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With U.S. forces in Afghanistan battered recently by a series of incidents that have rolled into a prolonged public relations crisis, Congress is probing yet another problem that has surfaced dramatically：hazing.
The case in point, examined by a House Armed Services subcommittee：the death of Marine Lance Cpl. Harry Lew, the nephew of Rep. Judy Chu（D-Calif.）.
"My nephew was a victim of hazing, and it killed him," Chu told representatives from each of the services last week at a hearing of the Military Personnel Subcommittee. Chu is not a member of the Armed Services Committee.
Lew committed suicide in April 2011 after fellow Marines punished him - through violence and intimidation, Chu alleged - for falling asleep at his post. Fellow Marines were accused of demeaning him by pouring sand on his face and forcing him to do pushups and other exercises.
Three Marines were court-martialed after the incident. One pleaded guilty to assault, and Lew's squad leader and another Marine were found not guilty of charges related to hazing.
At the congressional hearing, military service leaders emphasized the episode was inconsistent with the values of the military, but skeptical lawmakers pushed back, voicing concerns about whether such acts are condoned within the ranks.
"What punishment was given?" Chu asked at the hearing. "Virtually nothing."
Afterward, the congresswoman had a tense conversation with the sergeant major of the Marine Corps, Micheal Barrett.
"What kind of enforcement is that?" Chu asked, referring to the lone Marine punished in the case, sentenced to 30 days in jail and a reduction in rank. "What kind of message does that send?"
"You're right, ma'am, that does not send a good message," Barrett responded.
Later, Chu told POLITICO she was not satisfied by her discussion with Barrett and believes hazing continues to be pervasive in the military, despite the assurances of its leaders.
"They want to present the best face possible to the public," she said. "And they do not want to recognize what's going on underneath in the rank and file."
Lew's death is just one among several recent high-profile incidents involving U.S. forces in Afghanistan：a video of Marines urinating on Taliban corpses, a photo of U.S. snipers posing with a Nazi symbol, the burning of Qurans at a military base and the murder of 17 Afghan civilians.
Top commanders were quick to condemn the incidents, apologize for them and insist they were in no way representative of the true character of the military. But several lawmakers have wondered aloud：What if there is something about the military's culture that's encouraging - or at least tolerating - bad behavior?
In Lew's case, for instance, "the platoon had a big celebration for avoiding the charges, as we saw from their Facebook," Chu said. "This is the attitude that's in the military."
Rep. Mike Coffman（R-Colo.）, a member of the personnel subcommittee, compared Lew's death to the recent killings of Afghan civilians, saying both incidents were the result of poor leadership. And he questioned why nobody picked up on the warning signs and intervened.
If we think hazing is "all we have to deal with, then we've missed something," Coffman said. "This is really about a failure of leadership at the most basic levels."
Pushing back, Marine spokesman Maj. Al Eskalis dismissed the contention that the military's recent public relations crises are in some way connected or that they point to a failure of leadership across the services.
The incidents "are separate and distinct," he told POLITICO. "As an institution, I think we've made it very clear from our senior leaders on down that [hazing] is not part of the Marine Corps culture."
At the hearing, the sergeant major of the Army, Raymond Chandler; the master chief petty officer of the Navy, Rick West; and other service leaders emphasized that each branch of the military forbids hazing.
"Even one incident of hazing means we're not doing enough," Chandler said.
Others who attended the hearing, though, remained skeptical.
"We know that each service has a zero tolerance for hazing," said Del. Madeleine Bordallo（D-Guam）. "But it is still occurring."
And Rep. Nydia Velázquez（D-N.Y.）said："This cannot be another paper policy stuck up on a bulletin board."
An issue that came up repeatedly during the hearing was whether or not the services track incidents of hazing over time. Service leaders said that, in the past, their record-keeping methods didn't treat hazing as a separate offense, typically lumping it in with assault or other crimes.
Some of them were working to change this. The Marines, for instance, "now have a tracking system in place that we didn't have before," Barrett said.
And Marines provided some statistics：In 2010, the Corps had 29 incidents of hazing that resulted in courts-martial. In 2011, there were 43 incidents. And so far this year, four cases of hazing have led to courts-martial.
Eskalis, the Marine Corps spokesman, said there's never an instance in which hazing is condoned, emphasizing there are a number of disciplinary options available to commanders when dealing with situations such as a Marine falling asleep on duty. "With the military justice system, there are a host of repercussions a commander can take, following an investigation into the allegations," he said.
Eskalis also pointed out that, despite several incidents over the past year, the vast majority of Marines have abided by the service's ethos.
Still, he acknowledged, "at times, we do have Marines who fall short." | 
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