MsSally's position to keep the prosecution of military rape cases in the hands of the chain of command is like a goat that keeps head butting the same wall.
Getting a fair trial of a rape case is the goal. Seeking evolutionary changes up the chain of command by forcing them, case by case, to do the right thing is a ridiculous pathway that keeps failing.
Rape prosecutions must be handled correctly and fairly NOW. The cabal of power in play will continue to override fairness until the rape cases are removed from the control of the chain of command.
3
She doesn’t make any sense.
3
Are we to understand from this article that McSally was raped not once but twice, the 2nd rape having occurred as she struggled for respect within the masculine culture of fighter pilots? If all of this is true, it is incomprehensible that she now supports Trump and the Republican Party he now commands. In any event, the fact that she is now a US Senator suggests that whatever obstacles she faced in life apparently helped boost her career.
3
You wanted to be with the big soldier boys, then you should have acted like one! You wanted to be in the jungle, then you should have prepared yourself to react accordingly, or found your way out.
Don’t come crying now, like a damsel in distress. And only because it will help you politically.
2
Didn’t she vote for confirming judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court?
2
Senator McSally, name the rapist.
Support changes in the reporting of crimes in the military that empower women rather than dis-empower them.
Why does McSally so robustly support a military command structure that failed her and so many other women?
And Senator McSally, don't attack other women, and just call it politics. Why are you such a supporter of a sexual predator like Trump?
2
This story doesn't mention McSally's brief marriage and annulment. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/pamela-powers-hannley/sham-marriage-allegations_b_2036319.html
2
As long as she fails to name the perp, she not only lacks credibility, but, moreover, covers up for a perp. No excuse for failure to name the perp.
29
When I was a young man I spent a stint in the US Peace Corps in Ecuador. I had no immediate supervisor. After returning home and getting my Masters degree (in Chinese) I then joined the Corp again and taught science and math in Malaysia. Again I had no immediate supervisor. I loved the Peace Corps, but I missed not having anyone to bounce problems off or.
After I came back in 1972 or so, I started teaching Chinese in venues from sixth grade to graduate school. I had found something I loved doing and was at least moderately good at. As I look back at the more than 50 years of my career I'm happy that so many of my students discovered that Chinese is very, very easy to speak (very hard to write). And I'm eternally grateful for the many (mostly) female supervisors and principals who have helped me along the way.
Keep in mind that the services are an extension of the society which supplies them with human resources. If the officer and senior NCO cadre is ethically and morally challenged, what else should we expect?
3
I have no reason to doubt McSally's report of these events in her personal history, and they are consistent with what I understand about sexism in the US military. However, I am disturbed about the timing of her personal revelation. It seems like naked opportunism as she faces a challenge to her seat in the senate. I find such emotional manipulation offensive, not only to the voters of her state, but also to the many other victims of assault and harassment. It seems to me that rather than merely addressing the issue of sexism in the military, she is USING the issue for personal gain, and in a sense, thereby USING other victims' histories as well.
10
This woman has not only been a survivor of a totally male world, but she has flourished in it. Now she'll do the same in politics, another tough male world. So don't expect her to change. It's me me me all the way.
I served two enlistments in the U.S. Air Force as an enlisted Security forces specialist in the late 70's and early 80's guarding Nuclear weapons. The Air Force that I remember cracked down on any breach of discipline without mercy. Punishment was swift and hard with fellow Airmen I knew going to the brig or military prison followed by dishonorable discharges. There were always two standards of Military Justice. One for Officers and one for the Enlisted Ranks. The Former were rarely called to answer for thier transgressions (I can remember none) while the latter were immediately charged. If what the Senator said is true she should have opened her mouth years ago when it happened instead of selling her self respect to ride around in an attack aircraft. By the way if any of my unit had shown up to any type of formation with a female service members hat 40 years ago we would have been removed immediately and then received an Article 15 and drummed out of the service for cross dressing.
3
If she is so courageous, what is the reason for her not naming names? Everybody knows that Combat MOS's are inherently and historically high testosterone environments. Nonetheless, a military officers conduct should be beyond reproach. Part of that is to out the attacker. Keeping his identity concealed only puts other women at risk to be assaulted as well. For that reason, I find her somewhat disingenuous in her pursuit for Justice on this issue. Her kowtowing to Donald Trump and the Republicans who are blatant sexists and not exactly character defining actions that should be lauded by anyone who is truly looking for a champion these issues.
She is now a Senator, who did it? Your in a position to stop it happening to someone else. Hold that person accountable. Tell the world who it was. Especially if they are still in a position of leadership. To do anything less is dereliction of duty to every woman in the United States of America.
15
True or not, the incident's disclosure is a cynical calculated ploy for attention to get elected to this appointed position.
11
A justice-seeking fighter pilot, willing to pull the trigger, with deadly consequences, on an enemy they've never met, yet, who is unwilling to seek immediate justice for an egregious act taken against them by someone they know well, to me, does not fit with the classic definition of a warrior. Warriors are what we need to serve our civil public interests, not sheep in wolf's clothing.
5
I am a survivor of years of molestation by my aunt when I was a child. METoo has helped many of us come forward. I was particularly inspired by the young gymnasts and their courage. I hope more male victims speak out and that they are truly heard. I have been attacked when I have spoken out, accused of “co-opting a women’s issue .” METOO loses credibility when it refuses to support male victims and condemn female abusers.
7
I dated USAF military men (something that I will regret up to my last day for 11 years)--enlisted first and officers later.
I turned down 2 marriage offers (they were not a match for me--intellectually). So, it is not that I am a bitter spinster.
And one of these 2 guys - is one of the best memories I have in life - he treated me like I was a princess, but as an A student in math and science, and a well read person I really could not communicate with him. A marriage where partners do not talk is not a viable liaison for me.
I also have family in the USAF.
This article describes "exactly" the atmosphere in the USAF in those days. I am first-hand witness. I dated these men--again, for 11 years--the best dating years in a woman's life- and I have some very, very saucy stories.
Senator McSally will get a letter I wrote last week already and is forthcoming.
5
The public opinion of now-Senator McSally in the district she served in Southern Arizona is harsh. She promised fearless representation, and delivered a partisan record--voting along party lines.
During last summer’s Kavanaugh hearings, she said nothing. If she’d experienced what she claimed, why did she say nothing? Women who’ve been abused, abused as children or young girls, or raped as young women need the example of other women’s courage in speaking out.
Martha failed her fellow women badly in not speaking out last year, either during the #MeToo moments or during the Kavanaugh hearings. Why should other women believe her now?
24
McSally was Commander of the 354th Fighter Squadron (354FS) during the Gulf War.
1
@Maura3
Need to correct that McSally was not Commander of the 354FS during the Gulf War. She was in that role later in her career.
2
It must be a very conflicting situation for Ms. McSally to be a Republican. She has to know in her heart of hearts colleagues on her side of the isle would not be very supportive of her rape claims had she been a Democrat. The treatment would be significantly less kind. Some may wonder aloud if what she experienced was actually rape-rape and not just rape, as if there is a difference. Or they would have said she doesn’t remember correctly since it was so long ago. Others would blame her for being there in the first place as a woman piloting aircraft into battle is bad for the male servicemen’s morale. And it is almost a certainty if she were a Democrat someone in the highest level of government would declare she wasn’t attractive enough to be raped in the first place.
These are all previously used right-wing talking points and it’s very disheartening to have heard them so much only a few seconds of thought are enough to list them off.
How she comes to terms with being complicit in Trump's grand old party of misogyny is a mystery. She may receive complete support from other Republicans in public, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if another more testosterone-based candidate announces he’ll be running for her seat in 2020 whether she decides to or not.
16
Not unlike an African American in 1860 condemning slavery, while voting to leave it to the slave owners to decide whether to abolish slavery. Incredible.
17
The fact that, at every choice, McSally chooses to vote with male paternalism, utterly destroys her usefulness in combating the crimes which she endured. Her voting record with Trump is near 100%. It is evident that leadership in the military is not necessarily transferable to civilian government. Will work hard to end this conflicted woman's political career, once and for all.
28
It bothers me that the term "masculine" is routinely used in this article to describe behavior that is misogynist and violent. Rape and all forms of sexual assault, as well as language that is derogatory and hateful towards woman, have nothing to do with masculinity. It is as alien to masculinity as "weakness" or "ineptness" is to femininity. I think calling things by the correct names—abuse, assault, misogyny, sex-based hate crimes— is an important step in changing a culture that accepts, covers up, condones, glosses over, and lies about the abuse and oppression of females by males in multiple spheres. We are all survivors.
23
I support Mark Kelly for the US Senate in 2020 in my Arizona. Martha McSally is a Trump sycophant!
30
In the military, reporting a rape can ruin your career. Most Americans assume that our service members, if raped, have access to a fair system of justice. But in the military, the rapist’s commander, not a legally trained prosecutor, has the power to decide if a case will go to trial or what the charges will be. The commander also picks the jury. The current military justice system is not fair. It is time to reform the military justice system. We cannot keep putting our military service members in a position where commanders, who are not legally trained, hold the keys to justice. We need you to declare your support for a military justice system that operates outside the accused’s chain of command. The boss of your rapist should not decide whether to investigate and prosecute your rape, and should not have the power to select the jury. It’s un-American. All the legislation and additional positions (victim advocates and sexual assault response coordinators) have been in general a waste of time because all of them are way junior in grade (enlisted and civilians) to the commanders who simply tell them to shut up and color if they disagree with the chain of command. Congress and the President must understand that the chain of command (commanders) will simply make these people lives so terrible that they will quit or the commanders will ruin their careers if they attempt to counter man their decisions or authority
16
Discharging a rapist is not punishment.
13
I'm a USAFA grad who went to the academy with the intention of flying. After being exposed to the "hyper-macho" culture of the flying community and experiencing rape and sexual assault, I chose another career field and ultimately left the military as soon as I was able. Still, I couldn't say the word "rape" for years and repeatedly defended or dismissed the toxic culture of USAFA and the broader Air Force toward women. I've since done a lot of reading on military sexual trauma (MST), talking with peers, and reflecting on my own experiences. In many ways, MST and its effects are similar to incest - the "military family," loyalty and betrayal are powerful. I am now a civilian and am occasionally around commanders of flying squadrons, men who are now my peers, who repeatedly have sexually inappropriate behaviors, make sexually demeaning statements, and overall perpetuate an environment that breeds sexual violence. When I express my disgust, I am without exception laughed off by fellow officers. Sexual assaults cannot be fairly investigated by commanders. There is too much at stake to protect the unit and there is too little awareness of environments that are hostile towards women in the military. Also, to survive and succeed in that kind of environment as a woman, you HAVE to reject the idea that what is happening to you and around you is not okay. Give Ms. McSally a break. And watch the documentary The Invisible War.
23
No woman should have to go through such an atrocity. I still MUST say, McSally seems to decide against victimes on a very regular, very assertive basis. Towing the party message of Trump may get her elected, but she still has to sleep at night for what she has done in her lack of support for other victims on a daily basis.
26
While I sympathize with any woman who has suffered rape, and ugly discrimination, those incidents are hardly reasons to vote for Martha McSally.
She supports Trump, and she supports the naming of Brett Kavanaugh, suggesting that she is not an independent thinker.
Her timing is a bit off, as well. It's only when Mark Kelly decided to run that she decided to unburden herself about the attack early in her professional life.
Now Mark Kelly is a fine candidate!
39
It is always a brave act when a woman comes forward to tell her story of sexual abuse and sexual discrimination. I am stunned at Senator McSally's bravery especially in light of the extreme toxic environment the military is entrenched in. What a disheartening account of the antics of these toxically masculine males. I can only hope that there has been some change since.
Any deficits in Senator McSally's military performance (and I use that word consciously as any woman in the military must have to perform in a specific and foreign way to fit into such an atrocious culture) must be scrutinized for who is trying to discredit her. For one thing, if she was not meeting certain standards, I believe her superiors and peers can blamed. There is all this talk of camaraderie. I would think any woman in the military, based on McSally's account, would not be supported in the same way as a male soldier. If there is a perception she needed extra help, she probably did because her superiors were not training her in the way they did their male soldiers. Again, I can only hope that there have been some changes since Senator McSally served her country and that her truth will only improve conditions for further women who wish to serve their country.
2
Thank you for this wonderful piece on a good American - who also happens to be a Republican as I am.
In that regard, I say to the Senator - go, get them.
I hope she prevails in her election in 2020.
If anything, we need more women of her type - not issues of assault - but doggedness to succeed.
And it does not matter what party they belong to.
I hope, young girls get to read this story and some of good comments below.
1
@Neil Which are the "good" comments? The ones that support her and say it is not OK to report a sexual assault?
1
Give me a break! I assume McSally was attacked -- but, really, there's no telling with this woman.
When she first ran for Congress from Southern Arizona, she had a moderate persona. She wouldn't answer questions from voters or the press -- still doesn't. She refused to hold any open forums, preferring small, screened groups. She got her funding from Republican money boys -- especially the Koch brothers who have their hooks into Arizona big time.
She voted the GOP leadership line. Ran again on being fighter pilot -- not too relevant. It was harder to pretend to be moderate, given her votes, but she got her hair done and appeared with white suburban women in some ads.
The Senate campaign against Sinema was weirdly incompetent. McSally became a Trumpette, despite Trump's softening support in AZ. Sinema's not liberal. McSally attacked her about her clothes, and lied wildly about her. And lost. Another Koch brothers' sycophant, Gov. Ducey, appointed her to McCain's seat.
McSally's opposition is strong and deep. She now needs the women who hate Trump. Suddenly, we have the rape story -- not that she cared what her former commander did to other women after he attacked her. Not that she was sympathetic to Kavanaugh's accuser.
McSally is not a representative of anyone but McSally, a candidate creation of GOP big money who does she's told to get ahead.
28
Yes Senator Mcsally is fierce, but not so fierce that she had the courage to vote no on the Cavenaugh confirmation
23
It would be nice if Republican women like McSally cared about everyone who is a victim of sexual assault, not only themselves, and didn't support a misogynist party platform that consistently seeks to deny girls' women's agency over our own bodies and lives.
29
This is one reason why I am not crazy about what seems to me a knee-jerk "Thank you for your service" offered to any and all military veterans.
To those who served with honor and integrity--of course they deserve to be thanked, especially if their service put them in harm's way.
To those who lacked honor and dignity, who committed crimes while in the service of their nation, you are a disgrace and should be ashamed.
15
99.9% of us served with honor so odds are if you say "thank you for your service", you should be fine.
1
@Richm
As a veteran and military spouse, I’d say you significantly over-estimate the number of honorable service members. While it may be true that only a small percentage commit sexual assault, many more have been complicit- dismissing, minimizing and helping to cover for these acts.
And don’t get me started on the ugly sexual harassment.
13
I don't understand why Senator McSally has not named the superior officer who attacked and raped her. She has the opportunity to change the system by modeling the behavior for rape victims to follow and also for putting offenders on notice that they might be publicly exposed. I'd like to hear what others think. Why shouldn't she name her rapist?
27
All things being equal, for fighter pilots who have to "pull Gs" in tight maneuvers, the ones with the shortest distance between heart and brain will have a lower risk of blacking out. Fighter cockpits are also notoriously cramped. So objectively speaking, any requirement that fighter pilots be a certain minimum height is evidence of sexist stupidity on the part of the military my taxes pay for.
I went to grad school with one of the first six US women astronauts, who went through a barrage of tests to qualify. Female candidates were doing better on average on a lot of the physical stress tests administered to would-be shuttle astronauts, due to our smaller bodies, lower oxygen needs, etc. These facts have not been reported on much, probably because the show was (and still is to some extent) run by men.
The focus in the military remains on who can climb over the wall fastest or carry a 100 lb pack the farthest. While such abilities may be relevant in the infantry and for Marines, all military assignments are not equal. Isn't it better to be shorter in fighter cockpits, and to be smaller if you crew submarines? (Less space needed for sleeping quarters, less food, water, and oxygen consumption.) And it only makes sense that astronauts who need less space and use fewer calories, water and oxygen would also do better than humans with larger builds and higher metabolic needs.
15
@Humanist Being a small person and only 5'1", I'll tell you that if your legs aren't long enough to reach the pedals, or arms aren't long enough to reach the switches overheard, you have a problem.
2
I'm skeptical of anything McSally says. Have charges been brought against the guilty airman?
9
I'm very sorry for her abuse at the hands of the military she served in so honorably. But given her history, what a strange right-wing pretzel she has twisted herself into. Something is not right here.
25
I am curious as to whether the many commenters saying the military is not qualified to deal with accusations of sexual harassment would follow their own reasoning and say the same thing about colleges.
Criminal law was developed to prevent vigilante justice, to prevent trial by gossip, to prevent personal vengeance, to prevent the Hatfields and McCoys. If the law isn't working, make it better.
7
I think that it might be a fundamental characteristic of human motivation, that if you are abused or mistreated, that is seen as an appropriate response to the world.
If you want to know where evil resides, it is in the mind of someone that has been emotionally murdered. Murder would seem utterly appropriate. It was their experience. In a hostile environment, they might never learn anything different. Particularly to murder someone who was the same age that they were when they were murdered.
I bet that Ms McSallys was abused far before she got into the air force.
3
The volunteer American military is a place where people who are willing to do violence for Empire go for a paycheck.
The "heroism" and "they're defending our freedoms" virtue signaling that seeks to portray our military members are admirable is based on America's arrogant, exceptionalism, imperialist, hegemonistic belief that our country is always right whenever it invades, occupies, bombs, and otherwise wreaks havoc on small countries that never attacked us.
From the days of the Roman legions until now, no woman with wisdom would expect to join herself with a group of violent men and be treated with respect.
That woman are subjected to blatant sexism and sexual assault in the American military was known when McSally volunteered.
The bad people who allegedly harmed her in the military should be punished.
But he who lives by the sword dies by the sword.
And when you join an outfit that engages in the things shown in the Wikileaks Collateral Murder video, you can expect to do bad things to civilians, and to have bad things done to you.
6
McSally is a fraud and hypocrite. That appears to be the consensus and I heartily agree. Calculating. Cunning. Deflect, deny and distract. Sheryl would be proud
And McSally further appears to be yet another in a rather long line of Republican Women In Name Only hypocrites. Let's see who's in the WINO caucus: Cindy Hyde-Smith, Joni Ernst, Marsha Blackburn, Steve King (Honorary member. mascot and driving intellectual force).
Let's call a spade a spade, shall we. These WINOs support treating women as vessels, playthings, sugah. Despicable to every other woman is my view of the WINOs. And for those women and men who support or commiserate with McSally and WINOs, have a serious look at your daughters, sisters and wives and be very ashamed at your choices for them.
17
A person of true integrity would out her accused perpetrator instead of keeping his identity secret, and presumably, his career intact. What kind of women’s advocate allows a rapist to walk free?
27
All one needs to know about an unelected Republican...my god the blindness.
And then, the woman who said she was raped by the system said that the same system should continue to handle cases such as hers. She said that she was opposed to Senate legislation to take the prosecution of sexual assault cases out of the hands of the military chain of command, endangering the bill’s prospects and confounding other sexual assault victims.
11
The Air Force Academy has long been a very troubled institution. The Academy has had many hazing scandals. A simple google search shows dates from 2019 on back to 1996. Complaints were brought by cadets who had to endure religious proselytizing by fundamentalist Christians some years ago. (The Academy is in Colorado Springs, home to Pastor Ted Haggard and James Dobson.)
Why can't DOD clean the mess up? Lacking that, maybe it should be closed down.
6
I share McSally's experience to a certain degree as a former Marine (1986-87) who was assaulted by a superior during my service in the U.S.M.C. My incident took place at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland within the first five months of my career. Like McSally, I never reported it to anyone until much later in life where I began to openly discuss it as a way of sharing and processing the experience.
Unfortunately, McSally now sees herself as a Republican and senator, which is difficult for many women who have endured similar struggles throughout the years to understand.
I am confident that her career choice groomed her to be the leader she is today, despite that it was filled with many unwanted challenges as an aspiring young female commissioned officer in the USAF. She deserves credit for her service to our country.
Perhaps McSally hasn’t yet learned self-care or is it that she is still so accustomed to a toxic environment, she is unaware that she has found another venomous atmosphere for serving her country?
The issues women continue to face within these institutions which are dominated by a misogynistic mindset are no different than the shortcomings of the Republican Party. The failure of any institution to value women as an equal at the table is the real tragedy. Unfortunately, we still have a long way to go before we are no longer dealing with this noxious behavior of insecure egos.
148
To Kim of San Jose:
When it comes to Martha McSally, I have compassion fatigue.
She might be my senator, but I did NOT vote for her, I do NOT agree with her support of Brett Kavanaugh, and I will NOT believe she is sincere until she apologizes for the double standard she imposed on Dr. Christine Blasey Ford—whose detailed testimony McSally doubted because of a lack of corroboration, but we are supposed to believe McSally's own sexual assault without any details, names, or corroboration (all of which Ford provided, but it wasn't good enough for McSally to call credible).
87
@Kim
What an articulate and fabulous response!
19
Blasey-Ford had the guts to get in front of everyone and expose a dark and painful secret. McSally doesn’t seem to have the same will-power in this particular situation, despite her history of powering through numerous difficulties. Maybe there’s something in bringing someone down who can do what you can’t.
29
Let's hope the voters of AZ rid her of that gifted Senate next year. Much sympathy for her, regarding the attack when at the USAFA. However, as a country, we have many issues at hand calling for honest and constructive leadership rather than an ego driven, lost in the fog narrative.
13
This Arizona voter will be voting for astronaut Kelly.
12
Read this and weep.
The implications and consequences are enormous.
I can only think that the military has always wanted to keep it a LOYAL ‘boys club’ because they can keep dirt on all their service members. However, when challenged with the wilting lens of ETHICS, the invisible becomes visible.
Putin recently referred to a BLACK CAT in a black room in a Schrodinger’s Cat scenario. If you only rely on visible light, it might be difficult to say the least. But if you sample the air and use infrared and ultraviolet light, you should be able to ascertain, with certainty, there is or isn’t a Black Cat in that particular room...!
1
What a remarkable photograph at the opening of this story.
4
She’s one of my senators and used to be my congressman. When she had a chance to support her fellow victims like Blasey Ford and Ramirez she failed entirely and stood behind Kavanaugh. I have nothing but sympathy for the fact that she has been raped by two different men, but she has totally failed to support her fellow victims. Likewise she supports the Abuser of women in Chief. She gets no further sympathy from me. Republicans have now put two men who have been sexual predators in their lives on the Supreme Court. For women's sake, no one can vote Republican for at least a generation and claim to support women.
35
Shameful. Should NEVER happen, but maybe if she had come.out during the Kavanagh hearings, it would have meant more going forward. Mcsalley had the opportunity to speak out then and let her soon to be Republucan pals really know and understand the trauma that rape causes and how difficult it is to come forward and speak out about it. Shame on MM
19
I understand Col McSally identified herself as a fighter pilot during her campaign. Well the A-10 is a 'mudfighter' or 'grunt in the sky', and not a fighter aircraft like the F-15/F-16/F-22. She needs to say the name of her coach and senior officer whom both raped her. Who are these despicable creatures? Let the world know.
17
Senator McSally has an admirable personal story that sadly also displays signs of bad judgment. The abaya lawsuit is a good example. Requirement to wear that outside the base has nothing to with discrimination and much with respecting the local customs. She was apparently OK with putting US servicepeople lives lives at risk (who would have had to go and rescue her from an angry mob) just to make a point. This is not good judgment.
5
Given Sen. McSally's own experience, I hope she reconsiders her refusal to support Sen. Gillibrand's bill to transfer the power to decide who should prosecuted for what from commanders to military prosecutors who are outside the chain of command. The problem is structural and applies to all kinds of offenses under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, not just the sex offenses. This power of commanders is a legacy of George III's 1774 Articles of War, and one that the UK wisely abandoned years ago--with no adverse effect on good order and discipline. Ditto for Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Israel, Brazil and other democratic countries. (While we are at it, we should also get commanders out of the business of picking military jurors.) Let's get our military justice system into the 21st century.
15
Demanding that the height requirement be waived for her, suing the government about the dress code...she has a strong sense of entitlement.
Taking off with insufficient fuel endangered a valuable airplane, as well as herself. That should have been career-ending.
7
@Jonathan Katz
Strong sense of entitlement? How about officer who raped her?
That horrific male entitlement trumps any she respectfully requested.
1
McSally needs to out her attacker and to let him bear the consequences. What good does saying that she was attacked unless she tells who did it. That takes courage. She is way past the point that naming her attacker will have any affect on her career. She's gained the sympathy by saying that she was attacked. Now, do the right thing and tell who did it. Who knows, by keeping silent in the beginning, she might have just had it happen to many others.
8
Thank you for coming out Senator McSally!
3
Sorry but ... Throughout Sally Mac's recent, failed bid to keep her narrowly won congressional seat she shamelessly flew on the wings of her self-exaggerated AF "fighter pilot" credentials at every opportunity. Now that she faces daunting opposition from a an unexaggerated, actual astronaut she's decided to use - yes, use her half-revealed story of military sexual abuse (her assailant's ID please). Why did she not do so in her recent campaign? Because it would have carried the liberal taint of the kinds of stark realities she chose to denigrate in her staunch defense of Brett Kavanaugh, that's why. No crusading me-too heroine, here, but a calculating. me-first opportunist.
42
Hear, hear!
11
You are right. She and Joni Ernst are hypocrites. I bet if the FBI were to investigate today and try to get prove that they were raped, they would not be able to prove it. So does that mean it did not happen or that were confused? I was shocked when they said they were raped after they voted for Kavanaugh. I always thought Joni Ernst was hiding something. I have lost respect for them.
17
@Jerry Farnsworth OK, a very penetrating analysis from someone who knows neither the woman nor the facts. We're very impressed.
2
Notwithstanding "incredible ineptness in the air”, "severe lack of knowledge and credibility”, and middling pilot skills, Senator McSally finished top in in her class at the Air War College. I guess the rest of the class must have all been women as well ...
8
Gosh, let's believe McSally who finally came out about her abuse but Blazey-Ford, not so much. I wonder why?
18
@David Many people might not even know who Blazey-Ford is. Perhaps you should have explained that first.
The reason few believed Ford is she either suffered a false memory or just plain lied. In any case, she was skillfully coached by her left-wing cabal!
2
Switch the TV Chanel once in a while and your horizons will broaden!
10
@Ron
Well, somebody willingly allowed himself to be fully inculcated with the disingenuous Republican Kavanaugh defense. Now I wonder who that could be?
9
@Ron Gee, Ron, thanks for reporting that. I wish the rest of us could have been there with you to hear the coaching by Mr Cabal. As it is, I suppose we'll just have to trust your "perfect" eye-witness memory of those events.
5
Of the two political parties who could do something about the inordinately high number of male service members who rape our female service members, the one most likely to maintain this rape-glorifying status quo in our military would be the Republican Party.
I knew a female Air Force veteran who was raped twice while serving. One of her rapists was a commanding officer. He got promoted she got discharged with PTSD and now struggles with just about everything in her life. What a just world we live in.
18
McSally has sacrificed her person to the US. She gave away her personal standards, her self respect, her soul being so to speak. Ridiculous. I guess we know who the real tough people in the service are, the females.
7
When conservatives during the Kavanaugh hearings were calling Dr. Ford a whack job because she claimed she never told her family about her sexual assault, McSally came forward with her own story of how she was sexually assaulted by her high school coach and did not tell her family for many years.
McSally did, however, tell other adults of the attack by the coach who reported it to the school principal who fired the coach.
Regardless, I'm glad the Democrats in AZ have fielded yet another superbly qualified candidate for a senate run and this time McSally's charge of "treason" would never fly.
I just hope Kelly has the stomach for what conservatives are going to throw at him. I believe his wife, Gabby Giffords, will make the difference in this up coming race.
14
The timing of Ms. McSally’s disclosure is highly suspect. First, Mark Kelly, a respected Air Force veteran, declared as the Democrat candidate running for the Senate against Ms. McSally and then she came out. Ms. McSally made countless personal attacks in her last campaign. I have no doubt that she would time her disclosure of this sexual attack to get a leg up on Mr. Kelly.
5
@michjas Mark Kelly was a Naval Aviator and is a retired US Navy Captain.
2
@michjas Are you saying that the fact that you"have no doubt" should be enough to convince us of its inaccuracy ?
So much schadenfreude and victim-blaming in a "progressive" forum. Shocking and, dare I say it, deplorable?
6
Hanging upside-down and having someone crack her over the head to gain an inch of height shows a lot of grit and determination, but not much intelligence. If being too short means not being able to adequately see out the cockpit or reach all the controls she would be risking herself and the lives of others for no good reason.
2
I will not vote for Martha McSally and will support Mark Kelly to get her out of the Senate. McSally is a go-along-get-along Republican under the wing of Mitch McConnell and Trump and doesn't have an independent bone in her body. She is not an advocate for women or women's rights. I don't know why she made the disclosure about her rape except perhaps the cognitive dissonance of sitting in a hearing while others testified got to her. She is a follower, not a leader. Bad role model overall.
17
An important historical correction:
This article repeats the claim that Martha McSally was “The first woman to pilot an American warplane into combat…”
Some fact checking should have been done here. Regarding Martha McSally, the US Air Force states, “After completion of her training, she was deployed to Kuwait in January 1995”. There she became, “the first female pilot in the Air Force to fly in combat”.
Women Naval Aviators were flying aircraft carrier combat missions for the US in 1994.
An example of what could be the earliest occurrence of a woman flying a designated combat mission for the US -- a woman aviator flying an F-18 on a combat mission from a US carrier --
From the combat flight entry in the log of Lt. Sharon L. Cummins:
Aircraft carrier: USS Eisenhower, CVN 69
Combat flight date: November 16, 1994
Aircraft Model: F/A-18C
Aircraft serial number: 164203
We thank Senator McSally for her service, but I don’t think we should forget or minimize the service of the US women who actually first flew warplanes into combat for the United States.
11
@Robert Deegan Okay, Bob, and now back to the point of the story.
Certainly, if the assertion that Martha McSally was “The first woman to pilot an American warplane into combat…” were not featured so prominently when describing her in this article, it would bear omission. After all, she extols this fictitious achievement enough on her campaign site and it’s easily found on her Wikipedia page.
Still, setting the historical record straight is not a bad idea.
Our country’s history would be better served if every time Martha McSally makes this self-aggrandizing false claim, the service of the women who actually preceded her were honored, at least, with remembrance.
References:
https://mcsallyforsenate.com/about/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_McSally
6
Rather interesting that she falls into line behind her commander in chief; he of the grab 'em ethical standards. Like most Republicans today, she goes along to get along, it seems. I guess there are some Republicans with integrity out there somewhere, but this type seems rather scarce in the alleged leadership of this country.
11
Conflict of interest. Just as prosecutors should not decide the validity of a case against law enforcement officers, senior military personnel should not determine validity of military personnel misconduct.
7
I don't wish violence on anyone.
Yet isn't it ironic that Senator McSally serves the Republican Party under Donald Trump, a five-time draft dodger, an anti-veterans party whose core values are bigotry, greed, homophobia, ignorance, misogyny, racism and xenophobia?
My sister-in-law's niece entered the Army after graduation from college and became a foreign language specialist. She too had to flee as soon as she could due to the violent anti-woman philosophy of the U.S military, which just threw thousands of soldiers out of the service for the "crime" of being born transgender.
8
@Jay David Actually, no woman in Washington wants to be under Donald Trump.
1
How any woman can remain a republican with the party's anti women and children policies escapes me. Allegiance to 45 is the epitomy of hypocrisy. I hope Arizona elects mark kelly.
20
Yes I can not understand it. They must think women are inferior .
3
Here is an idea. Maybe women shouldn't serve in the military because if they do they are likely to be sexually assaulted. There is a reason women did not historically serve in the military. Being in the military is not like being in the workplace. If you insist on having women in the military then women will be sexually assaulted.
2
@wolfman So because some men in the military are vicious jerks who feel entitled to assault others, they get to stay, but women should go? That's very logical.
8
McSally is not a survivor. She is an accomplice to both America's war making and for the man, or men, who she alleges assaulted her. McSally fought in America's patriarchal wars, and refuses to name the Air Force superior she accuses of raping her. McSally allows her attacker to make new victims; she is not a woman of courage. Voters should not select McSally as a political leader to represent them; she will betray them as she has betrayed other women who have been sexually attacked.
7
Ms. McSally’s personal history is one we are all too familiar with, wherein a woman of exceptional ability and fierce will decides she wants to deliver on what she clearly views as her own personal call to duty, only to find, while American society as a whole has changed with respect to acceptance of women, certain institutions - the military being a prime example - still thrive as old boy’s clubs.
I don’t think it necessary, or wise, to psychoanalyze her reasons for the timing of her telling her story, as it seems clear she has the utmost respect for the Air Force as an institution and wants to ardently support it despite personal sacrifice very few of us could, or would, endure. And all the while, she was determined to jointly promote the USAF’s (and her personal) mission.
Someday, due to the sheer, outward unjustness being revealed one story at a time, we may actually give women the respect they deserve instead of second-guessing their motives.
8
It seems her courage left her when she entered the Senate and voted for Brett Kavanaugh. She could have been a very powerful voice.
21
Except for the fact she was not a senator at the time of the vote.
4
And that same misogynist culture embodied by President Trump and Republican party are laughing at Ms. McSally who supports them and theirhostile culture against women.
Candidate Trump was recorded on tape:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/us/donald-trump-tape-transcript.html
15
Why is she a republican?
19
She is very brave. Her attacker is a chump. All attacker’s are chumps. It’s this simple, protect women. Common sense and decency and law.
3
That a white European American Judeo-Christian woman was afraid to expose her rapist shows the desperate despair and despicable deplorable plight of black African American Judeo-Christian minority females in sexual assault and harassment situations.
The #MeToo meme and movement was pioneered some years ago by a black woman Tarana Burke. But until white women appeared it did not matter. Black women were and still are invisible.
Having lost a race for the Senate Martha McSally was appointed to " fill" John McCain's seat. Her belated victimhood has the stench of political expediency in the Age of the Kisser Lady Parts Grabber in the Oval Office.
13
military is, among other things, a license to kill. why should rape be any different.....
5
Once again, I question McSally's timing. She reveals her harassment now, but why not last year or when #MeToo really picked up steam? Ah! Well, she wasn't trying to hold on to any Senate seat then, but she is now, and her claims of rape can certainly elicit a lot of sympathy. Meantime, her opponent Mark Kelly (himself a highly distinguished pilot, astronaut, political activist and loyal, loving husband to a former Congresswoman) distinguishes himself by conducting an honest and straightforward campaign to date. Absent is the hypocrisy so abundantly displayed by McSally. What does she take us for, complete morons? Gee! Guess who I'll be voting for.
34
I suggested the #metoo movement in a comment to an article in this newspaper just like the one I’m making now.
Five days later, the actress Alyssa Milano took that suggestion and tweeted it and the rest is history.
My suggestion for a ‘me too’ response was directed at actresses who had experienced the ‘casting couch’ or any other form of sexual predation.
We’ve all seen how far and wide and limitless the response has been for those who have been compelled to utilize #metoo to express the realities of the darkest and most painful corners of their lives.
How can anyone judge the timing of a woman coming forward to publicly declare that she too has been victimized? I don’t support this senator politically but I admire her for coming forward and declaring #metoo.
Let’s never forget that she many times climbed into the cockpit of a supersonic jet having taken the bargain to give her life so that we could all be safe in ours.
McSally's reason for trumpeting of an alleged sexual assault over a quarter of a century after it allegedly occurred is obvious--it's a desperate effort to pick up enough women's votes to get her elected.
How shockingly devious and cynical.
15
I don't know if I even believe her at this point.
14
Never underestimate the attraction of victimhood in this country.
We wear it like a badge of honor......
5
McSally's time in the AF is a complicated picture. She was certainly bullied, harassed, raped, and tested to see how she would respond to a very tough situation, putting obstacles in her way most men did not encounter, which surely made her a trailblazer. For that, she deserves respect and perhaps admiration. She also was a middling aviator, and yet was promoted ahead of peers...even while publicly rebelling against AF regulations and even suing the service. In short, she was probably not the "best first" to trail blaze women into fighter cockpits and leadership positions. But she was who she was, did what she could, imperfectly, sometimes against enormous odds and sometimes being shepherded along for obvious political purposes. Yes, a complicated picture.
6
...but/and she voted yes to Brett?!
15
"...because she had severe lack of knowledge and credibility."
If that was the case, she would not have been allowed to pilot a fighter plane now, would she? Come on, dude, you can come up with better excuses than that.
6
If the rapist is still in the military -- shouldn't he be called out to protect others?
12
For the record, NY Times, an A-10 is not a fighter. It is an attack aircraft. Note the designation : “A”-10. “A” stands for “attack”. Fighter aircraft are designated by “F” for “fighter” as in F-18. How could you get this wrong? Sen. McSally is a combat veteran, she was not a fighter pilot.
11
@John Thanks, John. Very important contribution to this rape story.
2
So Martha McSally rightfully cries about how she was treated but still wants to keep the foxes guarding the henhouse. Sorry, but she doesn't seem to realize how what she wants belittles her own complaint. She seems to totally buy into the GOP attitude that "boys will be boys". If she truly feels that way, why is she bringing all this out now?
10
@T3D Why? Ask her. And be prepared for some shocking accounts of intimidation.
I admire Ms. McSally's service in the Air Force and the barriers she broke, but it's time for her and women like her to use their success to change things. Her not supporting the legislation is abhorrent - she of all people knows better and is in the position to make a change.
It astounds me that so many women want to continue with the status quo instead of improving the lives of women coming up the ranks. This is similar to the many women who voted for Trump even after knowing his history. This is like the women who voted and defended Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate race. What are these women thinking? Do you really want our daughters to continue with these horrid experiences? What is it with the Greek attitude of I got hazed so should you?
It's time for a change! We need more men and women in office willing to make the changes.
6
Not to digress from the conversation but if I do recall correctly one of the ancient Greeks write that it would be good that military personal engaged in homosexual relationships so as to make the men fight harder for the lives of their lovers. Now of course we don't expect men in the military to find male lovers, and certainly we don't expect now that women in the military would find there female or male lovers, but it is interesting to see how mores change over time. I would bet my car that due to that any platoon of Greek soldiers would easily wipe out any modern military unit of equal size.
1
@Dom
and I would bet my chariot that David would easily wipe out a half-dozen Goliaths. Now back to the story of Ms. McSally.
2
Interesting, the timing of this......she had no trouble maligning Dr Blasey Ford. But now, she comes forward with her own story. Which, as in the case of Dr Blasey Ford, should never be questioned. That said, she lost her election for the. U S Senate. The Governor of Arizona took pity on her and gifted her Sen McCain's seat.
She's now in a battle for her political career. Up against a very popular former astronaut who is also the spouse of a very well known and popular former member of Congress who is the victim of gun violence, she suddenly feels the need to share this experience while, less than a year ago she came out strongly questioning another victim of sexual assault, Dr Christine Blasey Ford. Is she sharing her experience for political gain? I wouldn't be surprised.
7
So, you go from fighting for the freedoms of America, to being complicit in the removal of health care to our most vulnerable citizens. You are on the wrong team now, that is for sure. Nothing about the Trump administration represents the military core values of: honesty, integrity, and service to others. Now, you get to tarnish your reputation by being associated with Trump--everything he touch does die.
7
The Air Force Office of Special Investigations unit on each base does not report to the local base and wing commander. Instead, it reports to a single central headquarters which resides in the AF Inspector General shop on the Air Staff in the Pentagon.
AFOSI was given this "vertical" structure to mimic the FBI's independence from local politics and interference.
Local commanders can and do request investigations but the unit is free to report up the OSI channel without their involvement if circumstances warrant.
Tools are available to protect sources and subjects at the local level if needed and so directed by Hq, OSI...
1
Martha McSally is a true Republican No empathy unless it happens to them. Christine Blasey Ford bares her soul, her family has to move to safer ground, they are threatened and in hiding and McSally doesn't believe Ford. She also won't even name her sexual assaulter. Republicans have no idea how to walk in someone else's shoes. They only care when the shoes are on their own two feet. Go Mark Kelly, you would make an excellent Senator.
13
With her support of kavanaugh and trump, McSally is part of the problem, which is astonishing considering she was a victim.
8
She is brave for sharing her story and I support her for that.
I wish she'd done the same for Dr. Ford.
37
I've noticed that some comments are asking why Senator McSally doesn't identify her attacker now that she is out of the military. I'm guessing she's afraid she'll be sued for slander. I know Sen. McSally doubted Christine Blasey Ford, but I absolutely understand why she would be reluctant to identify her attacker now. She has too much to lose and very little to gain.
3
As all women do since women suffer even more when reporting rape.
I have seen articles on many cases in which judges give rapists very little punishment. Reasons given: They don’t want the poor rapist to have their life and career affected. One rape (that they were caught at) is understandable. The kids asked for it.
These judges dealt with cases of men older than 30 who were convicted of raping preteens!!! The kids killed themselves after they were raped. Yet still the judges are protecting the rapist, and have no concern about the victims.
Rapists of adult women often given any punishment at all.
1
She has a very impressive resume but lost all credibility when she started looking voters in the face saying "I want to protect pre-existing conditions." Her party fought tooth and nail to destroy protection for pre-existing conditions.
29
Given her history, why on earth would McSally support Trump? I will be voting for her opponent — whomever that may be.
53
As a retired Air Force pilot, I too am very familiar of the sexist environment women faced at the time when Senator McSally was learning to fly. I in fact roughly preceded McSally by about a year at the same base where she earned her pilot wings.
Senator McSally's daunting journey is indeed worthy of a Profile in Courage award. I don't agree at all with McSally's politics, but as a father with daughters I appreciate the need for accountability of military leadership as it relates to sex crimes.
All that being said, I totally disagree with keeping the currently failed prosecution of these crimes in the hands of military commanders. The system has failed ad nauseam both society and especially victims. Why would we think that a pilot commander has the wisdom of a judge, readily grasps the nuances of evidence, and even bigger, the horrific paradigm of victims of sexual crimes? Exactly. There is no reason that any sexual victim should sacrifice their rights to justice just because they wear a uniform.
Congress should pass legislation allowing sex crimes to be prosecuted in those county's where they occur and in in overseas locations, that have a Status of Forces Agreement, have those trials held in a county of the defendant's state of official residence. The time for progress is now.
310
@Zdude
Exactly correct!
When a troop breaks a leg they see a doctor not their commander and when a troop is raped they should see a doctor and a lawyer not their commander.
37
@Zdude
Expecting military commanders to handle sex crimes committed by the military is like expecting bishops and cardinals of the Roman Catholic church to handle sex crimes committed by priests, bishops, and cardinals.
22
@colorado620
Exactly there is an inherent conflict of interest, some commanders in their paranoia or quest for higher rank aka "no mistakes on my watch" view such crimes as a reflection upon their command so they do the opposite, they foster an environment hostile to victims. Too many times the "Not in My Air Force" mindset was adversarial towards victims.
8
One wonders why a sexual abuse victim would be so eager to rip healthcare away from millions.
69
No-one should be surprised she was raped. At this point it's a miracle any woman in the military has not suffered some form of sexual harassment or another. What I don't understand is why she still wants to put the drunks in charge of closing the last saloon.
27
She is both a victim and a protector of the status quo. She learned to survive in a hostile environment and advance, so she’s using these skills to promote herself regardless of the cost to her constituents. She also wasn’t elected by the voters so she doesn’t feel a particular need to protect them but rather the people who put her there. She is Military, conservative and pious, and a perfect tool for the GOP to advance their agenda.
49
I am also no no way condoning nor dismissing her rape by a superior officer, just pointing out that she appears to have overcome it. Her defense of kavanaugh is troubling, and her anger and hurt is probably deep seated.
10
@Jsbliv
She's the sort of person who "overcomes" everything. I wonder if her drive and ability to do that is mixed into her ambivalent positions: clear about wrongs, but supporting the archaic systems which allow those wrongs to continue. Identification with the abusers in power?
It's mystifying.
4
@cheryl
Very well put, thank you!
3
Let’s see all these republicans come to her aid and defense when they just simply chose not to believe Dr Ford. Well guess what, I question whether this is an election aid and is the senator lying? First she wants you to know about her being sexually assaulted but she doesn’t want to identify the attacker, why not? She’s hardly in a place to be concerned about him and her military career now. Honestly after watching and listening to her for the last few years, the woman is slightly off her rocker and has no business as a US Senator, thank you Gov Doozy.
She’s been an anti woman lock step trump voter and as such hates women. I sure won’t be voting for her.
31
It pains me to hear what McSally went through. But it pains me even more to know that someone who knew that kind of pain nonetheless allied herself with those who would continue that culture in the form of Donald Trump, and she was a party to so many bills and legislation that ultimately hurt more women survivors than they saved.
She is the worst kind of hypocrite: the kind that should have known better.
85
This is the same Martha McSally who doubted Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's testimony of sexual assault by Brett Kavanaugh because of a lack of corroboration.
Yet, McSally offers zero corroboration of her own sexual assault.
I am voting for Mark Kelly to replace McSally as Arizona senator.
170
One wonders why Ms. McSally doesn't out her attacker. Is he too high up in the military?
16
Thank you for your service, Senator Do-Over.
4
Others on this thread can deal with Sen. McSally's rape allegations, the fact that it was unsafe (career-wise) for her to report them, and the Air Force's (non) response to them. It appears little has changed since the Tailhook scandal.
But this Democrat sympathizes with her on another front: As a 5'0" woman, I, too, have spent my career dealing with height restrictions and designs that assume everyone is between 5'4" and 6'2", leaving those of us who are shorter or taller to deal with daily discomfort (ever seen a tall man hunched into a coach airplane seat becasue his company flatly refuses to pay for first class when the person in front of him reclines their seat and reduces his leg room even further?) and height restrictions that rule out some jobs (I stood as tall as I possibly could at the cattle-call interview for flight attendants as a new college graduate hoping to see the world, and could only manage 5'1/2"--and you had to be at least 5'2").
Frankly, I hope Mark Kelly defeats McSally. I'm voting and campaigning against every single Republican until they stop supporting Trump's corruption, his awful appointments to his cabinet and the judiciary, and his mean-spirited policies. But I admire her for speaking out and, thus, making herself vulnerable to the same sort of doubt and scorn Christine Blasey Ford exposed herself to in coming forward about her high school experience with Brett Kavanaugh.
18
No reason for me to comment on believing her or not. She's not provided evidence. The question for me is what has she got to gain coming forward with this. Answer- nothing. The same was true for Christine Ford. The real test would be for her to name her alleged attacker. That's when the tribes will come out and take sides. Those who say he's an upstanding man, served his country, never been accused, why is this just coming out now. There's no reason to make her a hero for what she said. There could be a sexual attacker out there today- perhaps still serving- continuing to assault women. That's why she has to tell us who it is.
21
And yet she enthusiastically sought support during her senate campaign from a man who was caught on video admitting to touching women without their consent. If she wants to be the voice against sexual assault in the military, she probably should start with the commander-in-chief.
62
She is now a US Senator with all the protection that provides and for her to be believed she must name names. I support the #metoo movement although I believe there are abuses, as in any movement. I believe in the empowerment of women. However, as a politician, and one looking to be elected, after having been defeated and then appointed, I am reminded of the message from the robot on the old "Lost in Space" TV show. "Danger Will Robinson, danger". Is this a political ploy for sympathy and votes or a heartbreaking reminder of the abuse women were and still are subject to today. Names, I need names or I’ll just have to continue to be cynical about Senator McSally's charges.
11
The chief executive is credibly accused of sexual assault. Don't expect anything to be done about this soon.
16
This from a woman who dismissed the credibility of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and supported a demonstrably sexist, racist Brett Kavanaugh who will further abuse women with opinions authored from his lifetime perch on the Supreme Court. McSally sickens people of conscience and continues to harm women, despite her own alleged injury. There’s a word for that, and it isn’t “Senator.”
40
A Republican woman I know thinks that when women are abused, it's their fault not that of the abuser. That's the disgusting logic that McSally supports, condones, and advances by being a Republican.
15
I was brought up Catholic and it is ruled by men. Women are taught that it is their fault , this allows the men to do what they want. A women gets pregnant by a man.If men were brought up to respect woman, they would practice safe sex and we would far fewer unplanned pregnancies. This is one of my pet peeves.
If a woman should not over drink neither should a man so they an both be responsible for what they are doing. It takes two.
1
The article feels incomplete. The reporters didn't interview Senator McSally. Surely we need her answers to two questions: why didn't she believe Professor Ford, and why won't she name her assailant?
25
Several years back, the Air Force Academy came under scrutiny because of the excessive hazing, and, more importantly, how the chaplains there were becoming totally dominated by reactionary Protestant fundamentalists, intolerant of Jews, Muslims, Atheists, Agnostics, and even Catholics. Is it any wonder that such an institution so accepting of misogyny, would also vastly favor the rapist over the victim? And Sen. McSally wants to leave responsibility in the hands of the people who excused BOTH her attackers?
Jump to Devin Kelley, the Sutherland Springs Church mass shooter. The USAF KNEW Kelley was a risk and a danger but held that information back from the civil authorities. He was therefore able to LEGALLY buy the weapons he used to murder 26 people and wound 20 more. But it's clear the Air Force was more interested in "protecting the institution" than the public.
The litany of women attacked in the armed services, particularly the USAF, and the fact that the victims are punished, ostracized and even fired, means they cannot be trusted.
Sen. McSally, along with Sen. Ernst, are both GOP women who have been sexually assaulted, yet both continue to support a party and a President for whom sexual assault is OK. Sens. McSally & Ernst both heard Dr. Ford's & Judge Kavanaugh's testimony & both KNEW in their hearts that Ford was telling the truth while Kavanaugh was lying, yet they voted to confirm him. My sympathy ends with the damage they did to the nation & the Court.
24
The "They" I refer to is USAF. The services need a special type of JAG to investigate, prosecute, and protect victims from retaliation unless it can be proven, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the accuser lied, which probably occurs about once in a thousand times, if that often.
How 2 women who were assaulted could have been the key votes to put a second sexual assaulter on the Supreme Court, who support a serial sexual assaulter in the White House ("all 21 women accusing me, including my first wife, are lying, all of them!") is beyond me. Stockholm Syndrome is usually when one is under the attacker's power, not when one is one of the majority party in the Senate.
I don't get it. Standing with Trump, and the totally misogynist GOP makes no sense to me.
5
it seems the military is above the law.
Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 684; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(G), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2147.)
6
Senator, I believe you and support you just as much as you believed and supported Dr. Ford.
30
Kelly is a good man but this woman should be allowed to keep her seat.
2
@mike russell That she was given and not voted into? That is NOT how this works, this is NOT how any of this works.
8
@mike russell - McSally was appointed. It's not 'her' seat unless she's elected to it.
5
@mike russell
Why? Show your work.
3
By remaining silent on the name of her assaulter and opposing her congressional colleagues, Sen. McSally is doing no favors for any other victims of her rapist. Who will speak for them?
19
McSally won't name names.....1 exception made for height in 7 years.
Go along to get along? Quid pro quo? Just a coincidnce?
Hypocrite who doesn't think the system needs to have oversight but is willing to portray herself as a victim in hopes of the sympathy vote.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it - doesn't apply.
To whom is she beholden (oh, right, she was appointed because she lost the election).
3
Men in this society want to be seen as heroes and saviors, but they continual act like "uncivilized beasts" when they perceive that a woman is out performing them. Do they think that woman are going to put up with it forever? It is about time that they be held accountable for their bad behavior. So Senator McSally has the guts to name your rapist and make him come to terms with his bad behavior and save other women from the trauma that you have endured.
7
Ms McSally is to be admired for being a pioneering woman opening a field in which women can serve. History has shown repeated what abuse is done to women who dare to enter male dominated fields.
It defies my understanding that Ms McSally, suffering those years of abuse, harassment and sexual assault would not support changing the system.
Has she already become so ingrained into the political system, that it is already all about power and not about serving the needs of the public or women in the military.
161
@Heidi
No, Heidi, she's just about promoting herself. She is not brave; she's a plastic created candidate of the GOP men who fund politics in AZ. She does whatever she's told.
12
Senator McSally has some credibility issues that probably will not go away until she names her attacker. She played fast and loose with the truth during her last Senatorial campaign, first in negative attack ads against her Republican primary opponents, and then during the general election campaign in some very scurrilous attacks against Kyrsten Sinema. And Senator McSally has exploited the ignorance of the media and other civilians by inaccurately calling herself a fighter pilot. (She flew an attack aircraft, the A-10, not a fighter aircraft such as the F-15, F-16, or F-22.)
131
@Allan Langland
does it really matter the name of her attacker? do you really believe anything would come of that other than the attacker victimizing her once again through an aggressive denial and further attacks in an effort to diminish her character? we all know what would happen. good for Senator McSally for speaking the truth and about her experience - that's the first step - having a conversation.
14
@Allan Langlan
She also took off as a two ship flight lead. When she told her student to check his fuel she realized she hadn’t checked her own. They had to return to base for her to refuel. She then blamed the episode on an enlisted maintaner.
12
@Allan Langland Nomenclature ... nomenclature. The A-10 may not be designed for classic air combat like the fighters you mention, but as a close-in ground support attack plane, its pilots are exposed to extreme danger from hostile engagements. In many cases, flying A-10 missions is a lot more challenging and takes a lot more guts than the some of the dilletante computer-aided button-pushers flying Mach 1+ on afterburners.
18
A colleague of mine has noted that sexism, harassment and assault of women in the military can take many forms.
Hyper masculine male commanders perpetrated domination, degradation and assault on women in public military settings. They let their male peers know that women are inferior and are incapable of performing under pressure in demanding conditions. These conditions can be in combat or the office.
This senior Warrant Officer was verbally raped in public with spittle landing on her by a marine colonel who treated her as a recruit being yelled at by a drill sergeant. Imagine the trauma. Abuse and trauma are psychological as well as physical.
I served in Vietnam and Bosnia in incredibly dangerous environments. I deal with PTSD.
I talked extensively with the Warrant Officer and am convinced she was the victim of trauma, abuse and an incredibly hostile work environment.
The VA will not recognize the impact of this treatment while on active duty. Of course it took them 20 years after Vietnam to recognize that PTSD was real.
The VA should recognize the trauma inflicted on the honorable service of this female warrant officer.
Vietnam Vet
105
@Michael Women who support the Trump Republican culture that works overtime to denigrate women from the day they are born shouldn't be surprised at lack of support for rape victims-- and lots of support for perpetrators.
13
She is a great AMERICAN. I have admired her for many years.
6
@Charles Denma
Raise your standards .
1
@Diogenes Oh, yes, Charles. Always check with Dio first to make sure you're on the right team. Otherwise he will be very disappointed in you.
2
There's a lot of conflicted emotion swirling around Senator McSally. I fully understand it. I, too, was a woman (although enlisted) in the Air Force in the early 80s. I, too, was a victim of sexual harassment by a superior officer. The difference in my case was that the officer was observed harassing me by my direct superior and my superior reported the incident to the commander. I would not have reported it, and I never had to testify, but I am eternally grateful to my Chief who had my back and never let another pilot behave that way to me. In some cases, the system does work, but it took a man to make the accusation (and make it stick). I'm not sure what the solution is - except to keep up the drumbeat that it is the victimizer's fault, not the victim's. Women should not have to apologize for being ambitious and wanting to pursue interesting and exciting opportunities for which they are fully qualified, even though some of the men they outshine think they shouldn't be able/allowed to. I also don't know how Senator McSally can possibly support the current occupant of the White House - a man who would clearly like to victimize her himself - or force her back into the shadows.
298
@Jenny Yep. You can bet many are laughing at someone who supports the very crowd that refuse to respect all women
7
@Jenny
"a man who would clearly like to victimize her himself"
Seriously? That is one big mighty assumption on your part. Please, give the politics a break as this has nothing to do with Trump and only with what Senator McSally had to deal with on a personal and professional level.
1
I totally disagree with her reporting assault to her superiors. It should be handled by an outside counsel.
12
"Mark Kelly, an astronaut who is married to Gabrielle Giffords, the former congresswoman who survived a gunshot wound to the head, announced a bid to unseat Ms. McSally."
I wish there was a way to have both of them in the Senate. There are certainly a lot of seats that need filling with good people, currently wasted.
8
@Mark Thomason
Actually, no. You don'.t. McSally is an extreme right-wing policymaker, and she is very pro-Trump in all policies. She was not voted in by Arizonans.
Think about that.
28
Sexual assault on university campuses is handled internally. Result: unreported and under-reported sexual assaults.
Sexual assaults in the armed forces is handled internally.
Result: unreported and under-reported sexual assaults.
Sexual assault in the Catholic Church was handled internally.
Result: unreported and under-reported sexual assaults.
I'm starting to see a trend here, but I'm not sure what it is.
76
@Steve Acho
Here's a hint about that trend: in all these cases, men (and sometimes women) knew what was going on and did nothing. And you are right, there is a pattern and, so far, it is being supported everywhere by the people who are NOT LIKE THAT.
In another time, long ago, these people would have been called accomplices, or at least enablers; now they are defended as nice people who are doing no harm. Go figure.
3
I am neither a pandering politician nor pandering media entity. Nor am I any longer a feminist, since they abandoned equality as their goal and since they essentially declared war on fundamental justice by clamoring for punishment upon mere accusation without substantial evidence.
Therefore, my normal position on these accusations is neither belief nor disbelief....I require evidence to support a conclusion. However, in this McSally case, I think she is lying as her story makes no sense. I think she is lying for political gain in order to assist her to hold her Senate seat from a strong challenger.
She claims to have been traumatized by the negative reaction when she brought up to Air Force officers the subject of the alleged rape she claims to have suffered.....and this only for speaking generally about the rape, not even relating the details. Yet this is a woman who sued the Bush administration while she was in the Air Force, thus challenging her superiors over a gender matter. She also defied superiors by wearing a men's hat during Air Force ceremony. Her claims of being worried about her career are therefore, clearly unbelievable.
Making career worry her excuse for non-reporting the alleged rape is even more unbelievable because she retired from her 22 year Air Force career in 2010. Yet she said nothing for 8 years until her Senate seat was in jeopardy from a strong challenger.
14
@Errol
I believe her and I don't think she has anything to gain from saying otherwise.
4
@sthomas1957 If I agreed with you, then we would both be wrong.
3
@sthomas1957 Sure she does - female votes in 2020 (or so she hopes).
After 2000 years of what amounts to nonstop global institutional purposefully deviant treatment of all females - infant to granny, the saddest aspect is that female awareness of the nonstop global institutional purposefully deviant treatment of all females is only now just beginning.
Continued awareness and hard truths will follow, which still guarantees no change in males or their misogynist institutions, only when females and males face the reality of "yes, all men" either as venal perpetrators or indifferent enablers and diffident beneficiaries. Power corrupts...an entire planet and species.
2
@Maggie: Huh?
I have almost always given the benefit of doubt to these women. It's hard to report such a horrible event in one's life. Add the additional pressure of the "all male" or "good old boys" environment and it would be understandable that she didn't push the issue at the time. However, Ms. McSally has shown a long time propensity of being a liar. She constantly lied during her run against Ron Barber for Congress. It amazed me how she could tell so many lies without needing a nose job. The most recent incident involved pre-existing conditions during her run for senator. She had clearly opposed pre-existing conditions and fought against them. As the senate race tightened she claimed she supported insuring pre-existing conditions even though documents and videos clearly showed she had never supported pre-existing conditions. This is just one example of how this person has a flittering relationship with the truth. So, please excuse me if I don't totally buy into this claim just as she faces a pretty viable opponent in Mark Kelly.
25
@Michael Harry Wittmer
Bingo. Thank you for writing.
3
@Michael Harry Wittmer During the Republican primary campaign for the Senate, she accused her Tea Party opponent, Kelli Ward, of being an ISIS sympathizer. This assertion was about as silly and ridiculous as what happened in the Democratic primary for her old Congressional seat when Ann Kirkpatrick (the eventual winner) and Matt Heinz accused each other of being NRA supporters.
I feel fortunate in that I was more or less safe after physically getting away from males who sexually assaulted me. Even though they laughed at me, and least got to lash out at them and confront them with their actions. I can’t imagine shutting my mouth, internalizing it, and having to work in close contact and depend on those same males for safety in a military theater afterwards. I wonder if she would have spoken out, would they have killed her, or turned away when she was in mortal danger and let her die? What does that do to your soul?
7
Hey, Arizona! Wanna further the cause of protecting women, of treating women equally and fairly? Wanna begin to address and eradicate workplace and military discrimination against women?
Step 1: Elect Mark Kelly your senator.
All the history and facts indicate that he'd do a better job than McSally.
37
Oh please. Don't fall for this Arizona. She realizes she is in a very tough fight for re-election and she is just trying to appeal to women voters, hoping they sympathize with her.
23
Just because you (and I) don’t agree with her politics or her ideas about how rape accusations should be handled doesn’t mean she isn’t a victim of sexual assault. I hope reactions like yours don’t scare victims away from getting the help they need. I also hope the military, the Catholic Church, Hollywood, and any other institution that perpetuates and hides sexual crimes cleans up their act and makes amends to victims thoroughly and completely. Besides global warming, equality (race, gender, sexual identity, economic, etc.) should be our top priority—we can’t have a more perfect union without it.
9
@Sara Greenleaf IMO if the allegations were real then she would have brought them up during her election bid in 2018. Not buying her story.
2
And again - I'm sorry, it was wrong, it was bad, McSally was hurt and the whole business is a lesson in the consequences of authoritarian conduct allowed to exist unchecked.
But I will still not vote for McSally. Sympathy and sorrow is not enough to overcome her rightwing politics.
31
There is lots of behavior by Senator McSally that has more than one interpretation. She could be considered by some to have a strong personality that pushed against discriminatory behavior. She could be considered by others to have a personality disorder.
5
We have a toxic masculinity problem that is not getting enough attention. Almost every woman has a story of attack or harassment. There is something wrong with the way we socialize men.
13
McSally has no credibility, too many contradictions there, and sides with her abusers. So what's with her telling ANY story, beyond an attempt at campaigning for high office?
SAD.
9
As a women who says she suffered much abuse by males in her life I must ask how can she support Trump and the GOP?
32
I would push back gently on one statistic.
It was not unusual in those days to have 1 in 4 drop out before graduation.
When plebes and deulies came to the Academies, they were told, "Look to your right ... look to your left ... one of you will not graduate."
In addition, many female cadets and midshipmen quit in order to marry upper classmen who were graduating, while others ... like their male counterparts, did not like the Academy experience and wanted a civilian school.
4
Evidently, Martha McSally wants to have her sympathy cake and eat it too. After reading her horrific story of rape and abuse, I can't help wonder how she can continue to support and shield those who continue to abuse others.
If the senator will not actively use her power to protect the women who came after her, what's the point?
26
Even if the handling of sexual assault reports was improved to create justice for women (or men), the complainants would still face bullying from their colleagues and superiors for making the report. Misogyny and patriarchy are rampant in the military and police forces, which are viewed as the last bastions of male privilege. The pornography, the lewd and degrading jokes and songs tell the story. This is one reason I, as a woman and mother of a daughter, do not automatically accord my respect and support to uniforms of any kind. I have to know whether those uniformed men deserve it.
6
It is unfortunate for everyone that McSally has used her position of immense power as a US Senator to hurt other women who have been victims of rape and assault, to prevent them from getting justice against their assailant.
10
Not approached in this article was the bigger question that must always be asked: Senator, why do you continue your membership in the party that fetishizes toxic masculinity, and perpetuates the harassment you experienced? Will you keep supporting Republican policies, such as those on birth control, that make women second-class citizens?
22
Let us say, the Senator names the rapists. Multiple times, eh? How do we apply due process rights to the accused?
It is difficult to believe the Senator since those who knew her as a pilot in the military have brought up issues of competence multiple times publicly. Yet, she got undeserved promotions out of turn many times. How was she able to manage that?
There has been numerous instances when fake accusations made by women unravel upon scrutiny.
It is time for the pendulum to swing away from automatic assumption that an accusation by a female equals culpability that deserves conviction. No, there must be an outcry for due process in all these after the fact, unprovable vague accusations. In the least, credible independent and thorough investigations must precede before the old, self-serving claims of women are accepted on face value.
McSally presents a treasure trove of opportunity for unbiased investigative reporters.
6
Perhaps Senator McSally’s long career in the USAF, as a successful and rewarded part of its hierarchy, has left her unable to be objective about, or perhaps uneducated about, how an independent judicial process should work.
I think that being a victim does not make you an expert in helping victims receive justice, or in setting up institutional protections to prevent sexual assault. (I am a survicor myself).
As a result, as much as I deeply admire her career accomplishments, I would not vote for her, because I question her judgement on issues that are not about flying jets.
Mark Kelly will have to prove he is more than an astronaut-hero too. We are well past selecting media personalities to run our government.
121
@Terro O’Brien. Doesn't the current occupant of the White House give lie to your statement 'we are well past selecting media personalities to run our government'? Unlike him, Kelly has proven himself to be a man of principle, a supporter of women, an advocate of gun safety, and one who is fearless in the face of adversity. Seems like a pretty good bet to me.
42
I live in AZ. The extreme level Martha McSally went to publicly smear her opponent was nothing short of personal harassment.
The reality is women are often abused in all walks of life. She knows it and still is willing to protect the institutional sexism and rape culture that exists in the military and throughout both the public and private sector.
I really feel for her but I would never consider voting for her after watching her campaign for the US Senate. Despite her terrible personal experience she is on the wrong side of the issue.
327
@HL
I agree with you wholeheartedly. She ran a nasty campaign last year and now this? She is apparently running for 2020 and her seat in the Senate. She didn't believe Dr. Ford and said she would have voted for Kavanaugh. Wonder why she didn't believe Dr. Ford. I suggest she is part of the problem and will stick up for the likes of Kavanaugh and Trump no matter what. She won't name the person who allegedly assaulter her, wonder why? So I don't believe her at all due to the above. We support Mark Kelly and hope to turn AZ blue in 2020.
26
I have a somewhat different perspective on women in the military(the Army). When I met my late wife she was an Army Captain (her 1st husband was killed in combat in Vietnam). I was a young 2nd Lieutenant just out of Infantry OCS. We clicked immediately and were soon a couple, and then husband and wife.
After we married she chose to leave the military, and pursued a civilian profession. She of course had a hard time adjusting to my orders to Nam but was supportive of what I had to do, and until her dying day was a strong supporter of the US military.
She never lost her love and respect for the US Army, and never had any complaints about the military. Until the day she died she was very proud to have served (and that I did also). I too am proud of my service. After my military obligation was completed we both pursued civilian careers. We were both always proud of our service, and I am proud of those who are serving today.
6
@bwc A commendable perspective, but Ms. McSally hardly represents a small sample of how women were and are treated in the military. Ms. McSally doesn't say she isn't 'proud' of her time in the military, but just that many, many women in the military are subject to psychological and physical abuse because of their gender. I, too, served in the military during time of war with a combat MOS, and know first hand the derogatory way women were treated and talk about in a hyper masculine and disturbing fashion.
7
I’m glad that Senator McSally is now speaking out about her attack. This should not happen to anyone. However, it will not influence my vote in 2020. Unless, Ms. McSally starts voting for what her constituents want and not what the party wants, she will be facing a tough battle in Arizona. FYI - Ruben Gallego announced that he will not be running for the 2020 Senate seat, leaving a easier path for Mr. Kelly.
28
You can't spend 26 years inside a system and not become institutionalized, which is exactly what she worked to do by going up the ladder. Her determination is impressive, her ability to empathize with the experience of other victims - who are different than she is and whose experience is different - is a disappointment. Trauma is defined by the victim. By allowing the military to police itself you're creating the same situation that exists for the Church. We all know how that's turned out.
47
My own exposure to military court martial justice was during a brief stint as court recorder at an overseas army base. Knowing shorthand and typing, I had volunteered for this part-time task as a way to avoid more disagreeable duty during field exercises in the cold of a German winter. It was something of an eye-opener!
I heard the board of officers judging that evidence agree amongst themselves before hearing it and prior to the trial that the accused must be guilty. So much for justice!
I also saw the prosecution lose one case because the defendant had been tried under the wrong numerical code for the military offense he supposedly had committed. That case went for the defendant, because none of the prosecutors’ evidence applied to the offense for which on paper the defendant had been accused. So much for judicial expertise!
I knew (as only other enlisted do know) that the defendant -- a regular army enlistee -- purposely had been committing offenses of a lesser nature in order to be thrown out of the army on a section 8 (undesirable discharge.) He eventually logged in a bad enough record to succeed. So much for investigative insight!
35
The support of Trump, Kavanaugh, and all the others is not so unusual. Many women are raised to be subservient, assume that they will be used by men, that it is just part of life. Self esteem was taken away early in life, and acceptance of it is common among many women. Trump and Kavanaugh have lots of female supporters.
42
Where is the evidence? Republicans asked this question when Dr. Ford complained against Kavanaugh during confirmation for Supreme Court. Almost all Republicans voted for confirmation of Kavanaugh because of failure to produce evidence. Ms. McSally should first condemn the Republicans for asking that question, or else, this is just a gimmick to get sympathy votes during 2020 election.
60
@Kodali
Read the article again. A male friend of Senator McSally's said that she told him of the assault at the time it happened. It was not made up as "a gimmick" for vote-getting. Under the law, a contemporaneous utterance (i.e., something said spontaneously at or near the time of a deed) is given greater weight and credibility.
I believe her.
2
So sick of hearing this demand for “evidence” of rape. It is not like murder or robbery or tax fraud, all of which likely have a corpse, stolen items and a set of bruises or worse, or a financial paper trail. Unless a woman immediately sees a doctor theres no way to get the dna evidence. And even if she did, the rapist would insist it was “consensual.”
3
@Kodali
I wouldn't put it past her.
2
McSally represents a common psychological response: the single minority functioning within the world of the majority often takes on the mindset of their abusers—I.e. in order to succeed, they may join in on the worldview that harms them, warping their own vision. We can feel profound compassion for the McSallys and Clarence Thomases of the world, but we should not allow them power over those they should protect anymore than we should allow their abusers to remain in power.
39
As a retired police detective who investigated hundreds of sexual assaults and the father of a daughter who is a military officer I have nothing but contempt for Senator McSally. She has a duty now to name names, push for complete investigations by law enforcement and insure those who attacked her, and no doubt others, are held accountable. What does she have to fear now that she testified about her experiences? I'd bet a retirement check there are other victims that don't have a voice and the bully pulpit to force change. McSally has nothing to help the women who now serve and who have served and who are and have been victimized. What's her motive in not naming names? I'm highly suspicious that she has something she wants to hide. It's all or none now. McSally opened the door a little and now she needs to open it all the way.
138
I have great compassion for anyone who is raped. I agree that she is in a position to push this further to hold the person who raped her accountable but I will not judge or second guess her reasons for not doing so — but I do praise her for speaking out.
5
I’m not sure she has something to hide but feel she is jumping on the bandwagon gaining her sympathy votes and votes from women in general. She has done absolutely nothing since being in Congress to help women in their struggles to gain acceptance and their rightful place in male dominated fields. I did not hear word one from her in support of Dr Ford.
I think we are see a politician using her rape as a tool to gain women’s votes. She has to run next year so she’s doing everything to make sure she wins this time. I will never vote for her after her stint as a Congressman which she used to travel incognito so she wouldn’t have to talk to constituents. Her voting record is a lock step trumper and for that she gains my contempt and distain.
I think the hit on the head she asked her friend to make her taller might have caused some brain disfunction
19
@Bill "Contempt?" Seriously?
2
I'm not sure what to think of leaving the military in charge of rape accusations within the military. But Ms. McSally has certainly done her share. She was so many firsts. It is not fair to expect her to change or fight every moral wrong of our military.
I think some things take time to change. While private corporations can take a hit when they fire a predator, we can hardly have top military officials that are in charge of our defense and offense around the world suddenly be removed from their positions. It would greatly reduce the safety of the country if numerous officers are involved. We can't just cut them in one sweep. The military knows who these offenders are. They need to move new recruits into these positions before they can move the offenders out. Changing the culture and removing those responsible for the violence will take time.
We will have to keep the pressure up on the military for change. It is our collective responsibility to do this as a Nation.
5
@Lydia
And how much time will this take? Five years? Ten? Twenty?
This is the classic stonewall that every institution takes when it is caught in wrong doing. I bet that even as we speak, the mili-
tary is "working on it" and they give the respect and dignity of every enlisted person the "highest honor". And any interference with this "work" will endanger the safety of our country? Pardon me while I step aside to vomit; I just hate to mess up my keyboard.
There. That's better. Almost forty years ago the Tailhook scandal went public. "These are women who are just trying to draw attention to themselves" I read in the papers. "These women are failures who couldn't make it in the military and they are trying to use this as an excuse." Every so often, an old white guy, with a collection of li'l badges on his chest, would appear on tv, growling and snapping, "These perpetrators will tracked down and brought to justice! The military does not tolerate such behavior!"
No they weren't, and yes it does! Time to give up the massive slip and dodge routine. Time to shine some daylight on the Penn State/Jerry Sandusky - Mich State/Olympic - State - Catholic Church era and make these atrocities public as what they really are: crimes. There is NO reason that rapes committed inside the Boys' Clubs anywhere should be treated as "special". Rapists, and their protectors and enablers should be subject to the laws of this country.
3
Just a question. Isn’t the Air Force Academy the most “Christian “ of all the military academies? Wasn’t it sued once by a Jewish father of a cadet for religious discrimination? Why is it the the most Christian establishments-like the Catholic Church- seem to have the greatest problem with sexual assault? And clearly this one has nothing to do with being gay or celibate-just a toxic overly masculine culture. I applaud Ms. McSally for coming forward but disagree with her remedy of keeping it “in-house “. A problem isn’t solved generally by the people who created it. It usually has to be solved by outsiders who can clearly see the injustice objectively; the chain of command will always protect its own.
64
I'm not so sure I'd believe that there aren't issues in religious institutions, other than Christianity . . . any institution that is male-dominated, and where there is acceptance of -- indeed, outright defense -- of the hierarchy is going to have such issues. But I don't think that's only Christianity (or even that it would apply to ALL Christian branches or sects....)
1
Now is the time to attract more voters - women. After showing a little bit of courage and independence for a brief period, McSally jumped deeply back into Trumpism when running last time. She lost.
So she now gives her campaign a jump start with old news - believable and worthy of follow up, but decades old and far from combustible without revealing the name of her assailant.
Therefore, it seems that Martha wants to have it both ways as she brings up this issue with high drama as a Trump-dependent Republican woman who is running to keep her gift of a seat in the US Senate.
Long filled by Gabrielle Giffords, McSally won the second time in a very close race for 2nd Congressional District where we live and vote, and then was re-elected as an incumbent once. Unlike Giffords, who was constantly on the local radio or holding public town halls (tragically it turns out), McSally has only recently been out and about in the district in cherry picked locations.
Running against Astronaut Mark Kelly will not be a walk in the park. He is very real, and his wife is a monument to courage and conviction.
74
Good on Sen. McSally for her grit and accomplishments. But her unwavering support of the most corrupt person ever to hold the office of President of the United States does not speak nearly as well for her judgment in the present time.
86
While I praise the Times for writing this story, I think they have missed a huge piece of the puzzle. Do you know why so many women have stories like these in the military? It's because the military justice system is fundamentally broken - that problem effects all service members, not just women.
We can see this is gross waste and abuse, mismanagement, the consistent promotion of toxic leaders, the continuation of good old boy networks, the hiding of problems (leading to overt attacks on all whistleblowers), repeated failure to publish accurate records (why is the DoD still not capable of being audited?), the breath and depth of senior officer misconduct included drunken rage in Russia, sexual misconduct, and a massive bribery scandal that rocked the US Navy - none of which was caught by the various service Inspector Generals.
Behind this are commanders. Many are good, but just as many are ambitious. They have zero legal training. It is too easy to bury 'bad reports' until the next guy takes over. It is too easy to attack the victim rather than accept a failure in leadership. More importantly, there are no consequences to engaging in the fundamental denial of justice.
Given that reality, is it any wonder that we keep hearing one story after another like Senator McSally's? As a vet who witnessed the application of UCMJ, I can offer testimony to just how extraordinarily broken this system is. It's not justice. It's revenge.
32
@Eric G
Thank you a thousand times, sir, for giving such a blunt description of the military, church, government, and most institutions in this country. This sort of thing has been going on far too long; surely, in this age of digitally connected everything, we can bring some degree of openness to public institutions.
3
with the senators history of speaking out while in the military on a range of topics it's difficult to accept her unwillingness to go public at the time of the incident. if she had that much credibility and visibility with members of congress, she had plenty of support to make the rape known. this, compounded with her refusal to name the person that raped her is troubling.
hardly the bravery we have been told she has demonstrated in much more difficult circumstances.
9
@pierre
It's possible that she didn't have "credibility" with the visiting members of congress. Maybe they considered being seen with her -- an individual who had achieved so much in the military despite long odds -- as a good photo op or a chance to highlight her accomplishments as an encouragement to others. It's also possible that if she had asked for the support of those members of congress, they would have declined, especially back then when sexual assault was seen as a "he said/she said" situation in which third parties preferred not to get involved.
1
@pierre
Rape and height restrictions are quite different.
She may not be naming anyone because there was no attack?
8
@Andrew Did you read the part about where she said she confided in another officer at the time? or did you skip over that part?
3
@LAGal So, if she lied once, you don't think it possible for her to lie more than once?
This is terrible, and I APPLAUD her courage. I also applaud her dignity to not discuss lawsuits and financial reparation. As a Catholic abuse survivor let me say not all of us want money. In fact, the dozens of victims I know, like myself, want it all to end now. ENOUGH! The Church has been exposed...can you allow us to now TRY and move forward and get on with our lives without the daily drumbeat in the news. Do you have any idea what that's like. A handful of survivors want to "cash in" on what happened to them and the rest of us get dragged along, with our nightmares and continued flashbacks. WE WANT TO MOVE ON!
9
If you did not believe Dr. Ford's testimony, why should we believe YOU now?
61
Dr. Ford’s testimony was quite believable but in our legal system everyone has the right to trial by jury. It might be imperfect system but “innocent until proven guilty” protects us all. Trial by press is ugly and can lead to mob justice that destroys the innocent as well as the guilty.
@Garry Kavanagh wan't being tried, he was in a job interview.
11
The chain of command must be removed from all sexual assault (RAPE) and sexual harassment jurisdiction. Senator Gillibrand's Military Justice Improvement Act must be brought before the Senate and House immediately so that all sexual assault cases are placed in the hands of experienced military prosecutors . The Chain of command (commanders of all ranks) are not qualified to properly evaluate these difficult legal and psychological situations and commanders are extremely concerned how these sexual assault cases affect their promotion status . Furthermore a vast majority of commanders do not understand that rape is such a significant emotional event in a person's life and most want to know what the person was wearing at the time of the rape , instead of taking care of the victim . All the legislation and additional positions (victim advocates and sexual assault response coordinators) have been in general a waste of time because all of them are way junior in grade (enlisted and civilians) to the commanders who simply tell them to shut up and color if they disagree with the chain of command. Congress must understand that the chain of command (commanders) will simply make these people lives so terrible that they will quit or the commanders will ruin their careers if they attempt to counter man their decisions or authority . The current military justice system is not fair or just because military brass continually interfere with the justice process.
17
@libel
Niger anyone....
https://taskandpurpose.com/new-details-emerge-general-texting-subordinates-wife
The scandal is just the latest in a string of harassment or misconduct allegations against high-ranking military officials — from allegations of sexual misconduct at a Christmas party against Cmdr. Chris Servello, who was recently reassigned from his job as the spokesman for the Chief of Naval Operations, to the “swinging general,” Army Maj. Gen. David Haight, who suffered a three-rank demotion and was forced to retire as a lieutenant colonel after his his 11-year affair with a government contractor came to light. The list goes on, and on, and on.
1
McSally was my member of Congress and is now my appointed senator. Despite her history and experiences, she is no supporter of women’s rights.
I believe her. But I’m sorry that her experiences did not give her more empathy for others.
“Ms. McSally said that despite what happened to her, she still believed that the handling of such cases should be left in the hands of the military command structure.”
124
Admirable and gutsy woman. And yet she supported Kavanaugh and is in lock step with this President thereby enabling the very white male centric power culture that condones such actions.
My campaign contribution $$ will be going to Mark Kelly.
668
@Shantanu I agree that McSally's actions and vote for Kavanaugh seem to be disconnected from her experience. But I am not surprised. I spent a career as a JAG and tried and defended many cases. When I was defending women I was hyper aware of attitudes of potential women jury members during jury selection. I found women officers were often unsympathetic to women defendants as they had developed a hard shell based upon their own experience of having to put up with rampant misogyny and harassment. Their attitudes were often "I had to put up with the same or worse and have overcome it, so you are weak if you have gotten into trouble or acted out."
45
@Shantanu
Agreed. She is brave and inspiring until you get to the part where she sold out her moral compass for political aspiration.
I've already donated to Mark Kelly and hope he wins.
68
@Shantanu
Many comments here about McSally's vote for Kavanaugh. I expect McSally may very well read these comments herself, but has anyone publicly confronted her on this issue? And if not, why not?
18
If she had pressed charges, naming the attacker, it could have ended her career if not her life. Now she is in a position to do something about it. I can tell you from personal experience that the chain of command does not respond well to whistleblowers. They tend to view their reports as implied criticism and challenges to their authority. This can be the case no matter the genre of the entity, whether church, school, fine arts museum, correctional facilities, or whatever.
68
Well, she retired from the air force and its boy culture and is a senator now, a situation in which she actually represents many many women in congress. She should have some vision of that responsibility. But she does not.
8
Why are these people not actionable? I mean in public opinion. Revealing their identity.
19
Victims have to prove their accusation and that maybe impossible due to the lack of witnesses willing to testify and a lack of supporting evidence as recently publicly demonstrated by Dr. Ford’s testimony. Accusations are not enough in a court of law as we are “innocent until proven guilty.” Victims and prosecutors have to decide whether the legal ordeal is worth in some cases a highly probable “not guilty verdict” for the perpetrators when the evidence fails to prove to a jury, guilt beyond reasonable doubt..
1
@Tacomaroma: I
f women don't name the person, they're told: "Name the person!
When they DO name the person they're told: "How dare you ruin a man's life without due process! Why didn't you report it back then?"
Survivors are blamed no matter what they do.
6
Just name your alleged rapist, Ms McSally. Then let him sue you for defamation in the civil court, if he dares. The truth must out.
65
Where is the leadership in this story??? I am talking about all those males who were elevated to commanders and generals and knew full well what kind of culture they were inheriting---and they did nothing---in fact, they still do nothing---Similar to the Catholic church, we have all these church leaders with fancy titles, and we have Generals with all these decorations, leading organizations with a badly broken moral compass---Upon becoming a new General or a Bishop, wouldn't your first order of business be cleaning this pit of moral depravity up?
136
Men in positions of power do not care about the status of women, period. All talk, no ethics.
32
Men or women in positions of power can and will abuse their power. Many men and women do not — but more than a few do.
5
Yes - knowing the newest recruits CARRY around the PORNO BOX, for goodness sake, and that songs contain lines about misogyny and rape, with the women expected to sing along and yuck it up? Where IS the leadership in the military and why is this STILL happening so long after men and women working together on teams in every workplace? Are men not appalled by this too? I’m amazed....
16
She is being a hypocrite, speaking out of the assault, yet keeping her attacker secret. She should name him and then realize she supports someone so odious.
She's very confused, hard to have a lot of sympathy for her with such lack of courage. After all speaking out is not a new and recent thing. It seems her attacker has won the game.
56
I think that it’s up to an assault survivor to determine whether to report her rapist and that she shouldn’t be judged harshly for her decision not to go forward. The process of outing the perpetrator can itself be re-traumatizing, especially given that such an act would attract an abnormally high level of media attention and scrutiny. Her positions on Brett Kavanaugh or Christine Blasey Ford are disappointing, but being raped doesn’t obligate her to change her political stance. I just feel badly for her. She must be in great emotional pain right now.
4
I completely believe her, and sympathize. But how on Earth can she wholeheartedly and enthusiastically support Trump ?? A self-admitted serial sexual Abuser. Cognitive Dissonance, or political opportunism ?
SAD.
466
Or a belief that Trump though his words and actions though deplorable and immoral also have produced some change she can support. Having said that I look forward to a Senate and Presidency controlled by Democrats.
10
Ms McSally is to be commended for her military service and for choosing to finally share her personal story, but her support for misogynists, Kavanaugh and Trump, certainly challenges McSally's credibility.
336
Senator McSally eventually rose to a very senior rank where she was a commanding officer, and yet remained silent while the individual who abused her presumably remained in service in positions of responsibility to do this to others. Let's remember that McSally, no shrinking violet, sued the Air Force to allow her to leave the installation in Saudi Arabia without having to wear a head scarf. Her failure to do anything about her assault while in service, in positions of significant responsibility, constitute a dereliction of duty and a betrayal of her fellow service members and a betrayal of her responsibilities of command. The only explanation I can think of is that she hoped to be a general, and didn't want to jeopardize her possible promotion.
34
@Todd
I can think of many reasons why she would not want to report the rape at the time, much less publically announce it years later. Ask any woman, Todd, or any man who has been raped. Your accusations of her betrayals and dereliction of duty are misplaced. Those belong to the rapist.
5
@Todd Guy logic.
3
I see her standing with the Republicans the same way I see her standing with the military. It is her strong sense of commitment that is her guide. Unfortunately all teams have all kinds of bad members. In the end that is what spoils the idea of commitment to groups, clubs, religions, political parties. I understand wanting to be treated as an equal and wanting to change the male culture to accept women in those terms, but it is one nasty and ugly process. I still admire her in spite of the contradictions.
11
It is astonishing that McSally fought so hard in some areas of her life and not at all in others. To fight the abaya, the height restrictions, etc., and yet to abandon other women to a rapist, or rather rapists, in the army - it just doesn’t compute.
We should believe her, just on her word, and yet not Christine Ford, who was grilled and threatened? I actually do believe her, and like every woman who’s been raped, I feel some empathy . But she appears to have made a career out of enabling powerful men to rape, and is still trying to do so. Stand down.
174
Thank you for your service, Ms. McSally. I appreciate you sharing your story, yet i am aghast that you stated you would vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court given the testimony from Christine Blasey Ford. These two things seem incongruous. Shame!
126
Sen. McSally was not in the Senate for the SCOTUS hearings or vote. McCain’s appointed replacement, Kyl,was still there and voted yes. Of course, she did support BK during the campaign and said she would have voted yes.
11
It is a shame that those on the right are now adopting the victim culture.
Joni Ernst did it to swat away a scandal, Mcsally is doing it to win a term in her own right next time around.
Simply a political ploy aimed at suburban women, nothing more.
It's also ironic that she is basically admitting that she complained until they chagned the rules and now wants to crow about how she is some kind of trailblazer and won some kind of victory.
7
@Jonathan Arthur--------------------Though your entire comment is clearly misogyistic, a baffling statement is this: "Simply a political ploy aimed at suburban women, nothing more."
Please clarify.
2
When I listen to people tell their story I listen to understand if they see themselves as victims or survivors. It takes work to become a survivor, it’s like PTSD. Silence gives consent to the grooming behaviors of shame/ blame/ fear/ cynicism and confirms the integrity of both the culture and system that allows it. The Catholic Church is an example of a system that thinks they can self-moderate abusive sexual behaviors. We have a long way to go in this paternalistic, hierarchical culture which does not support human rights, and equal rights.
28
School systems are also filled with incidents of women sexually abusing teen age boys.
It seems to me that McSally suppressed all reasonable and appropriate reactions and responses to being raped by her superiors in the military.
And it would appear that her ambition to advance and overcome the obstacles of being a woman in a "man's world" prevented her from rational thinking and long term stability.
What a terrible sacrifice? Was it worth it?
7
I’m sorry the excuse of not trusting the “system” rings hollow. Why would you not go to your county prosecutor. County sheriff, state attorney general, FBI, newspaper, NPR, etc. I don’t care if the military has jurisdiction. It’s insane that she would favor preventing local prosecutors from jurisdiction and leaving it up to military courts. This is the same mentality that caused hundreds of women to not report rape to law enforcement but rather report it to a sports organization or a Title IX committee, neither of which can even fine anyone let alone put rapists in prison. This has to stop.
19
@Shamrock - as an Arizonan, when I got into a 'situation' with the Army, you know who I went to? John McCain. He was a champ. McSally could have done the same thing. Or, if these events took place before John became a senator in 1987, there was another fellow who would have helped her out. Barry Goldwater. All she had to do was ask.
1
Every Father & Mother of daughters & Grand Parents of Grand Daughters, must be outraged over this article and what McSally went through.There is something very rotten in our Military, that must be eliminated.
11
McSally is right. It is essential that the military command structure be held responsible. Any officers that do not see sexual abuse as right up there with the worst of crimes should be driven from the military.
6
Two of my nephews are academy graduates (West Point and Annapolis). When another relative was encouraging my daughter to try out for an academy, both my nephews interrupted and spoke from their experience. They said "DO NOT let your daughter go to these schools. The sexual humiliation and harassment of females is outrageous. It is no place for a woman who doesn't want to be abused or raped."
66
I don't doubt she experienced some kind of sexual assault/abuse. But I am disturbed that she did not report it within the military system. In fact I guess (but don't know) that reporting was required by military rules.
Since she did not trust the system she could have figured a way to seek redress. E.g. Have male friends confront rapist without being identifiable, anonymous letters to rapist's commanding officer. Something. I suspect there is more to the story than she is now saying. Way to late to determine facts.
I would question a fighter pilot not aggressive enough to better deal with a situation.
3
A cure for male entitlement to rape ? Surely you jest.
1
Mandatory reporting would cause real change.
All citizens must understand that they themselves or their loved ones may be the next victim. The only real solution is immediate enactment of state and federal laws for mandatory reporting of sexual harassment and sexual assault . In some states, veterinarians have a duty to report instances of animal cruelty. We should protect each other from sexual predators and from the enablers and colluders involved in hiding these predators from prosecution .
Mandatory reporting requirements are frequently accompanied by provisions that make failing to file a report a crime itself. All citizens must understand that they themselves or their loved ones may be the next victim. Enablers and colluders must also be held accountable and at the minimum be fired.
9
The chain of command must be removed from all sexual assault (RAPE) and sexual harassment jurisdiction. Senator Gillibrand's Military Justice Improvement Act must be brought before the Senate and House immediately so that all sexual assault cases are placed in the hands of experienced military prosecutors . The Chain of command (commanders of all ranks) are not qualified to properly evaluate these difficult legal and psychological situations and commanders are extremely concerned how these sexual assault cases affect their promotion status . Furthermore a vast majority of commanders do not understand that rape is such a significant emotional event in a person's life and most want to know what the person was wearing at the time of the rape , instead of taking care of the victim . All the legislation and additional positions (victim advocates and sexual assault response coordinators) have been in general a waste of time because all of them are way junior in grade (enlisted and civilians) to the commanders who simply tell them to shut up and color if they disagree with the chain of command. Congress must understand that the chain of command (commanders) will simply make these people lives so terrible that they will quit or the commanders will ruin their careers if they attempt to counter man their decisions or authority . The current military justice system is not fair or just because military brass continually interfere with the justice process.
15
I wonder how many women, like me, considered the military after college, looked at the alarming sexual assault statistics and the probability of ourselves losing our careers and pension after being attacked, and walked away.
How hobbled is the military by having rational, fit, intelligent, citizens look at the likelihood of being forced to walk away from a career after an assault by a fellow soldier - someone who is supposed to be on your own team, abetted in his attack by the ranks of people above him who choose to value the assailant in their ranks over his chosen victims - and decide it's not worth it. The pool of available soldiers skews and we lose what are probably some of the best candidates.
82
The flip side of this, heartbreakingly, is the women who didn't have the option of making the calculation, who had even fewer options for making a career and paying of student loans, for whom the military was the only option. They and the ones who had my choices but jumped in anyway are the trailblazers and the ones who shouldered the risks. When these women stand up and tell their stories, we'd better believe them. Their service cost them so much.
13
SC, I applaud you for doing your research before subjecting yourself to harassment in the military. That they allow crimes to go unpunished, the military is hurting themselves by scaring away qualified people that wish to serve.
2
Ms. McSally has accomplished much and women in the Air Force stand on her shoulders. That is all good.
Clearly, though, Ms. McSally has demons and is complex - believing the military should handle these cases despite history, not believing Ms. Ford yet wanting to be believed herself, support of Trump etc. A very conflicted person who wants to align with the very power struggles that oppress her.
There is an element of self-hatred there. Just like with Log Cabin Republicans.
49
@Kelly I am surprised that you didn't just say "She must have asked for it. "
@Pam
What? I really don't know how you got that from my comment.
I find it astounding that she can go through what she went through yet still support the military and/or men in power who abuse their power.
3
She has drunk the Koolaid to survive. Sad. And Republican? Addiction to power trumps acting ethically.
1
I admire Ms. McSally for sharing her story; it takes tremendous courage which she has consistently demonstrated throughout her career(s). I hope she will pursue charges against her attacker or at least "out" him within the military ranks. It's not okay for him to get away with it. It wasn't "a mistake" or "boyish prank." It was and is a crime. For Ms. McSally to come forward is courageous; for her to do something about it is what we expect of survivors.
139
@Patricia
I suspect part of the reason she has come forward is a bid for sympathy in her campaign against Mark Kelly who she probably sees as a formidable opponent.
It also helps that Joni Ernst has already spoken up, but never of them seem eager to identify their attackers.
13
For those who survive the horror of sexual assault, being a survivor is NEVER in the past tense.
The trauma is lifelong, lurking at the edges of daily life.
Thank you for speaking up, speaking out and keeping the horrfic crime of sexual assault and its aftermath front and center.
34
Each person has the absolute right to use the verb tense and describe her (or his) state of mind as she chooses.
12
I was drafted and spent the minimum time necessary, in a combat zone in 1968-69, and only recently, 50 years later, have I begun to see, acknowledge recognition from mostly similarly ranked servicemen.
It is sometimes difficult to understand why anyone would choose a military career, but I think I understand that principals and commitment have a strong part in it. For women to challenge the unforgiving retaliation by their mostly male officers and servicemen and women whose actions against them are unconscionable and intolerable and in contradiction to the higher standards most service men and women display and defend.
We owe Senator McSally a place in our prayers of thanks and good will and a memory that the people trying to defeat and diminish her and those akin to her are in our sights also and we do not forget.
26
Good for McSally. Now she should name the rapist just as Kavanagh was named by his accuser. Then we will see whether she will be pilloried in the Senate.
262
@Bill Doolittle McSally already took part in the pillorying of Christine Blasey Ford.
52
"Ms. McSally said that taking rape cases away would be letting commanders off the hook. She said that military commanders needed to know that they would be fired if they did not prosecute such cases. Critics of that logic say it ignores the tremendous influence male commanders have among their male colleagues."
Somehow I can't reconcile her views on this matter with her support for Trump. She seems to fully support a president, whose behavior has done everything to encourage men, young and old as well, to find haven in disrespecting women at any and every turn. Ms. McSally's political position thus supports the image of her, that she exploits the legitimate concerns of women in the country when she simultaneously supports a man who is having a mostly negative impact on the treatment of women.
I suppose in politics, saying and doing anything to keep your position is to be expected, but Ms. Mcsally seems to be undermining ,at the very least, her female constituents, to say nothing of her own reputation.
135
@KB McSally's assailant was never identified or prosecuted. Why advocate for keeping the same system that forces one to make the choice of military career or justice?
It has to change.
25
@KB Politics has room for varieties of inconsistent views. The American electorate elects no one consistent, tending to prefer liars, cheats, self-servers, scoundrels. It is in plain view, is not a cliché and explains our fall. Politicians are not the only ones playing strange games. We are inexcusably divided
7
@MAX L SPENCER "The American electorate elects no one consistent, tending to prefer liars......."! Something is not quite the same here. NO DEMOCRAT would have been elected as President while cheating and lying like our current President. Why is that? We ARE divided but we are not exactly alike! Republican politicians (and voters!) do not care about moral values as much as they like to talk about them.
4
Shameful. And you can bet that it's not just females who are being abused.
This is a issue that will never go away, but must not go unpunished.
46
The A-10 is a close air support platform, not a fighter.
6
@Jack, I didn't read in this article that it was a fighter jet. The A-10 has an interesting history.
1
@Jack as a kid in middle school I flew the A-10 for three years....in a ridiculously silly video in which you were an A10 pilot varying out absurd missions in this flying Chevy Malibu. Contrary to your real life description in the video game the A10 was the tip of the spear in our arsenal of democracy. ;-)
1
The Tailhook scandal was a series of incidents where more than 100 United States Navy and U.S. Marine Corps aviation officers were alleged to have sexually assaulted 83 women and 7 men, or otherwise engaged in "improper and indecent" conduct at the Las Vegas Hilton in Las Vegas, Nevada. ~ Wikipedia
Dates: Sep 8, 1991 – Sep 12, 1991
For 28 years I have been aware of this disgrace. For a military that prides itself on discipline, there is absolutely NO excuse for this to be continuing into today. We condemn priests and bishops and even the Pope, and yet we continually turn a blind eye to our Military. This must end NOW. Our military, our campuses, it is so bad that we even run separate subway cars for women so they won't be groped on their way to work.
232
@Ken Sayers - you can help end it by naming the people involved in your headline-grabbing accusation which the senator has refused to do. if a nameless, much less powerful lady can challenge a supreme court nominee, how can a fearless combat pilot not do the same?
21
@Ken Sayers wait, what? Where do we run separate subway cars?
6
@squrt29
In many 1st, 2nd and 3rd world countries, separate transit cars to protect females from deviant, subhuman males is common. Of course, this isn't foolproof and doesn't address the problem of misogynist societies using all females as free labor and amusement of their special son culture.
7
She has put more women at risk in all sorts of ways with her vote for Kavanaugh.
566
@Judith Dasovich Just to be accurate, McSally never voted to confirm Kavanaugh. She was not in the Senate at the time of the confirmation. She did, however, do enormous damage by publicly supporting Kavanaugh and doubting his accusers.
151
@Judith Dasovich Amen on the Kavanaugh vote. She has also contributed to placing an obviously flawed justice -his entitled, angry performance during the hearing unbefitting any judge -on the SC. He'll always be the "I like beer" judge to me.
40
Senator McSally wasn’t a senator during the Kavanaugh confirmation. She was appointed after he was confirmed.
2
It seams strange that Ms McSally did not speak in public about the assault on her when she became a congresswoman and could've started the fight against such atrocity in the military. She decided to speak up now that she has a popular opponent for her Senate sit, Mr. Kelly. Is she trying to use the issue as a tool in her election campaign? I hope not, but it looks like she is.
Also her position about not taking assault cases from the hands of military commanders is very weird. What exactly is Ms McSally's game?
314
@JEH
Her game is ambition at all cost, why not let the world know of her history as a victim when it suits her. However, I understand her reason for not moving the prosecution of sexual assault cases from military establishment. She wanted the perpetrators to be known and punished within, so as to let all military ranks know that such behavior would not be tolerated, thus the judgement and punishment need to come from inside the military. I believe her way is a much more difficult means to obtain fair judgement and punishment. The military is one of closed rank in all circumstances, "you have my back and I have yours." Moral judgement is often not an important criteria for the military.
49
@Agnes I think that Trump probably has to be reminded on many occasions that Col. Nathan Jessup is not a real person and cannot be promoted to Secretary of Defense. Or maybe they’ve given up and just tell him that he died in 2004.
14
@JEH I feel the same way, how come she didn't speak up during the #metoo movement, how come she didn't speak up during the Kavanaugh trail? How come she voted for someone like Kavanaugh. I am not discrediting her past as she did with Dr. Ford by voting for Kavanaugh, however I do question the motive behind the timing when she speaks up.
27
Thank you for doing what needed to be done.
1
It never fails to amaze me how scared men tend to be of assertive women and how they mask that fear with aggressive, demeaning behavior toward them. The way the military shields criminal behavior and dismissed it when the allegations come from women is shameful. Whether you agree with the Senator’s politics or not the crimes against her have to be taken seriously, not just for her sake but for the sake of every other woman who willingly takes on the SACRIFICES that come with serving. That the very organization she belonged to didn’t is despicable.
40
@Marc Nonsense. Kirsten Sinema is a strong woman of character who the people of Arizona chose over McSally. She could have exercised this courage as a senior command, a full colonel in the Air Force, where she could have actually done something about the abuse. Instead, she sued the Air Force over having to wear a head scarf off the installation. Political calculation at its best.
7
Knowing the toxic macho culture of the military, this is a very believable story. But the timing sure seems opportunistic for her political career. In what way do her policy positions support women? None, so this is her way of identifying?
101
@Jason
"the toxic macho culture of the military"
Well, it's their job to kill people as necessary, so yeah, call it "toxic" if you want. Soldiers are not baristas, and warfare isn't a quilting bee.
4
@Ed, thanks for setting me straight. I've been a psychiatrist for the USMC, so I might have my own observations that have some merit...which are that tolerating accusations of rape and sexual assault by giving the issue lip service and then sweeping any actual allegations under the rug, isn't a necessary paradigm for training soldiers to fight in war. I.e., the training and mentality to fight aren't linked to the toleration of sexual assault. Do you dispute that? In my experience, the worst soldiers are the hot-headed macho types, and the best are the calm, composed types. So yea, "the toxic macho culture" is a problem.
33
@Jason To build and maintain excellent Marine (or Army) Infantry units you need young men who are tough (physically and mentally), aggressive, and callous because these are the qualities that are required in ground combat. Yet, these same young men are expected to behave like Boy Scouts when they return to garrison from a combat deployment. U.S. Army Special Forces Soldiers (AKA Green Berets) are about the only group that I know of who can turn the violence on and off like a switch but they are carefully screened, intensively trained, mature individuals in their 30s and 40s. Contrast them with a 19 year old Infantry MOS Lance Corporal who has just survived a 7 month tour in Iraq or Afghanistan and now thinks he is bullet proof, has a large amount of money to spend on a motorcycle or other fast toy, and is seeking the adrenaline rush that he discovered in combat. The result is that you will have a lot of Marines getting into trouble when they get back to Camp Pendleton or Camp Lejeune.
As an Army Infantry Captain once told me in Afghanistan - "America has to decide whether it wants a blue collar or a white collar Army." You can't have it both ways; i.e. young men who can fight and win on the battlefield and who can also become completely tranquil when crossing the imaginary line into garrison.
1
With trepidation I wait for the first comment that will insinuate that by not using the legal system and instead coming out years later that her story is less believable.
13
@Wasted
I think it’s that she waited until her new position was threatened, not simply that she waited.
10
@Pundette Thank you for that clarification.
2
Martha McSally supports Donald Trump and supported Brett Kavanaugh (she said she would have voted to confirm him). She is part of the culture that condones the sexual assault of women. That is incredible.
714
@Michael James
Your victim-blaming got 99 recommendations from a "progressive" crowd. I'd call that "incredible" if it weren't for the fact that "progressives" are as unprincipled and partisan as conservatives. I predict with some certainty that if McSally were a Democrat, your opinions would have bent accordingly.
4
@Michael James - her support of trump and kavanaugh were clearly politically motivated given her aspirations in government. this is an opportunist at work again.
57
@Michael James
The chain of command must be removed from all sexual assault (RAPE) and sexual harassment jurisdiction. Senator Gillibrand's Military Justice Improvement Act must be brought before the Senate and House immediately so that all sexual assault cases are placed in the hands of experienced military prosecutors . The Chain of command (commanders of all ranks) are not qualified to properly evaluate these difficult legal and psychological situations and commanders are extremely concerned how these sexual assault cases affect their promotion status . Furthermore a vast majority of commanders do not understand that rape is such a significant emotional event in a person's life and most want to know what the person was wearing at the time of the rape , instead of taking care of the victim . All the legislation and additional positions (victim advocates and sexual assault response coordinators) have been in general a waste of time because all of them are way junior in grade (enlisted and civilians) to the commanders who simply tell them to shut up and color if they disagree with the chain of command. Congress must understand that the chain of command (commanders) will simply make these people lives so terrible that they will quit or the commanders will ruin their careers if they attempt to counter man their decisions or authority . The current military justice system is not fair or just because military brass continually interfere with the justice process.
15
Senator McSally's recommendation that rape allegations and trials be handled outside the military is decades past due. How can any potential prosecutions take place justly within a system that condones violence against women as evidenced in their casual songs and chants. Even many male soldiers feel outrage and offense at these as they were taught and innately feel respect for women. And that McSally's promotions and attention were and are met with criticism is no surprise - after all in the view of many in the service, commanding officers included, she's just a woman, inferior on any level.
Given what we know about the high percentage of service women who are ostracized, raped, exposed to horrific experiences why any woman would want to join the military is a mystery to me; abut maybe more women in uniform is how we change our larger culture for the better.
9
@Shannon You misread or misunderstood. Senator McSally believes "the handling of these cases should be left in the hands of the military command structure".
As a female Air Force veteran myself (enlisted-Vietnam Era-way before she showed up), I find the Senator's attitude and ideas towards sexual assault in the military grossly out of step with women who served or are serving today.
104
Shanban: Read the article. “But Ms. McSally said that despite what happened to her, she still believed that the handling of such cases should be left in the hands of the military command structure.” This is what people are finding so problematic.
44
@Shannon Read the article again - she does NOT recommend that rape allegations and trials be handled outside the military, in fact she is recommending the exact opposite! Everything you state in your comment is true, which makes it even more bewildering that McSally recommends keeping investigations and trials within the realm of the military.
15
I admire McSally and her history but I can't support her political conservative backing of Trump!
172
@LGL
I’m not even sure I admire her. Who gets someone to hit them on the head (something that could lead to all sorts of serious health issues) to try to be taller? It sounds like something in a cartoon. Ditto for hanging upside down. What is referred to as determination sounds like some kind of pathology to me. Has she ever had a mental health evaluation? How do women who have experienced treatment such as described here justify supporting the Republican party in all its misogyny?
26
@Pundette My brother went through similar attempts to make himself a little taller to qualify for a law enforcement position in the military. These are well known maneuvers among short people, male and female.
6
@Entera, as a short person, who knows short people, and has known many short people for nearly 50 years, I must say, I have never known anyone to use these "maneuvers."
10
It's interesting to me now that she is in a fight against a very formidable opponent she now comes forward with her experience. Should we believe her (I do, actually) any more than she believed Dr Blasey Ford? At least she had the courage to name her assailant and come forward. Granted, McSally was not a Senator then, not having been seated, but she had plenty to say about it at the time. If she was so traumatized, but persevered with such strength, why not name her assailant now - esp. since nothing would be done and why not any sympathy for other victims. I guess I can't get over the political expediency of her coming forward with her story now.
183
She and Dr. Ford both tell of being victimized - but McSally thought Ford was lying. How did she know that?
402
@Observer McSally knew because she is a Republican and that was the script, defend Trump and Kavanaugh at all costs. Hypocritical it is. She told her story to set up her campaign against Mark Kelly. That's how she knows.
104
@Observer She didn't "know" it. She simply took the most politically expedient position and called a fellow victim a liar. She is the absolute poster child for hypocrisy.
121
@Observer
Well said!
33
I cannot seem to find any details of Ms. McSally's allegations. Why is it we accept the accusation as conclusory of the fact. I'm not saying it didn't happen, but the circumstances are important. Christine Blasey Ford was forced to recount every lurid detail. Of course, it didn't amount to the type of punishment that it would have for someone without power, but it was necessary. It is here too. At least in the Bret Kavanaugh case I have no lingering doubts. He raped her. The problem is simple, the allegation cannot become the proof however tempting it may be to do so to make up for our ignorant and abusive treatment of woman in the past.
25
@JW
For the record, Dr Ford never claimed that Kavanaugh raped her when she was a teenage.
At most, Ford implied that Kavanaugh tried to rape her, but if you listen to her testimony, she doesn't even claim that.
Rather, Ford described convincingly how Kavanaugh held her down on the bed and his hand over her mouth so that she couldn't breathe, while laughing uproariouskh throughout.
12
@Colenso
It's good you support her, yet, for the record, her description is different than you state. She testified Kav. groped her and tried to remove her clothes. As you said, he was quite drunk, laughing uproariously, but in addition she thought he was going to rape her and, when his hand was over her mouth, she thought he'd accidentally kill her.
She had been forced into the room and his friend, also quite drunk, was present and laughing.
www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/kavanaugh-accuser-ford-provides-four-sworn-declarations-supporting-her-allegation-n913216
USA Today further reported that Blasey Ford testified she was pinned to the bed by Kav. Each of these details adds significance to the severity of the attack and her fears at the time.
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