Customer Reviews

For Love of Country: Confronting Rape and Sexual Harassment in the U.S. Military

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It is right for men and women to want to serve their country.

It is right for men and women to volunteer to train and support the interests of their leaders.

It is right for subordinates to respectfully obey their commanders.

It is logical to assume that I need only fear the external enemy. Yet, in this respect Ms. Nelson tells the truth.

By outlining military standards of conduct and defining the perception that the enemy lies outside of the American chain of command, Ms. Nelson honestly describes the situation of patiotic soldiers who believe they are safe in a very imperfect system.

In the context of presenting truth about the frequency of abuse, culture of the military that perpetuates the abuse, and the consequences of abuse to individuals and to units, Ms. Nelson offers logical solutions to a historical problem.

Ms. Nelson's book is worded in such a way as to offer hope to mature leadership in their ability to address these issues. The book honors soliers who committed their lives and security to the Armed Services only to be betrayed by a comrad and dismissed by their division. Ms. Nelson obviously cares about her country and cares about service men and women.

I would recommend this book as standard training for all officer candidates. This book is so well written and true that it would behoove us to dissolve all current sexual harrassement/abuse training and instead assign this book correspondence to each Commander thus establishing a new individual standard outside of the communal culture. The standard needs to raised. Ms. Nelson, with candor and grace, says how high.

This book is extremely validating for me. It is a relief that women (and men) are finally able to talk about the horrible assualts they suffered while serving their country and that someone is listening and writing it down. This is an important book on a serious subject that has been long neglected. It is imperative that military leadership take notice. Fascinating and informative.

This is the premiere book on sexual harassment in the military. An informative presentation of this complex subject. A very timely book considering the many scandals coming out the military academies.

I got this at the library this weekend and tried to read it. Rape and sexual assault are certainly serious issues. Having two daughters and a son who are products of our public schools, I can see first hand the sexual pressures in our society.
Unfortunately, this book was of no help. Quite the opposite in fact. It is not a serious look at the subject. It is a one sided diatribe and an undocumented screed for the far left wing feminist mantra. Its message is simple: men are bad and women are good.

The author betrays this bias on page xiii. She admits that sexual assault can happen to anybody. But then she writes; "...it is the case that men are more often the offenders or harassers. For simplification, I generally refer to victims as females and offenders as males."

Then she goes on to use one anonymous narrative after another to "make" her case. In doing so, she overlooks a lot of facts.
Consider Tailhook, the "scandal" which rocked the Navy in 1991. Of that she writes, "In the end,... 117 officers were implicated for acts of sexual assault, sexual misconduct, and indecent exposure....Although many careers came to a halt, no one was ever successfully court-martialed for the sexual assaults."
Right. But why? Because most guys were punished by administrative action where no real proof was necessary, just accusation. EVERY guy who refused an administrative action and stood for a court-martial which required a factual look at the incident involved, was found innocent because the evidence was not there.
Nelson would have us equate accusation with guilt. That is her theme. She takes every accusation made by the women in this book and treats it as a proven assault, attack, rape.

And see completely overlooks one truth of life today - the fact that in so many cases now, the woman is the sexual aggressor. Watch "Sex in the City" where it is taught, or walk down any high school hall. Women use their femininity against men. So often, they are the initiators of sexual contact. And many of them use the accusation of rape as a weapon against men. Again, look at Tailhook. A generation of Navy leaders was cashiered because of the allegations. Did that huge loss of talent make the nation any safer?

Now, we are going through the same thing at the Air Force Academy. The young women there are being allowed to tell their stories with no cross questioning. Accusations become fact. Just like Tailhook though, of all the cases supposedly reported, only one has led to a conviction. The facts, when we can get to them, just don't show that a crime was committed.
Rape is a serious issue. It deserves - - - demands better writing than this.