TOW #29- The Invisible War Argument

In the Armed Forces, the issue of rape has been overlooked and covered up for a significant amount of time. Rape should not be an occupational hazard of serving in what is supposed to be an honorable institution, but a crime that deserves ample punishment. The Army should have a justice system equivalent to that of other citizens due to their constitutional rights and the fact that the system under which justice is served now is failing.

The Army needs to have an equivalent justice system to the one provided for normal citizens because the lack of this is infringing on the constitutional rights of army members. All citizens have the right to due process, a fair trial by jury, and rights against self-incrimination. Although these rights are meant for defendants, they are also rights of victims.  In the current justice system of an army, the leading officer has the power to decide whether or not a claim by another official gets investigated. Allowing them this gives them the right to deny and cover up things that happens within the army, thus illegally denying lower ranking army officers their rights.. By allowing this system to go on, the army goes against the very principles of the country that it dedicates itself to defending.

The current system by which the army currently serves justice upon is failing, thus justifying a new system equivalent to that of the common citizen. The current system is structured so that a commanding officer gets to decide whether a not a fellow officer’s claim is taken seriously and investigated, with no regard to who committed the crime, even if the accused is the commanding officer themself. Officers must always report first to their commander, leaving a lot of room for corruption and failure. I have read that one out of twenty-five people are statistically sociopaths. This means that these people have no morals and therefore don’t feel guilt after doing something wrong. Now most men in the military are considered to be “Alfa-males” or men who like to be in control. Put these two traits together, and you have 1 out of every 25 commanding officers who could commit a crime and feel absolutely no guilt covering it up. While not every one of these people will commit a crime, there is a considerable risk that the current justice system is not equipped to handle. For example, how is it possible that 1 in 5 women receives help for an assault related injury, but only 1/10 cases receives an investigation that results in punishment (takepart.com). A justice system in which one person is equipped to cover up countless crimes is not one that can be acceptable, especially in such a powerful institution.

A justice system cannot successfully exist when it allows people the power to deliberately cover up crimes of all sorts. The justice system in the army must be swapped for one equivalent to that of normal civilians due to the fact that the current system infringes upon officer’s constitutional rights and the fact that it is failing to deliver justice.