How Low Can you Go?

As if there isn't enough dismal news coming out of the military these days about how it treats our kids...from the moment they have the ill luck to fall into the clutches of recruiters until they are stop-lossed at the end of their contracts-- today's news plummets to an even lower low.

From Associated Press (and reported on Democracy Now! - www.democracynow.org - August 21 '06) comes the news that:

80 Military Recruiters Disciplined for Sexual Misconduct
The Associated Press has revealed that more than 80 military recruiters have been disciplined over the past year for sexual misconduct. According to AP, military recruiters have preyed upon more then 100 young women who expressed interest in joining the military. Women were raped on recruiting office couches, assaulted in government cars and groped en route to entrance exams. One 18-year-old victim said "This should never be allowed to happen. The recruiter had all the power. He had the uniform. He had my future. I trusted him." The victims have typically been between 16 and 18 years old. They usually met the recruiters at their high schools and the sexual misconduct almost always takes place in recruiting stations, recruiters' apartments or government vehicles/

As a counsellor on the GI Rights Hotline (a free service at 1-800-394-9544) I'm privvy to many - too many - heartbreaking stories from our troops at the hands of recruiters. Actually, not only from recruiters but also from NCOs and CO, even some chaplins.

What we appear to have is a system that takes our idealistic, naive, good hearted kids and forces them through a system that is bound to break 'em and crush their spirits. On top of that, now we discover that, oh, if recruiters feel like it, they can molest and rape our daughters -- and sons it seems -- on the way to or from the ordeal that is the current military.
Spc. Suzanne Swift is currently in the brig for going AWOL after multiple sexual indignities from her NCOs and up the line to COs who failed to protect her. Check it out: http://www.suzanneswift.org/