The Pentagon's plan to allow women into combat with men could create a recipe for even more sexual abuse in the armed services and hinder military effectiveness, says Rowan Scarborough, the Washington Times' National Security Correspondent.
"For the last 20 years, we have been putting men and women in the military closer and closer together 24/7 and you could make the case that they have not prepared for this very well,'' Scarborough told "The Steve Malzberg Show'' on Newsmax TV.
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"It is not to blame women victims or men victims but when you do something like this, just nature is going to take its course.''
Scarborough said the Pentagon is reporting over 3,000 confirmed complaints of sexual harassment — about double what it was 10 years ago.
"Alongside this … the number of false complaints, unfounded complaints that are lodged against another service member are also up dramatically. In fact, they were up 34 percent in just the last four years,'' he said.
The startling statistics lead to the question of the readiness of mixed-sex forces.
"When you’re in the infantry and you deploy, you are together foxhole-foxhole, sleeping bag-sleeping bag, forward operating base, the same barracks and what’s going to happen then?,'' Scarborough said.
"Is this problem of sexual abuse going to now migrate into the combat arms and be a problem that has some effect on combat readiness? But that’s what we’re about to do.''
He said that in late May, later this month, the military services have to report to the Secretary of Defense how the integration will take place.
"The Pentagon needs to go back to square one and look at how they prepared the ranks for this,'' Scarborough said.
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