The Army's Sexual Assault Problem, Here It Is

(Content note: military sexual trauma, rape culture, hostility to consent]

After nearly two years of requests from Stars and Stripes, the U.S. Army finally released the 28-page report of a task force convened to address the problems of sexual assault at Army installations in South Korea.

If you have the spoons, you may want to read the whole thing, as it very thoroughly goes over the rape culture problem of the Army, many of which are familiar territory (i.e., survivors are afraid to speak out for fear of being disciplined themselves; there are insufficient numbers of female unit victim advocates, etc.)

The report particularly singles out problems in the leadership. It notes, for example, that sexual assault prevention isn't taken seriously, but "perceived as a mandated check-the-block requirement to be quickly completed rather than training to a level of working knowledge." In light of that, it is depressing but unsurprising that the task force's findings also included the following (bold emphasis mine):

There is a lack of knowledge among leadership about how to handle reported sexual assaults. The report implied that leaders, along with their subordinates, might not even be able to distinguish between consensual sex and sexual assault. “Questions remain about what constitutes consent,” the draft said.

"Might not even be able to distinguish." "Questions remain." Sure.

And is the Army getting right on task with addressing the report's findings? Well, not so much:

According to military officials at the time, the task force was initially scheduled to present its findings to the Eighth Army commander within a matter of months.

However, nearly two years later, Eighth Army officials say that the report has yet to be finalized and approved by leadership, even though some of the task force’s recommendations, such as the installation of closed-circuit cameras in barracks, were enacted more than a year ago.

I have plumbed the depths of my vocabulary of profanities, and still I find no words for how contemptible this is.