Zero Tolerance ... Hear?

There's that classic, putting the fox in charge of the henhouse, playing out yet again. There is not yet a level playing field in respect for women who choose to join the military forces of their countries. Men continue to view women less as their military peers and counterparts, more as opportunities for sexual adventure. Not all men, needless to say, just enough to make life in the military a hazardous occupation for women beyond their military duty.

There is a hint that conscripts who have attained a lower educational level and who come from social circumstances felt to be less than socially stellar may be largely involved in stalking and degrading the women among them. But that kind of wishful thinking slanders men who haven't come from well connected and wealthy families who join the military as a profession. And mostly because it doesn't hold water.

Last year the revelations that high-ranking military officers -- the elite of the elite (Generals David Petraeus, John Allen) -- were involved in extramarital affairs that did their judgement little credit, and shone a tawdry light on the elite staff who seem to think that military rules of 'engagement' apply to underlings not to them.

Despite which they proved not to be as untouchable as they might have hoped their rank and reputation would have helped to shield them from close scrutiny.

And now, none other than the U.S. Air Force's top officer tasked with prevention of sexual assault has been revealed as a sexual predator. Yet another embarrassment at the very highest level of military command. Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Krusinski was no doubt rather mortified and surprised when he was arrested in Arlington, Virginia. Police allege that he "approached a female victim in a parking lot and grabbed her breasts and buttocks".

Clearly, behaviour unfitting an officer and a gentleman. Neither of which generous descriptives may now be used to describe Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Krusinski. "We're all outraged and disgusted over these very troubling allegations", fumed the defence secretary, assuring all interested in the situation that measures would be undertaken to combat the problem.

Presumably those measures will now exclude appointing someone of the calibre of Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Krusinski to the urgent task of identifying perpetrators of sexual assault and making an effort to stem the tide of predation. A survey of active-duty troops reported 26,000 experiences of unwanted sexual conduct in the last year alone; an average of 71 incidents each day, representing a huge increase over the year before of such reported incidents.

The incidents have increased 35% from even two years ago. President Barack Obama has promised to "exponentially step up our game", to "do everything we can to root this out". To ensure that violators can expect to be "prosecuted, stripped of their positions, court-martialed, fired, dishonorably discharged. Period."

Because, actually, it isn't a game.