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Editorial: We need to protect women in military now

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We've all heard about sexual discrimination, harassment and, worse, rape, in the military, including at our nation's service schools for the Air Force, Navy and Army.

But Michael Gisick's report Thursday in The Tribune ("Female veterans slam VA") was a disturbing and distressing eye-opener.

Things need to change for female soldiers, sailors and aviators, and they need to change fast.

They need to change, from the lowest ranks all the way to the top jobs at the Pentagon and from the battlefields to the Veterans Administration hospitals - such as the one in Albuquerque, which two years ago closed a clinic dedicated to women's health problems.

As more and more women choose military service, including careers in the military, we need to change direction.

In the context of the overwhelmingly male environment that the American military has been been for centuries, Gisick's story is compelling evidence that the emergence of women in the U.S. military has been severely compromised - even handicapped - by the unfortunate reality that men dominate and command it. For too many American females in the military, this can be an intimidating and damaging reality.

Until that changes - until there are enough women throughout the command structure to make such abuse more dangerous for men - we must demand a military policy and command that fully respects its women volunteers, protects them from sexual abuse by their comrades and serves their gender needs in the services and as veterans.

As Gisick reported, women now make up one of seven Americans serving in Iraq. Some 450 women have been wounded while serving there, and 71 have been killed. Women are coming home with battle-related post traumatic stress syndrome.

They also face PTSD from sexual harassment and rape by members of their own units. According to a Department of Defense report issued last month, the problem has worsened dramatically in just the last year when there were 3,000 sexual assaults reported in the military, a 25 percent increase over 2005.

That may explain, says Air Force veteran Christin McKinley of Albuquerque, why women have a higher rate of PTSD than men. It's like facing, in too many cases, a constant barrage of psychological friendly fire that is far from accidental and is difficult to evade.

While the Pentagon does have programs addressing rape, the widespread practice means the military isn't doing enough to prevent it, to expose it, to punish it or to treat those who are victimized by it. The military can't wait on getting more women into top military ranks, though that ultimately will help. The male-dominated command must come to the defense of its women volunteers now.

Until Americans elect a women to serve in the Oval Office and as commander-in-chief, the job of addressing rape will fall on women in Congress - including New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Heather Wilson of Albuquerque, herself an Air Force veteran.

They can help lead the way to a military that need not be gender blind but that will fully respect the women who have enlisted and placed their faith in it.

Before they were soldiers, sailors or aviators, they were America's daughters, sisters and mothers.