http://www.onenewsnow.com/Security/Default.aspx?id=942528A national defense analyst and Pentagon advisor says a recent report concerning the alarming rate of male-on-male sexual assaults in the military should create a roadblock to President Obama's efforts to repeal the 1993 law banning homosexuals from military service.
An annual report from the Department of Defense reveals that over the past year, reports of sexual assaults in the military have increased by 11 percent, including a 16-percent spike in reported incidents in combat areas, principally in Iraq and Afghanistan. While 87 percent of the reported assaults were male-on-female, seven percent were male-on-male.
Lt. Col. Bob Maginnis (USA-Ret.) was part of the military working group that helped craft the 1993 law known as Section 654, Title 10. The law states that homosexuality is incompatible with military service. Maginnis considers the seven-percent figure in male-on-male sexual assaults alarming.
Bob Maginnis"You've got to come to the conclusion that in the military, where we have a ban for that type of service and we're having a fairly significant incidence of assault that's associated with that type of activity, then you actually may have a worse problem than you think," he suggests.
Maginnis argues that the DoD report is not going to help those in the Pentagon who are supporting President Obama's call to lift the ban. "They may dismiss it as just an aberration or [say] this is not indicative of gay behavior, but their own statistics are pretty self-evident," he says. "Seven percent is not something to dismiss lightly. If you're going to have that much homosexual assault, that's just the tip of the iceberg."
The retired Army officer says the increase of incidents of male-on-female sexual assaults is also very alarming and must be dealt with, especially in a time of war.