82nd's Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair removed from job in Afghanistan

[caseymoz]

24. Underage girls, not children.

However, maybe the reporter was using the term loosely. If that's the case, we don't know whether the girls in question were four or seventeen. If the latter, they'd have been only 3-4 years younger than he was.

I think it was close to the latter, because while the Uniform Code of Military Justice has a specific section on rape (which would include child molesting), it doesn't say anything about statutory rape. Which means that any punishment they gave him could only be non-judicial. At worst, that would involve maybe some time in the brig, and then discharge. Since he got a general and a not a bad conduct, I take it his military evaluations were very good. Up until he screwed these girls.

You should not presume from this news that he's pedophile. He's likely a hebephile. Preferring mid-adolescent girls. It's contemptible, but it's but it's nowhere near as bad or worrisome as child molesting, and he likely won't do this again. This guy's physical preference likely overlaps with adult women. It's not like a child molester, who absolutely can't stop, and who can't get sexual satisfaction from an adult.

But you're right. There are a lot of guys in the military who have sex with underage girls. Most of them, however, do it overseas where the age of consent is sometimes lower, or where they could otherwise get away with it, but they never do it at home. If the military had a rule against statutory rape, they'll probably have to prosecute tens of thousands of men. People in the military are well aware of this, which is why the punishment looks so light.

The only difference here is this guy chose to do it here, so the military couldn't ignore it.