Obama urged US military to stamp out sexual assault

Washington: President Barack Obama urged the US military to stamp out sexual assault from their ranks, warning that a few individuals could undermine the strongest military in the world.

Photos of US soldiers humiliating and intimidating Iraqi detainees in the spring of 2004 drew global outrage and struck a sharp blow to America’s reputation. The pictures had been taken by the soldiers themselves.

Obama, in his remarks at a rain-soaked stadium, compared the sexual assault problem in the military to other US institutions that have been damaged by bad behavior of a few people, including the financial industry and – without naming it explicitly – the Internal Revenue Service.

“Every day our civil servants do their jobs with professionalism, protecting our national security and delivering the services that so many Americans expect,” Obama said.

“But, as we’ve seen again in recent days, it only takes the misconduct of a few to further erode the people’s trust in their government. And that’s unacceptable to me and I know it’s unacceptable to you.”