WASHINGTON — The military’s top uniformed leaders will seek to temper calls for a drastic overhaul of the military justice system as Congress demands fast answers to the epidemic of sexual assaults within the armed forces.
Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the four-star officers atop each service are scheduled to testify Tuesday at a high-stakes Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on proposals that would trim the authority that American military commanders have to discipline the forces they lead.
Dempsey and other senior Pentagon officials have said they are open to legislative solutions to a problem that they acknowledge is serious and that has outraged lawmakers from both parties.
But the military is deeply concerned that curbing too sharply a commander’s ability to decide how and when to punish or pardon service members will send a message there is lack of faith in the officer corps, and that in turn will undermine the efficiency and effectiveness of the military in peacetime and war, Dempsey warned in a recent letter to Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan and chairman of the Armed Services Committee. ‘‘Because of the tremendous responsibility placed in commanders, they must also have broad authority to enforce discipline and execute their duties,’’ Dempsey wrote.
Paradoxically, the Defense Department’s failure so far to change the military’s male-dominated culture is driving a vocal group of lawmakers led by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, to advocate aggressive reforms.