by James Glaser
May 5, 2005

I, like many Americans was shocked by the pictures of abuse by American prison guards at Iraq's Abu Ghraib Prison and I shouldn't have been. I was in the Marines and still those pictures got to me. There is no doubt in my mind at all. I know the officers knew what was going on. Maybe not the senior ones, because I wouldn't doubt that those really high up, never set foot in those prisons, but those Majors and below had to know. If they didn't, they should be drummed out of the military.

All that abuse, which I have no doubt is a War Crime got me wondering how this abuse could get this far out of hand, then I thought back on my time in Vietnam and I have to tell you it was a real blessing for the Pentagon that there were no digital cameras back then. In the Nam, if you even had pictures of dead "gooks" developed, they confiscated them.

If there is a War, then there are War Crimes. It doesn't matter if it is the United States fighting or Iraq and Iran. War changes people and they do things they would never do in civilian life. It isn't just some American soldiers abusing the enemy and the civilians in a country we attack, no, it is also some of our Soldiers, Sailors, Air Men, and Marines abusing many of the American women they are serving with.

"More than 67,000 women veterans, or as much as 29 percent of those served at Veterans Affairs clinics in recent years, say they experienced sexual assaults in the military," reports Marie Tessier, in Women's eNews.

The report goes on to say that in 1996 the Department of Defense surveyed women in the military about their experiences in the previous 12 months and found there were about 10,000 sexual assaults or attempted assaults that year.

In a Survey done this year, Liz Sidoti, of the Denver Post reports, a Pentagon inspector generals survey has found, "Female students at the Air Force Academy and two other US military academies say there have been 302 incidents of sexual assault against them since they entered the schools."

Last year, nearly 150 women came forward saying they had been sexually assaulted by fellow cadets. Many of these women said that they were punished for speaking out at the time of the assault.

After the 150 women cadets came forward with complaints about the sexual assaults, the Air Force removed the top commanders at the school and officials began to try and change a climate they said had made the sex assault scandal possible.

The US military academies are where our future military leaders come from.

Today it was reported by Robert Weller of the Associated Press, that a task force was formed to investigate allegations of anti-Semitism at the US Air Force Academy. Cadets have complained that evangelical Christians have been harassing both other Christians and Jews. Some Jews were blamed for the death of Jesus.

It is reported that one Academy Chaplin warned anyone not proselytizing would "burn in the fires of hell."

In a May 4, 2005 Associated Press report, "The academy said the religious tolerance problem came to light through internal surveys, and commanders then invited staff and cadets to report religious discrimination. Fifty-five cases were reported."

Religious intolerance and sexual assaults seem to be totally different problems, but not when you look at the sexual abuse Americans heaped on those prisoners in Iraq. Going to a US Military Academy where sexual assaults were the norm, condoned, and covered up by Academy staff, sets a foundation for abuse. A career in the military where assaults on American women Soldiers and Marines are common adds to that foundation, Then to top that off, you learn from your military religious leaders that all non Christians will rot in hell anyway, well then the abuse our troops did in Iraq to civilian suspects and children is pretty understandable and it makes me wonder what kind of people we have serving our country?

Sure most Soldiers and Marines are good upstanding American citizens, but when you hear about over 10,000 sexual assaults a year in the military, you have to know it is open season for whatever our troops want do to the "rag heads." 10,000 sexual assaults a year, means there are more than a few "bad apples." There are thousands and thousands of them serving in our armed forces and you have to know that the officer corps is setting the tone for what is going on or these assaults would be rare.

If the officers have learned that assaulting American women in college is acceptable and it was before enough women spoke up, then it is not a stretch to believe that these same officers would look the other way when the troops wanted to have some 'fun' with those Iraqis they were guarding... after all they were just Muslims and they are headed for hell anyway... at least that is one message being taught to our future military leaders, who will someday be running the Pentagon.