U.S. Military Now Enlisting Rapists

As the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan drag on for far longer than was anticipated, the military has been forced to come up with ways to boost their recruitment numbers. In addition to the U.S. Army raising their enlistment age to 42, they have also begun to accept known rapists into their ranks, with disastrous consequences.

In recent years, the U.S. military has greatly increased their issuance of so-called ´moral waivers´ to convicted felons, in order to be accepted into the service. In April 2008, the Army Times ran a story on the increase in waivers in which the paper reported that during Fiscal Year 2008, 13 percent of new recruits required such a waiver (4.6 percent required one in 2004).

Many of those receiving the moral waivers were convicted of rape and sexual assault.

A recent CBS Evening News report (March 18, 2009) investigating the growing problem of rape in the military, featured an interview with Michael Dominguez, the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness. Dominguez denied the practice existed when he told Katie Couric: "We don´t enlist rapists into the armed forces. If there´s a consensus ´that kid needs a second chance, I think he´s got it in him to be a soldier,´ then they´ll let him into the armed forces."

However, CBS uncovered a case in which an Army private who committed rape had a bad conduct discharge suspended in order to deploy to Iraq.

In FY 2008, a total of 2,924 rapes and sexual assaults were reported throughout the four service branches. That figure represents an increase of 8.2 percent from the previous year.

The reports break down among the branches with 1,584 in the Army, 607 in the Air Force, 489 in the Navy, and 244 in the Marine Corps. The leading offense for all branches is rape.

The reports of rape and sexual assault rose at an even higher rate in Iraq and Afghanistan, with an increase of 25 percent from the previous year.

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) recently criticized the Defense Department´s attitude towards the issue when she said: "The Pentagon´s alarming statistics prove that sexual assault in the military not only persists, but has gotten worse. How many more of our brave women in uniform must experience sexual assault before we truly address this issue?"

The Defense Department seems to have confirmed the Congresswoman´s suspicion on the lack of serious attention paid to this growing crime. According to the Pentagon, during 2007, only 8 percent of soldiers investigated for sex crimes were referred for court-martial.

Reporter´s comment: Until the military takes the crime of rape seriously and purges their ranks of such heinous offenders, parents should under no circumstances allow their daughters to enlist in any of the service branches.