Obama reacts to ‘70 cases of sexual assault per day’ in military

Barack Obama has warned about sexual assault in the US Army and has accused the perpetrators to betrayal to military uniform.
The US Department of Defense announced that there were 70 cases of sexual assault per day in the Army. “The bottom line is, I have no tolerance for this,” Obama told reporters. “If we find out somebody’s engaging in this stuff, they’ve got to be held accountable, prosecuted, stripped of their positions, court-martialed, fired, dishonorably discharged — period.”

Obama said he had instructed Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel “to step up our game exponentially” to prevent sex crimes in the military and hold offenders accountable.

Obama delivered this speech in a joint press conference with South Korean president, who is visiting Washington. Reports had it that Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski, an Air Force officer who led the branch’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response unit, has been charged with groping a woman in a parking lot.

Unofficial reports say 20 per cent of women in the US military are the victims of sexual assault and rape. Critics say women and girls in training sessions are regularly sexually harassed and assaulted, but fears of retaliation by their influential commanders prevents them to filing a complaint. The issue has angered the Congress and the public as well.