The Army and boys & girls

National Review, Nov 10, 1997 by William F. Buckley, Jr.

At ease!

We shall now have a very brief indoctrination course based on the Army's new regulations having to do with sexual . . . having to do with sexual . . . relations between men and women . . . soldiers.

You will all have read that report, because copies were distributed in the mess halls. The figures given by the Army panel tell us that 47 per cent of the female troops polled reported that they had experienced "unwanted sexual attention," 15 per cent had experienced "sexual coercion," and 7 per cent had been victims of "sexual assault."

Now granted, that adds up to a lot of you women . . . soldiers out there -- 47 plus 15 plus 7 equals 69 per cent [there is a titter in the ranks] . . . Quiet! But the report says that sexual misconduct is not "endemic." That means it doesn't exist everywhere in the Army. But it is obviously widespread -- 69 per cent is more than two-thirds, but remember it's not endemic. The problem, according to the panel, is that we lack an "institutional commitment to the EO program." That's the Equal Opportunity program.

Now if you read the papers and saw television in the last couple of days you'll see that what's been happening is a taxonomy -- a technical word here, used by people who discuss grades and sub-grades and sub-sub-grades, like, I mean, homo is animals, sapiens is us, so we'd be homo sapiens. Any question about that?

What's rape, sergeant? [Titter.]

Okay, legitimate question. That is "sexual assault." Private John forces himself on Private Letitia -- obvious. Now one grade above that is "sexual coercion." That would be, well, if Private John kissed Private Letitia without permission, or tweaked her bottom, you understand.

Now, one grade above that is "unwanted sexual attention." That's when Private John says to Private Letitia something like, oh, "You really are built, Private."

What if he says, "Letitia, you smell real good today?" Is that unwanted sexual attention?

That, er, would depend entirely on the way the comment was made --

Would the way Cary Grant said it to Audrey Hepburn be okay?

Yes. I don't remember the movie, but I'm sure that would have been, well, yes.

How about the way Robert Redford said it to Demi Moore?

I didn't see that one either, but I'd guess it was not okay. . . . Now the Army panel came up with another finding, and it's my duty to pass that one on. Male soldiers have also been harassed sexually, though it's less in their case -- 30 per cent reported "unwanted sexual attention" and 8 per cent "sexual coercion."

Sergeant, are you kidding?

Soldier, I am not kidding. And the Army is not kidding.

Was that a poll of gay soldiers? Whose attention were they complaining about?

This is getting out of hand. We'll call it the end of the first indoctrination. Go back and reread the report, think about it, and we'll have another rundown in the morning. Platoon dismissed!

To use the army's exact language.

One finding: "The Army lacks institutional commitment to the EO (Equal Opportunity) program and soldiers distrust the EO complaint system."

This tells us that men have not acquired the habit of considering women soldiers as a natural development. It means that there are incongruities in female soldiering, that these have to be accommodated by differing schedules of physical training. It probably means that there is psychological wariness of common duty in combat.

One "Conclusion"? "The Panel concludes that the human relations environment of the Army is not conducive to engendering dignity and respect among us."

Dignity and respect are what evolve from the nature of a relationship. The respect for the elderly is a cognitive act -- they are weaker and need help. A respect for women is a tradition not unrelated to the special burdens of women and to the correlative attentions men need to pay to them. The dignity of women in part rests on their historical detachment from the coercive professions.

What the army's gobbledygook neatly avoids is the clear language of common cultural sense. Women aren't naturally suited to soldierly life at barracks level. A pity such stuff can't be said by generals in A.D. 1997.