The flip side of glory: Why is the military unable to control rape?

[unhappycamper]

The flip side of glory: Why is the military unable to control rape?
by Robert C. Koehler | May 29, 2008 - 9:27am

An American soldier's sexual assault of a 14-year-old Okinawan girl has caused a diplomatic crisis that could result in Japan's refusal to increase its participation in the Iraq war, creating a rare situation indeed: an instance in which rape matters to the U.S. military.

President Bush apologized. Condi Rice even told Japanese leaders that the United States would "try" to prevent such incidents from happening again. My opinion: "Try" is already an admission of helplessness.

The military has no idea what to do with its rape problem because it's part of the core contradiction out of which today's military tradition has grown. Military rape, and the denial and/or blame-the-victim vehemence with which it is generally greeted, exposes, perhaps like nothing else, the lunacy of so much of our foreign policy, which is built on assumptions of that tradition that have long been abandoned in most other spheres of life, beginning with the need for a dehumanized, soulless "other" who is the "enemy."

Turns out the dehumanization process is not easily controlled, especially when it is well-armed and stoked with testosterone. This is the flip side of glory; and there is a growing global awareness that the way nation states conduct their business, and press their "interests" in the moral vacuum that separates one from another, must be reconsidered and humanized all the way, you might say, back to Rome (about whom it was said, "They create a wasteland and call it peace").

Doing so may well be humanity's most crucial task, and evidence that military rape -- against the enemy, against neutral civilians, against itself -- is a stealth horror far more pervasive than official sources willingly admit, or popular culture sees fit to acknowledge, demonstrates with particular poignancy the cost of avoiding it.


Rest of article at: http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/14910

[mzteris]

1. 'cause boys will be boys

and it's only women they're hurting. They have no power to stop or control anything, so who cares?

Besides, the tarts probably asked for it anyway . . .





just in case someone might misunderstand: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[seabeyond]

2. not to mention part of the package deal enlisting in military, .... rape and murder

without prosecution.

[L0oniX]

9. Uhm ...I think men have also been raped.

[Scout]

13. so start a thread about it; this one is about women n/t

[mzteris]

15. comparatively speaking by the numbers

what do think is the proportion?

Though, yes, even one rape of one person - regardless of gender - is too many.

[OwnedByFerrets]

3. And just think about Farking Blackwater......

they are ABSOLUTELY IMMUNE to any prosecution of any kind. Doesn't matter what the atrocity...Murder, rape, theft...doesn't matter what they do, they are given a free ride. Makes ya proud to spend your tax dollars and patriotism on that shit, doesnt it?

[boobooday]

4. Speaking from personal experience (not rape, but attempted rape)

They have a policy of not prosecuting.

I say this as a former military spouse who was assaulted on an air force base many years ago. At first they (MPs) acted like they cared, took pictures of my injuries, etc. Then a week passed. Then my now ex-husband was threatened with retaliation by his commanders, and I was taken seperately to an interrogation room and accused of prostitution, and told that if I pursued charges, my husband would pay the price, and they would bring witnesses to accuse me of soliciting my attacker. I was 19 years old, and that was the end of it.

Edited for clarity.

[iamahaingttta]

5. Why? Because they don't want to?

War and sex have always gone hand in hand.
It's called "rape and pillage" for a reason.
It's in our DNA, and they WANT monsters in the military.
If you can rape a 14 year old, you can look the whole village in the whites of their eyes as you are machine-gunning them down.

That's the only thing that makes sense to me...

[seabeyond]

6. ""rape and pillage"...It's in our DNA." jeeeezus. men really, can you just not help yourself

are you really now gonna start declaring that you just gotta rape?

[T Monk]

7. but "if you just gotta rape" the military may be the place to do it

[iamahaingttta]

10. Yes, I can help myself...

...and you probably can too, as can most people.
There are some who can't or won't.
The military seems to look the other way when they do it.
As militaries have throughout our sordid history.

What are you gonna do about it?
Me? I'm not going to rape and pillage...

[seabeyond]

11. i am not going to claim it is part of our dna giving all males the excuse to rape

but i hear ya... thanks.

[gratuitous]

8. The military does what it wants to do

They are "unable" to control rape because they don't want to. Somehow this point doesn't quite make it into those slickly overproduced propaganda pieces all over my teevee or in the recruiting brochures. I'm not sure why.

[Odious justice]

12. Ummmm, who or what does control rape?

It's an abhorrent act and crime. It happens everywhere. It's a deviant behavior that is often hard to prove or detect. It's not limited to the military. I don't think that the military or anything else can control rape. Rape is rampant in the most controlled environments(prisons, schools). Rape is not a sexual act but an act of power-exerting your will over someone else and dominating them. I'm willing to bet that the more controlled your environment is, there is a greater propensity of being raped or becoming a rapist.

[uppityperson]

14. War is hell and rape is part of the reaction to that hell. Not excuseable though.

Many humans are only slightly removed from chimp-hood and being in hell can pull them back. It is not excusable.