How many women have to die? How many women have to be beaten, raped, sodomized, threatened, humiliated—brutalized—before the U.S. military takes action against their attackers? When will we, the American people, demand that violence against women be punished, whether it occurs in civilian or military life?

The Denver Post’s recent series on violence against women in the military was shocking. So, I called a friend who had spent three years as a nurse in a military hospital. She told me it was assumed nothing would be done when a badly beaten woman came to the emergency room. The military police wouldn’t investigate. No one was supposed to make a fuss because, after all, the poor attacker was in the Special Forces or he was under stress or he was suffering from combat fatigue. That was years ago. It appears the same attitude is prevalent today.

In America, women are supposed to have equal rights, equal opportunity and equal justice. Our courts have affirmed these basic constitutional rights over and over again. But, the military hasn’t received that message. Under their system of justice, women can die and their murderers get no more punishment than an administrative slap, if that much.

From the Tailhook conference over a decade ago, when male officers raped, groped and sexually assaulted women officers, to the Air Force Academy sexual assaults, to the murders of women at Fort Bragg by their soldier husbands or boyfriends, the military has demonstrated over and over that it cares too little about the women in its midst. It has ignored recommendations from task forces assigned to study brutality against women. It has let criminal attackers go free. It has punished the victimized women. And, it insists that this is essential to protecting its “good soldiers”. Unless those good soldiers are women, it seems.

When I wrote about sexual assaults at the Air Force Academy, a number of readers told me that women didn’t belong in the military. They implied it was a woman’s fault if she were raped because she shouldn’t be there in the first place. Now, there are even some in and out of the military who think women should once again be relegated to support, not combat, roles, places where they can’t cause too much trouble and certainly can’t get the promotions their male counterparts receive.

Isn’t it interesting that rather than addressing the problem of violence against women in the military, some people simply want to get rid of the women. Maybe, instead, it’s time that women and men across the country demand that we get rid of a military culture that allows women to be degraded and demeaned, beaten and broken, by officers and “good soldiers”. Women, after all, have proven themselves to be equally good soldiers. They have flown dangerous missions, put themselves in harm’s way, and died for their country.

Allowing the military to ignore violence against women in fact condones that violence. Since the Pentagon and the military have declined to act decisively to eliminate this disgrace, Congress needs to take up the job. It’s not good enough to hold hearings and chastise officials. Nor is it good enough to have task forces and investigations and endless reports on how to stop these crimes.

Congress needs to act before another woman dies at the hands of her “good soldier” attacker or gets punished for complaining about being raped or beaten. Congress has the power to reform the military justice system to make sure that all our troops get fair treatment and justice, to make sure that criminals in the military are prosecuted and punished. A criminal, by definition, is not a “good soldier”. He is a common criminal and, thereby, a disgrace to our military and our country.

If Congress refuses to act, then American voters can do that for them. We can take action by electing people who will make sure our military values each of its troops, women as well as men, and enforces codes of conduct and justice that reflect that core value. To do less unconscionably endangers servicewomen. To do less shames our legions of truly “good soldiers”.