech closely there is reason to be very disturbed about it. Here are a few:

Romney wants to give more powerful weapons to the insurgents in Syria:

While I support a 'no fly zone' to assist the insurgents in Syria, sending them sophisticated weapons would only used against American interests in the future. The last thing we need is Islamic militants that have flooded into Syria to have sophisticated ground to air missiles. We are still paying the price in Afghanistan for arming the Taliban against the Soviets in 1980.

Romney wanted to keep troops in Iraq:

The candidate says that Obama withdrew from Iraq way too soon. If he had his way, we would be still having soldiers die in Iraq. With the greatest of naivete he proclaims we shouldn't have withdrawn troops until Iraq was 'secure'. Really? Exactly when does he think a nation in the Middle East ever will be secure?

Romney wants increase commitments of ground troops:

He acknowledges "drones and modern instruments are important tools' but believes they are not enough. We have done more to break up international terrorism with drones then we have in eleven years of ground war in Afghanistan. The only other option is ground troops and American dead.

Romney would once again start the arms race:

He pledges to build 60 new naval ships including 12 submarines in his first four years of office and that is just for one of the five branches of the military. Romney proclaims he will stand firm in the nuclear missile race and won't negotiate for fewer saying "And on this, there will be no flexibility with Vladimir Putin." The candidate has promised to dramatically increase defense spending while reducing social programs. You can't eat bullets.