A Major, Multi-faceted Crisis
March 2009
It seems all things military must have a shorthand acronym. So here's a new one:
VWM. It stands for Violence Within the Military. This page offers a
selection of recent reports, mostly by major media organizations, about this
growing crisis.
In the forty years that Quaker House has been working
near Fort Bragg, there have been many gruesome and shocking domestic murders. A
number of these tragic cases are described in our new book, YES To The Troops
- NO To The Wars. We have also published reports about incidents around Fort
Bragg in our newsletters.
However, since the beginning of the Afghanistan and
Iraq wars, the number of these cases has increased and the phenomenon has become
more visible. Further, in the past year, many prominent journalists have noticed
that VWM -- violence within the military -- is not limited to brutality against
spouses or partners.
Suicide is another rising plague; as are sexual assaults,
mostly against women soldiers. In addition, violence against non-family
members, in and out of the military, has also become more prevalent.
And so they have. There's only one problem: these initiatives don't seem to be working.
Why they aren't working is a question that, in army jargon, may be "above our pay grade." So we don't have an easy recipe of quick answers. But we are gratified to see this increased media attention to these interrelated problems, and have done our bit to contribute to the coverage.
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