Sexual Assault A Growing Problem In Military

The creep in the picture to the left was arrested for sexual battery in Arlington (Virginia) last Monday. He groped a woman's breasts and buttocks, and when he tried to do it a second time, she fought him off and called the police.

But it gets worse. This man is a Lt. Colonel in the United States Air Force -- and he is the Air Force Sexual Assault Prevention and Response chief at the Pentagon. Let me repeat that. The man the Air Force put in charge of preventing sexual assault has been arrested for sexual assault.

Could this be part of the reason that the military can't seem to get a handle on its sexual assault problem? And there is still a growing problem with sexual assault in the military. A new report from the Department of Defense shows that 3,374 sexual assaults in the military were reported in 2012 -- a 6% rise from the previous year.

And that's just the tip of the ice berg, since most sexual assaults are not reported -- because the women are afraid they will be ignored or have their careers hurt if they report them (or have the blame put on them for being assaulted and kicked out of the military). The number of estimated sexual assaults also rose last year -- from 19,000 in 2011 to 26,000 in 2012.

Obviously, the "good old boy" culture of the military is still alive and well. And just as obviously, the military is still failing to effectively deal with its growing problem of sexual assault. Maybe it's time for some heads to roll at the Pentagon, because this is totally unacceptable in a free country that claims to value equal rights.