Verbal Harassment Too Common

One woman soldier states, "There are only three kinds of female the men let you be in the military: a bitch, a ho, or a dyke." If a woman denies a man or doesn't sleep around she is being a bitch, and if she says she has a boyfriend she is a 'ho'. If a woman acts uninterested in any of the men she is assumed to be a dyke. One man suggests women are overseas to keep the men sane- in the Vietnam war there were many prostitutes, whereas in the Middle East there aren't. One woman admits that a team leader offered her $250 for a hand job and continuously pressured her. Is admitting to experiencing sexual harassment or verbal harrassment a betrayal to fellow comrades or is it betrayal to the military if a woman DOESN'T report the abuse? Personally I feel it's the latter.

Comic Strip

In this 'comic' strip, a woman soldier is attending therapy sessions because of a rape by a fellow soldier. One man asks the woman what she is attending therapy for and she says for sexual trauma. He admits he doesn't know how to handle the situation or know how to respond, and she says she doesn't either. The doctor appears very uninterested and uncaring when the man attends his therapy session and tells him about the woman vet. The man is upset because she was "betrayed by the very people she was trained to trust." This statement is absolutely true- women are indeed betrayed by fellow soldiers.

Free Suzanne Swift?

Suzanne Swift is a soldier who went AWOL before two more tours in Iraq because she couldn't handle the stress of being sexual assaulted and harassed. She was reportedly serving from Military Sexual Trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Suzanne is now in Fort Lewis in jail awaiting her sentence from the military. There is a petition containing 5,000 signatures of people wishing to free Suzanne. Many believe it's unfair that she is in jail for going AWOL, because she did so out of fear of returning to a place where sexual harassment and verbal abuse are all too common. What do you guys think- should she be punished for going AWOL as every other soldier would be, or does should she be excused from punishment?