Kelly Dougherty of Iraq Veterans Against the War testifies in “Before You Enlist” (view the film online here): “When you’re a woman, specifically in a combat zone, not only do you have to be afraid of the supposed insurgents and the enemies and the Iraqis, but then you also come back to the base and then there you have to be fearful of your fellow soldiers.”

Several friends of hers were raped in the military. One brought charges and was subjected to a pre-trial hearing — aimed at discrediting her! Another was told by her officer that the charges “would be too hard to prove” and was advised to drop it.

The parents of 19 year-old LaVena Johnson were told their daughter committed suicide by gunshot to the head while on active duty in Iraq. They don’t buy it. They think she was raped and then shot by another soldier, and that the military officers in charge of investigating covered up the crime.

Another nugget from Kelly Dougherty to share with teen girls who hope a uniform and a paycheck will earn them some respect — at least, more respect than they’re getting growing up poor in America: “When you’re a woman in the military you’re either a bitch, a slut or a lesbian.”

There’s an implicit understanding that women are in the military to be sexually available to the men after hours. Not much different from growing up in a home or neighborhood with that culture in place.

But factors like strong female role models and the growth of athletic programs for girls that are comparable to those for boys have helped empower American girls to believe they deserve better. Advertising for the military floods youth-oriented programming like MTV with messages that a “job” in the military puts women in a strong position. The truth of life on a military base can be an effective counter to this myth. Note also that women face 2 to 3 times higher risk of domestic violence if their spouse is a combat veteran who suffers from PTSD.

Women make up about 15% of active duty military now, and recent Boston Globe article cited Veteran’s Administration statistics that female veterans are especially at risk of becoming homeless. The VA is being called upon to provide services for a completely new generation of vets with special needs: single mothers. Ironically, a key strategy for recruiting teen girls is presenting enlistment as a chance to serve their families by accessing a steady income and “job training” in the military.

The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans made this statement in testimony before a Senate subcommittee on March 4, 2009:  “Women veterans report serious trauma histories and episodes of physical harassment and/or sexual assault while in the military. The VA and homeless veteran service providers are also seeing increased numbers of female and male veterans with children seeking their assistance.”

Get the word out to young women being preyed upon by recruiters: military service is an unsafe option.

Three years ago, an American soldier LaVena Johnson of Missouri bought candy, soda and lip balm one night near her base in Iraq. She went to meet friends to go jogging. But she never made it — her body was found the next day in a burning tent with a broken nose, black eye, and some corrosive liquid applied to her genital area. An M-16 rifle was found next to her and a gunshot through her mouth. Though the bullet was never found, the Army considers it a suicide. Her family believes it was homicide at the hands of male American soldiers.

The Oct. 15 issue of Our Weekly, a Los Angeles weekly newspaper, reports on Johnson’s death, whether the military is attempting to pass it as a suicide, the increasing numbers of abuse, rape and murder on military bases and the military’s systematic refusal to prevent them.

In July, CNN reported on a House committee hearing on sexual abuse within the military. Forty-one percent of female veterans at an L.A. veteran’s hospital reported male soldiers had sexually assaulted them, and 29 percent were raped, said Rep. Jane Harman (D-Cali.) to the committee. “We have an epidemic here,” Harman said. “Women serving in the U.S. military today are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq.”

CNN reported the Government Accountability Office investigated sexual assaults in the military and the Coast Guard and found the “occurrences of sexual assault may be exceeding the rates being reported.”

One-third of women veterans say they were sexually assaulted while in the military, writes executive director and founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America Paul Rickhoff in the Huffington Post, citing a study by the American Journal of Industrial Medicine. Fifteen percent of female Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who have gone to the VA for care have screened positive for Military Sexual Trauma.

In the past, some have blamed male soldiers’ interest in seeking out prostitutes or assault of fellow female soldiers as their succumbing to the need to “blow off steam.” But because rape and assault really center around power and patriarchy, and not any kind of true sexual feeling, this “steam” really is an aggressive display of misogyny and dominance, a sick comfort in an environment that must feel lacking control, purpose or meaning.

And what else? What does this say about our military if sexual assault is so deeply ingrained, so deeply accepted that officials continue to make up age-old, caveman excuses for it rather than evolve and put a stop to it? Or of the mainstream media, which has hardly reported these numbers or asked these questions at all? Or of society, where men continue to rape 1 out of 6 women and sexually assault women every two minutes?