A female soldier assigned to a combat zone is more likely to be raped by a fellow service member than killed by enemy fire. More than 3000 active duty servicewomen reported being sexually assaulted last year and the Department of Defense estimates that that figure represents a mere 14-percent of those who have been attacked. Why? The answer is provided in the powerful, new documentary The Invisible War, which calls attention to the epidemic of sexual abuse that is plaguing all branches of the armed forces, and examines a U.S. military culture that would rather turn a blind eye to the abuse than confront it. Women who do speak out (and the one percent of men who are also raped every year) are shunned, harassed and even punished; some are actually forced out of the service, while the perpetrators are rarely brought to justice. Only eight percent of men accused of sexual assault are ever even prosecuted. In the film, rape survivors offer harrowing accounts of their attacks, the trauma they continue to experience, and their frustration with what can only be described as a systemic cover-up of the crimes by the military establishment. Filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering also give military leaders an opportunity to respond. Their claim that the problem is being addressed — or that rape is not as prevalent as reported — is just one more betrayal.
The second documentary of note this week is Follow Me: The Yoni Netanyahu Story, which recounts the life of Israeli national hero Yonaton Netanyahu. In 1976, “Yoni” led a daring assault against Palestinian militants who had taken a planeload of passengers hostage on the Entebbe, Uganda tarmac, and were threatening to blow up the plane with everybody on-board. The “raid on Entebbe” remains one of the most remarkable rescues in modern military history. Netanyahu, 31 years old, was the only Israeli solider killed that day. An abundance of photographs, home movies and military footage of Yoni exist; they reveal a good-looking, charismatic boy –- later, man — with a ready smile and a head of dark curls. The eldest of three boys (one brother is Israel’s current Prime Minister), he was a natural born leader. But what makes this documentary noteworthy is the wealth of written material — primarily letters to friends and family members — that Yoni left behind. The letters, read by actor Martin Csokas, serve as a kind of narrative. An unusually introspective man and a gifted writer, Yoni used his letters like a diary — to express his emotions, examine his beliefs, confess his doubts, and try to reconcile his desire for family and a life of intellectual pursuits with his fierce determination to serve and protect his homeland.