Toxic leadership: The real culprit of military rape culture

"Right now there is a perfect case study for the defense secretary to be presented with — the case of a young Marine, Cpl. Thae Ohu, who is currently facing assault charges stemming from trauma from a previous sexual assault.

But why would leadership expose its own failures when it is so much easier to have a scapegoat?

Looking beyond a Marine Corps ­narrative to make Ohu a criminal by leveling up her charge of simple assault to attempted murder for her court-martial, any rational person will see the reality of how the Marine Corps systematically failed Ohu for many years and that it is attempting to save its own skin.

Instead of Ohu’s chain of command acknowledging its own cycle of abuse that led to her instability and eventual outburst, they publicly charged and identified her as a criminal."

"Military leadership is ­relentless in efforts to silence victims by ­victim-blaming and retaliation, both of which contribute to the ­under-reporting of sexual assault within the ranks. Retaliation can include the victim being investigated rather than the perpetrator, being transferred to ­another unit, blamed for the assault or even losing their job.

All these tactics exist in Ohu’s case, including reduction in rank, interruptions of therapy appointments, excessive workload when on light duty, office gossip about her medical conditions, culminating in her withdrawal from long-term in-patient care, unjustly locking her up in the brig and treating her more poorly than even the Geneva Conventions allow for detained prisoners of war."