Simply refocusing efforts to prosecute military sexual assault is not enough for Sen. John McCain. He wants to gut them.
Facing the need to get 60 Senate votes for her proposal to put decisions about prosecuting military sexual assaults in the hands of prosecutors, rather than military commanders, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is
considering a change.
Currently, Gillibrand's amendment would apply not just to sexual assault—though that is the problem it's targeting—but to all crimes that could draw a sentence of a year or more and aren't specifically military in nature. Now, Gillibrand says, "We’re considering focusing the amendment on sexual assault and rape in response to some suggestions by undecided senators."
Those undecided senators are the key—for strong opponents of the plan, nothing short of allowing the military to continue to fail on its own terms would be enough. In a typical Republican strategy, for instance, Sen. John McCain's real objection is to putting prosecution decisions in the hands of actual prosecutors, but now that the proposal may be whittled down a bit, he's adding the objection that having different procedures for different crimes makes it too complicated.
The whole thing is ridiculous. Many of America's military allies have in place what Gillibrand has been proposing all along, yet because our military is whining about it a lot and has immense power to lobby legislators, somehow we're supposed to believe that the problem is with the very concept of having prosecutors make prosecution decisions rather than with the military's refusal to take this problem seriously.
Tell Congress: Protect victims of military sexual assault.