Political Quotes

“If you want to improve the system, and we all do--I am not questioning anybody's motives--if a commander knows that when they turn down the JAGS's advice in one of the four situations we have identified--sexual assault, the nature of the discussion here--that decision will be reviewed by the Secretary of the service, I can assure you that will do more good to make sure commanders understand how important this situation is to the country than taking their authority away. We will be doing absolutely the worst possible thing to solve the problem with the approach of Senator Gillibrand, in my view, although every judge advocate agrees with what I am saying. You will throw the military justice system in chaos and basically take the commander's authority away in an irrational way. What we should do is hold the commander more accountable by having what is the commander's worst nightmare--I guess anybody in the military--and that is having the boss look at your homework. How do you get promoted in the military? People over you judge your work product. Let me just say this. It is not a military justice problem here. The reforms we are going to engage in are historic, and they will be the model for systems in the future. Very few people can afford what we are about to impose upon the military because we are going to make this a priority and we are going to assign judge advocates to victims. There is no other State in the Nation that will be able to do that.…”