OPINION
LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD LJWorld.com Tuesday, May 14, 2013
EDITORIALS
Assault action It’s way past time for military and elected officials to address the growing epidemic of sexual assault in the military.
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ast week’s Pentagon report on sexual assaults in the military will be difficult to ignore. Americans may have been aware that this was a growing problem in the U.S. military, but few probably would have guessed the extent of the epidemic the Pentagon described. Despite various efforts to try to address the problem, the Pentagon, which certainly has no incentive to inflate these numbers, estimated that as many as 26,000 military members may have been sexually assaulted last year. That’s only an estimate because the vast majority of these incidents go unreported. There were fewer than 3,400 reported incidents last year, the survey said, and nearly 800 of those reports came from people — men and women — who declined to file complaints against their alleged attackers. That means that only about one-tenth of the assaults the Pentagon thinks occurred last year were even pursued, let alone resulted in any meaningful punishment. The numbers are shocking, but some of the individual stories that have come out in the last week are even more disturbing. There was the arrest, just days before the Pentagon report was released, of the Air Force’s head of sexual assault prevention on, yes, assault charges after he allegedly groped a woman in a Virginia parking lot. There are at least two cases of military superior officers unilaterally reversing sexual assault convictions of people under their command — and an ongoing investigation of a report that 62 trainees were assaulted or were victims of improper conduct over a fouryear period by 32 instructors at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. In addition, since the Pentagon report was released, many individuals have shared with various news outlets their experience with sexual assault in the military and the effect it had on both their personal lives and their careers. The only good news in connection with this report is that it may finally have spurred the kind of attention this problem deserves among top military and elected officials. A variety of solutions are being discussed, including taking responsibility for dealing with sexual assault reports away from commanding officers and giving it to either military or civilian prosecutors. Even more important, however, may be a tough initiative to change a military culture that has hidden and, therefore, tacitly condoned the kind of behavior that now is coming to light. Some observers have expressed concern that, now that this issue has captured their attention, elected U.S. officials may overreact or take ill-advised or hasty action to address the problem. That may be possible, but officials shouldn’t allow this problem to be put on the back burner. Do the math. Twentysix thousand sexual assaults in one year; that’s 500 assaults every week. That simply can’t be allowed to continue. LAWRENCE
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What Russia gave us on Syria: very little Those who oppose greater U.S. involvement in Syria were no doubt relieved at the announcement that Moscow and Washington want to convene an international conference to end the country’s civil war. They shouldn’t be. Secretary of State John Kerry’s announcement contains no hint of a diplomatic breakthrough. Indeed, diplomacy stands no chance unless President Obama first does what he has long avoided: takes the lead in helping the Syrian opposition break the military stalemate on the ground. Take a look at what actually happened last week in Moscow. Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, said they would bring representatives of the Syrian government and opposition together to determine how to implement a plan for a political transition, based on a June 2012 agreement reached by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council in Geneva, Switzerland. But this accord has gone nowhere over the last year for compelling reasons. Neither Bashar al-Assad nor Moscow nor, for the most part, the opposition has shown any interest in it. And even when opposition leaders were willing to talk, Assad responded with atrocities, and Moscow did zip. Did anything change last week in Moscow? Not much. True, Kerry publicly dropped the U.S. demand that “Assad must go,” which had been regarded as a precondition for talks. That gesture, however, won’t make the difference: The reason Assad has spurned the Geneva road map goes much deeper than
Trudy Rubin
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trubin@phillynews.com
Unless the military balance shifts, talk of diplomacy is little more than an excuse to ignore atrocities and red lines.” that. The Geneva document calls for a transitional government to be formed by mutual consent in negotiations between the government and opposition. That transitional government would exercise full executive power until a new government is elected. Of course, opposition negotiators would never agree to a transitional government that includes Assad or his inner circle. But no one can imagine Assad voluntarily giving up power. “According to the terms of the Geneva communiqué, Assad has to agree to go, but he’s not going to choose to go,” said the Syrian American activist Louay Sakka, cofounder of the Syrian Support Group. “Assad wants to hold on.” Fred Hof, a former State Department adviser who helped negotiate the Geneva document, says Assad realized its terms amounted to “a death sentence” for his family’s rule in Syria. Russia realized this, too, and consequently backed Assad’s rejection of the initiative, even trying to renegotiate key passages.
Early this year, a top Syrian opposition leader, Moaz al-Khatib, offered to talk with government figures less tainted than Assad’s inner circle, and suggested that Moscow help organize such a meeting. French President Francois Hollande asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to facilitate, and thought he’d received a positive answer. But Putin did nothing. Criticized by other opposition leaders for his offer, Khatib has now given up his leadership role. There was little sign in Moscow last week that Putin had grown more enthusiastic about jettisoning Assad. Many journalists focused on Foreign Minister Lavrov’s statement that Russia is “not interested in the fate of certain persons, [but] in the fate of Syria itself.” However, Lavrov has said similar things before. He probably means that, should Assad’s inner circle choose to oust him, Russia wouldn’t oppose it. But that is highly unlikely, since members of the inner circle are so tightly connected to Assad that if he goes, they know they will be next. More telling, when it comes to Russian thinking, is the fact that Putin kept Kerry waiting for three hours, and that intelligence reports surfaced just after Kerry left that Russia was completing a sale of sophisticated surfaceto-air missiles to Syria. Such missiles will give Assad far greater protection against air attack, including future Israeli attempts to prevent the transfer of missiles to the radical Lebanese movement Hezbollah. No hint here that Putin is ready to abandon Assad. Moreover, all signs indi-
cate that Assad still believes he can outlast the opposition, especially since Obama is so clearly unwilling to help it in a meaningful way. Hof believes Assad’s suspected limited use of chemical weapons was meant to signal to any waverers in his security circle that Obama would not honor his declared “red line.” “He wanted to reassure his supporters that the West would not intervene,” the former diplomat told me. Hof also believes there will be no diplomatic breakthrough unless the military balance shifts: Only if Russia believes its proxy could lose might Putin decide the time has come to pressure Assad. I agree. Changing the balance would not require U.S. boots on the ground, nor should it involve U.S. planes and missiles. But it would require additional military aid from the United States and its allies and a far greater U.S. role — led from the top — in ensuring that aid is channeled solely through the opposition’s new Supreme Military Council. Given that U.S. commitment, it would be possible to prevent additional weapons from flowing to jihadis. The fact is that the jihadis already have far more access to heavy weapons than the CIA-vetted opposition commanders we claim to support. Unless the military balance shifts, talk of diplomacy is little more than an excuse to ignore atrocities and red lines. The choice is not between diplomacy and greater U.S. involvement. Without the latter, the former will fail. — Trudy Rubin is a columnist and editorial board member for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
OLD HOME TOWN
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Mark Matese, director of Douglas County Community Corrections, YEARS recently had sugAGO gested to state IN 1988 corrections officials that if inmates of the state penitentiary were released to ease overcrowding, his program might be able to absorb some of them. On April 1, U.S. District Judge Richard Rogers of Topeka had ordered corrections officials to release 400 inmates from the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing by September.
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PUBLIC FORUM
Misguided To the editor: In his May 8 letter, Steve Willson, DVM, says the May 5 Journal-World article about a concert fundraiser for Operation Wildlife (OWL) “encourages the creation of serious public health problems.” He then gives a brief tutorial on rabies and one line about the dangers of approaching great blue herons. Eh? The article was simply about a fundraiser (but it even had a caution about herons!). And the quickest search would have shown Willson that a major portion of OWL’s mission is educating the public about wild animals, deterring people from approaching and keeping them, and providing rescue and safe techniques when intervention is needed. Most of the wild birds, mammals and reptiles in OWL’s care have posed little or no threat to the public. And when there is a threat, OWL is a great place to call because they are specifically trained (and permitted by Kansas and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) to handle such things. OWL safety procedures for staff and vol-
unteers include a rabies preexposure vaccine series and follow-up testing. And they know more about the current status of rabies in wild populations than anybody other than a few state biologists (see the Opwildlife comment under the letter). A costly and labor-intensive local nonprofit that we rely on deserves all of the financial, in-kind and moral support we can muster. Anyone who concludes that a wildlife rehab program increases the risk of rabies is just ill informed and not using logic. And when someone with credentials does that, it’s highly irresponsible. Christy Kennedy, Lawrence
other local Internet providers is too much. The city is not in the business of favoring one company over another. If it is, I want my company to get a break on all taxes, parking needs, construction permits, inspections and anything else I can think of for the next 20 years. That way, I won’t have to spend the money on those items, like my competitors. If Wicked Broadband can’t get the money or terms it needs from the financial community, maybe it’s not the fault of our community’s commitment, but their financial structure, status and plan. The city should “just say no.” Ken Meyer, Lawrence
Unfair aid To the editor: It’s bad enough that the city bought a bill of goods in giving inexpensive access to city facilities for Lawrence Freenet, with the dubious promise of providing Internet capabilities to those who could not afford it, but to consider giving the morphed company, Wicked Broadband, a $500,000 grant and a competitive advantage over
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The Journal-World welcomes letters to the Public Forum. Letters should be 250 words or less, be of public interest and should avoid name-calling and libelous language. The Journal-World reserves the right to edit letters, as long as viewpoints are not altered. By submitting letters, you grant the JournalWorld a nonexclusive license to publish, copy and distribute your work, while acknowledging that you are the author of the work. Letters must bear the name, address and telephone number of the writer. Letters may be submitted by mail to Box 888, Lawrence Ks. 66044 or by email to: letters@ljworld.com
In their upcoming meeting, Lawrence city commissioners YEARS were scheduled to AGO discuss the issuIN 1973 ance of industrial revenue bonds for Lawrence Paper Co. and the possible appointment of a Bicentennial Committee. Also included in the agenda were site plans for a Kingdom Hall for Jehovah’s Witnesses at 1802 E. 19th St. as well as for additions to Knight’s Women’s Apparel (2332 Louisiana St.) and Campus Motors (1303 W. 23rd St.). Skylab, the United States’ first space station, was launched into orbit today, 271 miles above the earth. The station’s first three-man crew was scheduled to ride into space tomorrow to link up with the lab for a 28-day mission.
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From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for May 14, 1913: YEARS “Billie Bob AtkinAGO son, five year old IN 1913 son of Mr. and Mrs. S. W. Atkinson, is lost. It is feared that the Kaw River has claimed this little life and that the deep muddy waters hold the secret of the child’s whereabouts. Billie Bob disappeared last night. He was missed at home about eight o’clock at night and the search, which has not yet been given up, was begun then. But as the time draws on and nothing is heard from the little fellow the fear that he has met with a mishap has increased until hope is almost abandoned.” — Compiled by Sarah St. John
Read more Old Home Town at LJWorld.com/news/lawrence/ history/old_home_town.