Sexual assaults in US military spiked last year

Statistics show that the number of reported sexual assaults in the US military increased by more than 60 percent last year, with officials claiming that the surge shows victims have more confidence now that their cases will be heard.

Pentagon spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Cathy Wilkinson said on Wednesday that some 5,400 cases of sexual assault were reported in 2013.

“This is a 60-percent increase in victim reports” compared to the 3,374 reports the Pentagon received in 2012, she stated.

“We assess this increase in reports as consistent with a growing level of confidence in our response system,” Wilkinson said.

Last month, an international lawyer told Press TV that sexual assault has become a common practice at the US military camps.

“Within the US Marines there is the practice…whereby new marine officers are actually sexually assaulted by other marines,” Alfred Lambremont Webre said on January 27.

Quoting the US Department of Veterans Affairs, Webre said “85,000 US veterans received treatment for sexual abuse trauma…in 2013.”

On January 25, US President Barack Obama called on the American people to help put an end to the growing number of sexual assaults in the military.

“We’ve got to teach young people – men and women – to be brave enough to stand up and help put an end to these crimes,” the US president said.

“We’ve especially got to teach young men to show women the respect they deserve,” he continued. “I want every young man in America to know that real men don’t hurt women. And those of us who are fathers have a special obligation to make sure every young man out there understands that being a man means recognizing sexual violence and being outraged by it, and doing their part to stop it.”

“We’re going to keep combating sexual assault in our armed forces, because when a member of our military is attacked by the very people he or she trusts and serves with, that’s an injustice that no one who volunteers to protect our nation should ever endure,” Obama said.

A newly-published investigation, reported by The Washington Post in January, reveals that many cases of misconduct involve US generals and admirals.

The paper said it has obtained military files that add to “a litany of revelations about misbehaving brass that have dogged the Pentagon over the past 15 months and tarnished the reputation of US military leadership.”