Quote of the day

To the extent eradication [of sexual assault] remains the metric by which success is judged and the only bulwark against unceasing reform efforts, then the tumult experienced by the military in 2013 will continue until, as Diodotus lamented, “we discover some fear more potent than the fear of death.”* Worse yet, this unceasing reform effort, which amounts to changing multiple variables without assessing the efficacy of previously implemented solutions, is grossly unscientific. One could argue, quite reasonably, that rhetorical tacking at this point is politically infeasible. However, if military leaders truly believe that sexual assault victims are more likely to receive both the justice they deserve and the care they need under the current commander-led system, then infeasible or not, they should change tack.

* See Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 3:45, http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/03d/-460_-400,_Thucydites,_History_Of_The_Peloponnesian_War,_EN.pdf, at 161 (footnote added).

Major Matthew Burris, Thinking Slow About Sexual Assault in the Military, 22 Buff. J. Gender, L., & Soc. Pol’y ___ (2014-2015) (forthcoming), at 36-37. (The author is an Air Force judge advocate doing a fellowship at the Department of Justice.)