I was raped twice in Iraq – US veteran speaks out

[pariah112]

US Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Sandra Lee, who was raped twice while serving in Iraq, shared her story in an interview with RT.


According to a new study by the US Department of Defense, one in three women in the military is raped. Veterans for Peace add to those statistics, claiming 75% of raped women in the military fail to report it.


I was raped twice in Iraq – US veteran speaks out - RT Top Stories

 

[Saving Hawaii]

According to a new study by the US Department of Defense, one in three women in the military is raped. Veterans for Peace add to those statistics, claiming 75% of raped women in the military fail to report it.

You do know that if 1/3 of women in the military report being raped but 75% of the women who are actually raped fail to report the incident, that the only conclusion we're left with is that 133% of women serving in the United States military get raped.

Please consider checking your sources Pariah, this is truly embarrassing.

(1/3) / (1/4) = 1 1/3

 

[lawtonfogle]

US Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Sandra Lee, who was raped twice while serving in Iraq, shared her story in an interview with RT.


According to a new study by the US Department of Defense, one in three women in the military is raped. Veterans for Peace add to those statistics, claiming 75% of raped women in the military fail to report it.


I was raped twice in Iraq – US veteran speaks out - RT Top Stories

Wait...

Is this saying that one in three women in the military report being raped, and that one is four of women in general in the military report it, or is this saying that 1 in 3 women are raped and that of those women, only 1 in 4 report it?

If it is the former, we got a major problem, as we have more women getting raped in the military than that are in the military.

 

[lawtonfogle]

You do know that if 1/3 of women in the military report being raped but 75% of the women who are actually raped fail to report the incident, that the only conclusion we're left with is that 133% of women serving in the United States military get raped.

Please consider checking your sources Pariah, this is truly embarrassing.

(1/3) / (1/4) = 1 1/3

As I mentioned, that is one of the possibilities. The other possibility is that they estimate that 1/3 of women are raped, but that of those 1/3, only 1/4 report it. As such, 1/12 women report being raped.

I do dislike how that was left unclear.

 

[Beechwell]

Sounds clear to me:
1/3 of women in the military are raped
3/4 of raped women in the military fail to report it

So that would mean 1/12 of women in the military report being raped. It doesn't say 1/3 report being raped.

I'd take a guess that those figures are probably inaccurate and gained by extrapolating known cases. But if they are at all an indicator of what is going then that is cause for worry. And personally I wouldn't be surprised at all if such things are indeed rather common.

 

[CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN]

Since I couldn't read the story,Because of my computer.I guessing they were raped,By our own soldiers,When these rapist soldiers get back,They'll probably continual to rape and screw other peoples live.

 

[JustOneWay]

According to a new study by the US Department of Defense, one in three women in the military is raped. Veterans for Peace add to those statistics, claiming 75% of raped women in the military fail to report it.

Lets say for the formula, that there are 10,000 women in the military. 3,333 of them are raped (according to the article). Of those 3,333 women, 833 are reporting the rape, 2500 do not report.



Pretty simple math

 

[nagwalk]

Looks like many of you would rather sit back and solve math oroblems than be disgusted over what is happening to your sisters cousins and aunties.

 

[JustOneWay]

Looks like many of you would rather sit back and solve math oroblems than be disgusted over what is happening to your sisters cousins and aunties.

what is your point? I did not see your comment on the topic....

Is that because they are women not from Canada?

 

[CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN]

Looks like many of you would rather sit back and solve math oroblems than be disgusted over what is happening to your sisters cousins and aunties.

[FONT=bookman old style, new york, times, serif]Exactly what I thought.[/FONT]

 

[JustOneWay]

We cant even blame and convict American mercenaries in Iraq for their atrocities, why should I even care about a women who refuses to face and call out their rapist?

 

[DesertSky]

Why would I trust a news channel from Moscow to be accurate about U.S. military "news?"

 

[pariah112]

You do know that if 1/3 of women in the military report being raped but 75% of the women who are actually raped fail to report the incident, that the only conclusion we're left with is that 133% of women serving in the United States military get raped.

Please consider checking your sources Pariah, this is truly embarrassing.

(1/3) / (1/4) = 1 1/3

Amazing. How did you come to that conclusion?

1/3 are being raped, 75% of the 1/3 don't report it. How did you reach the 133% number is a wonder to me!!!

Care to explain what formula you used to reach that number?

 

[Saving Hawaii]

As I mentioned, that is one of the possibilities. The other possibility is that they estimate that 1/3 of women are raped, but that of those 1/3, only 1/4 report it. As such, 1/12 women report being raped.

I do dislike how that was left unclear.

I took the "Veterans from Peace add to those statistics" as implying that the 75% who don't report being raped are in addition to the DoD figures.

 

[Saving Hawaii]

Lets say for the formula, that there are 10,000 women in the military. 3,333 of them are raped (according to the article). Of those 3,333 women, 833 are reporting the rape, 2500 do not report.

Pretty simple math

That would make more sense, but it's not what the article implies when it writes that the Veterans for Peace figure is in addition to the DoD figure.

 

[PreachersWife2004]

Looks like many of you would rather sit back and solve math oroblems than be disgusted over what is happening to your sisters cousins and aunties.

Well, now, that just isn't the case.

I prefer my stories to be factual. What they were doing was "vetting" the source. I appreciate that. Of course we know that rape is awful and should be prevented, but presenting inflated statistics about it only does damage to the work being done to help prevent it.

Fortunately for this story, it just appears they used some unclear language.

 

[JustOneWay]

I am looking for official DOD report, however I am consistently finding stats showing 1 in 3 women are raped and 1 in 15 men are raped! This is terrible.

 

[PreachersWife2004]

We cant even blame and convict American mercenaries in Iraq for their atrocities, why should I even care about a women who refuses to face and call out their rapist?

because you need to understand the mindset behind why many women don't report their rapists.

 

[JustOneWay]

because you need to understand the mindset behind why many women don't report their rapists.

I have a pretty good idea, however it does not make it any less terrible. I understand you were military....I hope nothing bad happened to you.

 

[Obzocky]

Sandra says the military sweeps these problems underneath the carpet, even though at times it costs them, “They don’t like to address the problems, because it’s too much work. When I redeployed back to the US, we had post-health assessment screening. Everyone did. And they asked me questions about my mental health. ‘Do you have nightmares? Do you startle easily?’ I marked ‘yes’ to everything. But did anyone contact me, did anyone ask my why I was feeling those things? No.”

I find this truly disturbing, surely the entire point of the screening is to address these problems. If they're going to bury their heads in the sand about any issue [rape, general war related mental trauma] they can at least go through the motions of insuring individuals recieve adequate support once they return home.

Rape in the military is not new news, it's something that's been known for years to occur in higher numbers than any military wants to admit. Doesn't do much for public support or enlistment if they publically admit it. There have been papers released on this subject before, this study released in 2003;
http://www.npr.org/documents/2007/oct/varapestudy.pdf

Back in 2004 Women Against Rape and Black Women's Rape Action Project stated that the military seem to be ignoring women who return from long term deployment and report being raped, this rather interesting blog contains some of my thoughts on the subject with far more eloquency than I could hope to achieve;
Rape Statistics and What the U.S. Military Should Be Doing « Women and War

The military needs to train its men to view these women not as the other, but as their fellow human beings and fellow soldiers. Does this sound a little too warm and fuzzy for you? I believe that education is the way to solving most problems, and this one is no exception. The only thing that I fear, is that we will never be able to get men to see women as equal, perhaps because human nature, most notably sexual desire, will always win in the end. Call me an idealist, but I say we can stop rape in the military, even if a little social conditioning is involved.

I get the sense that rape is something that just happens to you if you are a woman in the U.S. army, that you should suck it up, and that you should keep your mouth shut about it.

This is the general feeling.

It's an amazingly hushed up subject, no one wants to think that your own troops could so frequently disregard each other, but it happens. No one wants to report it, it rarely makes frontpage news unless the person blowing the horn is loud enough, bit of a disgrace really. Then again this opinion is coming from a British perspective and second hand knowledge from friends in the forces, so it could be quite different over the pond.