The Invisible War: Sundance Film Review

Maybe this should be titled "It's not new just because it is news to you." but this has been going on for a very long time. Women have been complaining about attacks, rapes and a lot of other things the general public has not been made aware of, and it is high time everyone knew. The only problem I see with this is because of the changes in attitudes and more support women have been getting to come forward, it ends up looking as if the newer veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are the only groups that have done this. Look back in history and you'll see that none of this is new.

The veterans subjected to sexual assaults should be fully supported and the criminals should not only be removed from service but put in jail. This is a crime no matter where it happens but when it happens at a time when these men and women are supposed to be able to trust each other with their lives, the last thing they should have to worry about is not being able to trust them with their bodies.

The Invisible War: Sundance Film Review
12:15 AM PST 1/29/2012 by David Rooney

The Audience Award winner for best documentary at Sundance 2012, Kirby Dick's shocking investigation into widespread sexual assault in the U.S. military is an urgent call to action.

PARK CITY – A gut punch of moral outrage, Kirby Dick’s The Invisible War presents overwhelming evidence that the U.S. military’s purported zero-tolerance attitude to sexual assault is a charade. It illustrates the human cost of that sham with heart-wrenching displays of courage and dignity in the face of institutional indifference. Destined to draw major editorial attention, this hard-hitting advocacy film exposes the dirty secret not as an attack on the armed forces but as an indignant petition to protect the more vulnerable among their ranks.

Emotionally powerful interviews with rape victims, conducted by Dick’s producer Amy Ziering, form the core of the documentary. But even without putting faces to the issue, the statistics alone are staggering. Department of Defense data shows that 20% of servicewomen experience rape, sexual assault or sexual harassment, causing a higher rate of PTSD among them than among men in combat.

Given the repercussions – violence, ostracization, loss of rank or career – it’s estimated that 80% of sexual assault cases in the military go unreported. With 3,158 cases recorded in 2010, that puts the likely total for the year at more than 19,000. Of the more than 108,000 veterans who screened positive for Military Sexual Trauma (MST) in 2010, 45.7% were men.
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