One would think that when the Joint Chiefs of Staff and members of their staffs took their seats in the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) hearing on June 4, 2013, they would come armed with statements promising change and detailing actions being implemented. But, instead of being like Lieutenant General David Morrison, Chief of Staff, Australian Defense Force, who inspirationally went bare knuckles on the issue, stating in a video distributed to his command and his country, and posted on YouTube, “I will be ruthless in ridding the Army of people who cannot live up to its values.” our chiefs can’t even talk a good fight!
At the June 4 SASC hearing they delivered confessions of failure (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey, “We have become too complacent.” Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno, “We have failed in our efforts to date to fully protect our soldiers civilians, family members from sexual assault and sexual harassment within our ranks.”, apologies, and, most astonishingly, ignorance of what the militaries of our allies have done and are doing to address the issue. When questioned by Sen. Roy Blount (MO) how U.S. allies had dealt with sexual assault, since the problem has been known for years, Admiral Jonathan Greenert, Chief of Naval Operations, responded that was “something I should have done.”
Read the full article published on Time Magazine’s Battleland Blog on Jule 17, 2013.
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