A bipartisan bill by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) seeks to prevent child abuse and address domestic violence within military families.

That's a worthwhile mission that demands our full attention but the legislation is a missed opportunity to confront one of the most important challenges facing the sons and daughters of our service members.

And until members of Congress have the courage to step forward and call it by its name - child sexual abuse - we will continue to fail thousands of at-risk military children and families who deserve better

The Military Family PROTECT Act proposes to strengthen the military's handling and prosecution of child abuse and domestic violence claims.

The bill's sponsors argue these provisions will help "ensure that every base and every military region has a plan and the tools they need to fight these horrific crimes."

Yet the bill overlooks the specific problem of child sexual abuse in the military, and offers no plan to attack it head-on.

Hundreds of military children are sexually abused every year and the military is doing little about it

. An Associated Press (AP) investigation found there were nearly 1,600 "substantiated" sexual abuse cases of military dependents between 2010 and 2014.

The AP concluded that assault and rape cases among kids on military bases "often die on the desks of prosecutors, even when an attacker confesses."

In other cases, criminal prosecutors "shelve them," the AP found, "despite requirement they be pursued."

The Pentagon's silent response to these startling statistics of military child sexual abuse is troubling.

The Department of Defense (DoD) has allocated little, if any, resources to monitor it, and has implemented no known educational or training programs to try and prevent it.

The AP went even further, asserting that the "Pentagon does not know the scope of the problem and does little to track it."

And yet the warning signs of child sexual abuse on military bases are painfully obvious.

More inmates are locked up in military prisons for it than for any other crime, the AP found. And 90 percent of all child sexual abuse cases involve a person known or trusted by the child, where the opportunity for abusers to groom children in a military environment is magnified, due to the close living quarters and relationships many military families share.

We can't afford to have this same mindset when it involves the welfare of military children.

We must break the silence associated with "child sexual abuse" and pursue tangible solutions that can prevent it from happening.

Members of Congress have a unique opportunity to lead by example. They can use this moment to confront this issue in the Military Family PROTECT Act, and right a terrible wrong that continues to impact children everywhere on U.S. military bases.

Or lawmakers can stay in their comfort zones and look the other way - where they refuse to reach across the aisle to find common political ground to protect families from child sexual abuse - and be left with some serious soul searching to do.

http://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/392528-congress-must-confront-sexual-abuse-of-military-children

I feel like I'm in the Walking Dead Series and instead of zombies, its Pedophilles :(