As some in Congress continue to press the military to improve sexual assault prevention and response, and military leaders continue to promise they're taking it really seriously, so seriously that it should remain completely in their hands, the question inevitably arises:
Where is President Obama on this? Politico's Darren Samuelsohn suggests that, despite many strong statements against military sexual assault, Obama has not actively engaged the issue, not meeting with lawmakers trying to create change, endorsing specific proposals, or making specific pledges for improvement. Still, Samuelsohn also makes clear that Obama faces limits. In Congress:
Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), an opponent of the Gillibrand-led approach, teased that if Obama did support the proposal, it could scare off some Republican supporters.
And Obama might not do much to flip Democrats either, according to Sen. Claire McCaskill, the Missouri Democrat who’s spearheading opposition to the Gillibrand bill. McCaskill supports an alternative package of reforms.
What's more, even Obama's statements against military sexual assault can backlash:
A Navy judge in Hawaii ruled in June that two defendants on trial for sexual assault couldn’t be punitively discharged because of the president’s remarks a month earlier during a White House press conference in which he said: “If we find out somebody is engaging in this stuff, they’ve got to be held accountable — prosecuted, stripped of their positions, court-martialed, fired, dishonorably discharged. Period. It’s not acceptable.”
According to the judge’s ruling, Obama’s comments represented “unlawful command influence” by suggesting he had a specific punishment in mind for the perpetrators.
A key question, given these limits, is whether Obama is genuinely applying pressure on Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and top military leadership to accept change and understand sexual assault as something on which they will be judged, something central to their jobs rather than a side issue. Do the public words in which he
strongly condemns military sexual assault
time and
time again, describing it as something that threatens our national security, echo what Obama is saying behind the scenes? Would he sign Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's proposal to take decisions about prosecuting serious crimes, including sexual assault, out of the hands of military leaders and put them in the hands of trained legal experts? The Pentagon's public claims are that sexual assault is being taken more seriously than ever before—but we've heard such claims in the past. The question is whether the military is getting the message—really getting the message—that the president and Congress won't stop paying attention and pressing for change until change really happens.
Tell the U.S. Senate to take action against sexual assault in the military by passing Sen. Gillibrand’s Military Justice Improvement Act.