One battle is more than enough

On Thursday, the United States Senate debated a bill that would take sexual assault cases and other major civilian crimes out of the military chain of command by allowing military trial lawyers to decide whether or not to bring those cases to the courts-martial.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., was fiercely debated in the Senate before it was defeated in a 55-45 vote, falling short of the 60 votes required to overcome a filibuster.  

Indiana’s Senators were split on the issue at hand. Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., voted in favor of the bill. Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., voted against it.

In 2011, 26,000 men and women in the military were sexually assaulted. “The Invisible War,” a documentary about military sexual assault, explains how many of these sexual assaults are perpetrated by ranking officers in the military.

The current system places these same ranking officers in charge of deciding whether or not to bring a sexual assault case to trial.

Gillibrand argued the bill was designed to protect men and women in the military from sexual assault.

Many female senators, most of who voted for the bill, questioned whether or not the male-dominated military leadership understands how to deal with sexual assault
effectively.

On the other side of the debate, senators argued removing commanding officers from the chain of command would damage morale and military effectiveness and
cohesiveness.

The Editorial Board categorically condemnns the defeat of this bill. In particular, the fact that one of our own senators voted against it should bring shame to our state.

This defeat underscores the underlying issues surrounding our male-dominated military and government. And while the armed forces ought to be respected, the safety of our women and men in uniform shouldn’t come second to the cult of worship of our military.

Sexual assault is a major problem in the military. Our elected officials, on both sides of the aisle, seem too willing to turn a blind eye in favor of pretending our citizens in uniform are infallible.

The argument that the bill by Gillibrand would damage the morale of the military is absurd. We don’t buy into the argument that allowing military lawyers to control military conduct cases is damaging to morale.

What damages military morale is fearing that your commanding officer could rape you and never face trial.

Our lawmakers need to shed this “boys will be boys” attitude when it comes to sexual assault. It isn’t a male

tendency to rape people. That’s a savage, destructive, inhumane tendency.
Lawmakers across the country, such as Coats, are perpetuating and advancing the existing rape culture in the U.S. Lawmakers like Coats are more than willing to forego the safety of women in exchange for pandering under the guise of being patriotic.

Patriotism is not turning a blind eye to the problems that we face as a nation. Patriotism is standing up and working to fix those problems.

Coats and his 44 friends in the Senate are not patriots. They bring shame upon the Senate, military and U.S. as a whole.

When women and men are sexually assaulted by commanding officers and infantrymen alike, we need a change. We applaud Gillibrand’s truly patriotic efforts to try and make the military safer.

God knows they shouldn’t fear their fellow soldiers.

­opinion@idsnews.com
@ids_opinion.