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TechnoratiWhen Rape Hobbles Bush Administration Policies
Sexual Assault and Rape by US Military in Japan Lead to a Major International Incident
One would hope that behavior that requires the "regrets" of the President of the United States and the Secretary of State and the stand down of United States military forces for "reflection" and retraining in ethics and leadership would be punished severely enough to send a clear signal that the behavior will not be tolerated.
Yet the history of sexual assault and rape of women around U.S. military bases, particularly in Okinawa, reveals a military institutional acceptance of this criminal behavior and the lack of enforcement of military regulations against such behavior by senior military officers.
Many in Okinawa and in the United States are watching the U.S. military's response to the latest rapes and sexual assaults to see if this pattern will change.
Since 1945 when US military stormed onto the island of Okinawa to dislodge Japanese military in World War II, Okinawan women and girls have been sexually assaulted and raped by U.S. military personnel. The Okinawans know the history of every assault. 30 women were raped in 1945, 40 in 1946, 37 in 1947 and the count goes on year after year. The first conviction of a US military soldier for rape was in 1948.
During my recent trip to Japan, I met with members of the organization Okinawan Women Act Against Military Violence. According to reports compiled from police records and other sources by that organization, hundreds of Okinawan and Japanese women have been sexually assaulted and raped by US military since 1945.
In the latest series of incidents, in April, 2008, the U.S. military in Japan charged a Marine with rape and other violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice in the alleged sexual assault of 14-year old girl in Okinawa. U.S. Marine Staff Sergeant Tyrone Hadnott, 38, who had been in the Marines 18 years, was charged with the February 10, 2008, rape of a child under 16, abusive sexual contact with a child, making a false official statement, adultery and kidnapping. In February, Japanese authorities had released Hadnott after the girl dropped the allegations against him, but the Marine Corps conducted its own investigation to see if Hadnott violated codes of military justice.
The rape accusation against Hadnott stirred memories of a brutal rape more than a decade ago and triggered outrage across Japan. Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said that Hadnott's actions were "unforgivable."
The February 11, 2008 arrest of Hadnott by Okinawan police on suspicion of raping a 14-year-old girl he picked up on a motorcycle outside an ice cream parlor in Okinawa City on February 10, triggered an international incident.
The same day, on February 11, Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima and Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura lodged protests with the United States government.
On February 12, Okinawa police recommended a charge of rape to the Okinawa Public Prosecutors Office and hundreds of Okinawans staged protests at the headquarters gate to Camp Foster, Japan.
Japanese Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba expressed concern the alleged rape could affect the planned realignment of U.S. troops in Japan.
On February 13, Lieutenant General Wright, commander of all US military forces in Japan, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer and Lt. Gen. Richard Zilmer, commander of U.S. Marines in Japan, met with Okinawa Governor Nakaima to express their concern. They promised steps will be taken to prevent future incidents.
On February 28, on an official visit to Japan, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also expressed her regrets to Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Foreign Minister Mashiko Komura. "I earlier had had a chance to express the regret to the prime minister on behalf of President (George W.) Bush, on behalf of myself and the people of the United States for the terrible incident that happened in Okinawa," Rice said at a joint news conference held after she spoke with Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura. "We are concerned for the well-being of the young girl and her family."
In a press conference with Komura, Rice said the United States will try to prevent such incidents from recurring and said the U.S. Forces in Japan and the U.S. Embassy would be reinforcing military discipline. Rice also said that Okinawa is "extremely important" for the security of the Asia-Pacific region and it is important for the U.S. and Japan to go ahead with the U.S. forces reorganization.
Rice did not mention publicly the Bush administration's push for Japanese participation in the Iraq war by providing more refueling ships and logistics aircraft, which has sparked outrage in the Japanese public as it violates the renunciation of war Article 9 of their constitution.
Lt. General Zilmer, commander of U.S. Marines in Japan, ordered a two-day stand-down for all Marines in Japan for "ethics and leadership" training. The incident also led to tight restrictions, for a time, for American troops and their families at the U.S. base on Okinawa. The U.S. military in Japan also formed a sexual assault prevention task force after the incident.
On May 15, 2008, a U.S. military court-martial sentenced Hadnott to four years in prison, with one year suspended, after convicting him of abusive sexual conduct with a Japanese teenager in Okinawa. Four other charges, including rape of a child under 16, making a false official statement, adultery and "kidnapping through inveigling," or trickery, were dropped in a plea bargain.
When asked specifically by a Japanese news reporter, a U.S. Marine public affairs officer stated that Hadnott's name has been placed on the U.S. National Sex Offenders list, yet the Stars and Stripes military newspaper reports that Hadnott will have to place himself on the sex offenders registry after he completes his 36-month jail sentence.
On May 16, 2008, charges were dropped against a soldier accused of raping a 21 year-old Filipino woman in February 18, 2008. The Naha, Okinawa, District Public Prosecutor said his office did not have sufficient evidence to indict Sergeant Ronald Edward Hopstock Jr., 25, of the 1st Battalion, 1st Air Defense Artillery Regiment, a U.S. Army Patriot missile battery on the U.S. Air Force's Kadena Air Base, Okinawa.
According to police, after the incident, the woman was hospitalized for more than a week and received outpatient treatment for two weeks. At the time of the incident, the woman had been in Japan only three days, police reports said. Hopstock remains restricted to Kadena Air Base and is closely supervised by officials.
However, like the U.S. Marines in the Hadnott case, the U.S. Army said it will conduct its own investigation, according to Major James Crawford, a U.S. Army spokesman at Camp Zama, Japan.
On May 9, 2008, U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Larry Dean, 20, was convicted of "wrongful sexual contact and indecent acts" in the gang rape of a 19-year-old woman in Hiroshima, Japan in October, 2007, and sentenced no more than one year in jail and a dishonorable discharge. He was also convicted of "fraternization and violating military orders about liberty and alcohol" but cleared of rape and kidnapping charges. Three other Marines will be court-martialed later in May, 2008 on charges of gang-raping the young woman.
In another incident, in early May, 2008, another young 14-year-old Japanese girl reportedly was assaulted by a U.S. military service member. The case is under investigation by both Japanese and U.S. military police.
In the 1995 case that is referenced by virtually every Okinawan one speaks with, three American servicemen kidnapped and gang-raped a 12-year-old Okinawan schoolgirl. In August 2006, one of the perpetrators of the 1995 rape, strangled and raped a 22-year-old female college student in Georgia, after which he killed himself.
In 2002, Marine Major Michael Brown was charged with attempting to rape a Filipina bartender at a club on a U.S. military base. Following a 19-month trial, on July 8, 2004, Brown was convicted by the Japanese District Court of "attempting an indecent act" and "destruction of property" but was acquitted of the rape charge. The court gave Brown a one-year prison sentence, suspended him for three years, and fined him US$1,400. The Japanese Judge said Brown was given a light sentence because the 21-year Marine veteran had no prior criminal record. Brown appealed the verdict to Japan's Supreme Court which dismissed the appeal in July 2004. Brown was transferred by the U.S. military to Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia in August 2004.
In October, 2005, Brown was arrested and charged with kidnapping an 18-year-old girl from a flea-market in Milton, West Virginia. Brown was subsequently indicted in January, 2006 on felony kidnapping and grand larceny charges and, as of May, 2008, currently awaits trial scheduled to take place in Huntington, West Virginia. In the meantime, the U.S. Marine Corps demoted Brown to Captain and allowed him to retire at that rank on February 1, 2006.
In 2006, a U.S. civilian employed by the U.S. military employee was jailed for nine years for raping two women on Okinawa.
While the vast majority of US military personnel do not commit criminal acts while in Japan, the continued presence after 60 years of such a large number of US military, and the horrific crimes committed by a small minority of U.S. military, mean that America's military presence in Japan and Okinawa is deeply resented and many Japanese call for the removal of U.S. bases in Japan.
Sexual assault and rape of women in countries where U.S. military forces are stationed must be stopped, as must the rape of 1 in 3 women in the US military who are raped by their fellow military service members.
Ann Wright is a retired US Army Reserves Colonel with 29 years of military service. She also was a US diplomat who served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia. She was on the small team that reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan in December, 2001. She resigned from the US diplomatic corps in March, 2003 in opposition to the Bush administration's decision to invade and occupy Iraq. She is the co-author of "Dissent: Voices of Conscience," profiles of government insiders who have spoken and acted on their concerns of their governments' policies.
43 Comments so far
Show Allluckylefty: I don't think murder, war, rape and general mayhem is the provience of the white male or the USA or even this century. Hell, rape goes on even in the absence of war all over this globe; mostly as a result of stupidity and the struggle for power. The US military and their ineptitude is the reason for the current outing of dirty laundry; both in the military and the private contractors. Women who think going to war with men and working in a testerone saturated environment won't effect them are living in denial. Granted that is not an excuse for sexual violence, but when women start supporting each other at all levels of government and commerence, then maybe, changes in attitude and actions will begin to occur.
When it comes to honoring the divine feminine, putting a giant dick in some nubile twat is the full extent of what's required.
Hey - folks, its not just 'over there'!
Here is how seriously the military brass (our flag-draped career officers) take their mission of 'protecting the United States': They routinely discharge and then dump soldier-rapists and murderers in the midst of the vulnerable American civilian population. Ann Wright cites several abductions,rapes and murders of American women and children committed by discharged soldiers who had committed similar offensives in Okinawa. There are many more. Remember - Corporal Steven Greene? The sadistic master-mind of the well-planned gang rape and murder of a 13 year-old Iraqi girl - together with her parents and toddler sister - in Mamudiyah, Iraq? Greene was discharged on the recommendations of Army psychologists as a homicidal sociopath and dumped right back into the vulnerable US society with not a warning to potential victims or local police. We do have laws in the United States about identifying and monitoring violent sexual predators...but the US Military is clearly above our laws.
So - why should we 'honor' the troops and especially the officers this Memorial Day - when they release their unpunished criminal garbage into US civilian society? It is the nature of Empire to feed on its own civilian population.
To WTF:
Women have always been volunteers in the military, even when we have a draft, the women are still volunteers. We do that because we believe in defending our country, something that men have a hard time doing, obviously since we have needed to draft men. We don't do it because we like being raped, something that you obviously have not been through, nor are probably aware that you know anyone who has struggled with the aftermath (not that you would care).
Rape is like dying, because life as you know it changes at that point in time, you can't go back, because there is no turning back. So until you have been raped, please do not comment on whether or not it is considered a pleasurable act for the victim. I am a vet, and I can verify that it was not something I wanted nor would wish on my worst enemy.
The rape isn't just about sex, it is about power over another human being. Rape is not only being perpretated against women, what about the children that are being raped WTF? Were they teasing/leading on their attackers? What about the old women? Too hot to handle? What about the men who have been raped?
Rape does not get reported as often as the frequency of the attacks are because it is a point of humiliation for the victim. Its bad enough you've been raped, but to make public is like reliving the whole thing again. And you know that not only are you going to have to relive that attack, any sexual thing that you may have done prior to being attacks is going to be thrown in your face when it is taken to court.
Rape prosecutions are probably dropped more because the victims just want to pick up their lives and move on past it, let alone to report it. If society would stop looking at it being a sexual act, and just look at it as an act of violence, then we might see a more accuate number of rapes being reported, and take the power back from the rapist and return it to their victims. And that is easier said than done.
To Turce:
Thank you.
Darn good comments from many here.
One crucial factor I feel has a direct bearing on why this kind of brutality is tolerated can be found in the following statistics:
*According to the National Adult Literacy Survey [NALS], between 21% and 23% of the U.S. adult population (approx.44,000,000) can read just fundamentally but not well enough to fill out an application, resume, read a food label, or even read a simple story to a child....
A further 25-28% of the adult pop (approx.45-50,000,000) are able to perform more complex tasks, i.e., comparing-contrasting or integrating [bits] of info but are incapable of understanding higher level reading and carrying out problem-solving skills...!
Literacy experts believe such adults...lack a sufficient foundation of basic skills to function successfully in our society. From "Facts on Literacy in America," http://www.literacyvolunteers,org/about/faqs/facts.html
IMHO with all due respect to the literacy council, I think the actual number of adults who are illiterate is closer to a range of 60-65%, with those marginally literate in the range of 20-25% while approximately 10-20% of the pop. are literate...
Another critical factor to consider is the incredible control the DoD has on the American Psyche via video gaming and the movies,TV et al.
See Tomgram: Nick Turse, Irony Man http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/print/174934/Tomgram%253A%2520%2520%Nick%Turse%252C%2520Irony%2520Man
Rape is a violent expression of overt sexism and and we have seen very clearly this election cycle, sexism is alive and well in the United States. And, unpunishable. We haven't come far with regard to civil rights and human rights, have we?
WTF May 23rd, 2008 2:40 pm
Situation normal.
1 in 3 American women that sign up for duty in Iraq can expect to be raped by their compatriots. That this fact does not stop women from signing up, maybe one can infer that they like it (rape, that is, not just killing and destroying).
You are indeed a sick individual in dire need of Psychiatric help. Your comments prove Col. Wrights stats. per chance are you on the list of sexual offenders? I suppose I will have to read the HTML of your comment and hope like hell you aren't close to my neighborhood. I know for a fact you do not have daughters and if, damn I hope not, you do I think someone should contact Child and Family Services to save those poor girls from a sick F$$K like you.
Col. Wright I swear you never stop, I've yet to hear you say 'NO' to any requests we have asked of you(ivaw, vvaw, vfp)and we all love you for your stance on peace and the decent treatment of all women. Thank you, Ann.
RLO VFP, Disabled American Veteran, DelValVetsforAmerica supporter of ivaw and vvaw.
Good comments all around. Thanks for Ms Wright in pointing these "human violations" in this article.
Too many posts to reply to, but...
Dr. d: A good book to read on why are we still in Okinawa in 2008 is Chalmers Johnson's book, 'Blowback' for starters. I consider him an authority on Asia. Please read his book.
ncycat: horrible story! Get your daughter far away. Remember the term from long ago..."cannon fodder"...the Army and Marines are desperate and began taking "felons" into the military. When official government policy justifies murder, torture, rape, kidnapping, and day to day harrassment of civilian people, the symptoms of this agressive, destructive, anti-social behavior infects normally good people not strong-willed enough to stand apart from these actions. As the frequencies of rape and sexual assault on women increase, they become less shocking and gradually diminishes the real damage inflicted on females.
I was stationed on Okinawa, loved the people, treated them with respect, practiced the 'Golden Rule' in dealing with our fellow planetarians, and was invited into their homes. Other GI's had similar experiences.
I also witnessed drunken servicemen belittle the Okinawan people and the " women of the night " on more than one occasion. Of the four armed services, the Marines commited the most offenses of what the author writes about.
megaronin: Good points. You said it well!
Just another clue along the path to those who espouse freedom but sow totalitarianism hoping for empire.
overkill
"Many civilizations have methods for deprograming soldiers after wars but America just dumps them on the local population."
i think it's called the "local plantation", where they can return as slaves to the corporatocracy.
The irony is that George W. Bush has no gut instinct at all, and no backbone at all, he does as he's told, and half the time he doesn't even know what he's doing. This lack of integrity has been passed down into his administration and nobody really knows who is leading and who. The only one we can blame is ourselves. Republicans must blame themselves for voting for him, Democrats must blame themselves for being apathetic.
Too weird! The case was actually filed in the Texas courts. The CIA can do anything, right? I don't know.
I just researched the W rape case and the allegations look pretty unsubstanstiated but it brings up a really good point:
There were a lot of "first hand accounts" of Saddam killing babies and cutting out people's tongues and raping women in front of their husbands. These stories helped the NYT and the Weekly World News sell the war to the gullible American people. Why would the press willingly print ridiculous stories about one world leader and not another, unless they are part of some conspiracy to warp the truth?
If the press was truly liberal the W rape case would be spun until it was believable, n'est-ce pas?
While the fault here certainly lies with the US Military, the Japanese Government can not be exonerated. They have a duty to protect their Citizens. They should evict US forces from all territories of Japan which they have the legal right to do.
If it has been ongoing for 60 years, it is evident there no real desire to put an end to it. Kick them out.
Hi LUCKY LEFTY: Thanks (?) for the reference. Remember when Clinton, on the spot tried to use the defense, "depends what 'is' means"? So when you use the pronoun WE and then the verb CHOOSE to be here now, my answer is it depend on what WE/I mean. Here's where I'm coming from: the portion of the self HAVING this body experience, which for all the reasons you often state, is hardly an easy one... my personal problems pale in comparison say with the Iraqi Mother who's just had a son taken by "authorities" and lost a daughter in some bombing raid; or with the Chinese family members picking through the ruins. Life on this earth can be inordinately CRUEL. So there is the self in this "movie" we call life, here to experience ALL the emotions, full spectrum; and then there is what Jane Robert's termed "the oversoul" which is immortal. It takes from this experience what will accelerate growth.
I really do believe in a Divine order, in laws that are firm in our universe. Their physical equivalent can be seen in things like water boiling at 212 degrees and thus far the oceans holding their places at the shorelines, the seasons changing more or less on cue. Human beings are the experimental biological specie set between the animal kingdom and those which many would term angelic. All of the messages of the Ancient Tarot as depicted in the upper Arcanum relate to this interior battle that's both collective (humanity) as well as individualized... do we act on personal interest alone, or do we try to find a balance between what the SELF desires and how to work that into the greater good. EVERY master has tried to convey laws, rules, precepts, inspired ideals to lead people in the necessity of working towards this "do unto others as..." balance. You've heard me elaborate on why I believe the balance is so dangerously off and how it's causing a disproportionate emphasis on self/ego/anger and in its collective form, war, machismo, militarism and empire.
The PRINCIPLES are sacrosanct, but authorities ranging from so-called church types to secular types have misused them to serve the ends of self, or what one intelligent commentator on this site defined as "the dominator" modality.
I'll close with this. I dated a construction worker in my youth who said that geniuses (architects) designed buildings, but idiots had to build them. The analogy is that geniuses defined the plan for mankind, but the Neanderthal in us (what some call the remnant of the reptilian brain) for too many is impeding what should have been progress/evolution.
In this period of massive transition with so many calamitous outcomes at stake, perhaps our shared movie will prompt its actors to wake up and change how they think & behave, before the shared set implodes. Perhaps. This is why Obama's hope message is a shade better than the rest of the pre-selected trio before us.
1 in 3 raped by "fellow soldiers". Is the number that high in prison? I used to understand that in the society at large, 25% of adolescent girls are 'abused' and given our society's predilections, grossly understated.
Soldiers rape. 4000-6000 years. Put your own number on it. They kill, they plunder, they rape. That is what soldiers do because that is what armies do, because that is what generals tell them to do, because that is what presidents tell generals to do, because that is what richfilth psychotic oligarchies tell presidents to do.
This is our SHARED future. This is America. "Give me your poor, your weary, your huddled masses, my meds have wore off and I'm HUNGRY."
We refused to make a place for everyone at the table, we refused to reject conquest and war as a way of life, and we butchered anyone who 'differed'. Now we have no leaders, no movements, no unions, no direction, and no hope.
Sorry kids. America wanted Aryan Male Supremacy; Gender slavery; Human slavery; Massive sexualization and abuse of children; Constant war; and the THRILL of genocide. Oh yeah, and they have a powerful near irresistible drive to debase and degrade themselves in the presence of psychotic richfilth. "Tell me who to kill for your sake, my Master."
Sad, not to say pathetic, but entirely in line with our pre-nuclear history. There isn't going to be any post-nuclear history. We're it. Bon apetite. I believe Siouxrose (lovely name) will agree that we all CHOSE to be here, NOW, so that we could experience all of this. Was it a wise choice, I wonder? I expect many may have second thoughts on the subject. Movies and books mostly have happy endings of a sort. Life is not so constrained. Nor are oligarchies.
Where is the coverage of these rapes ? Where is the outcry, the outrage ?
This is not news - read Susan Brownmiller's "Against Out Will" When you train 18 year olds to kill, and instill the Martial Order to them....this is the result - every time. Duh !
It has been the policy of the Judicial to offer petty criminals a choice of "Join the Military or go to jail". Recently I read that, because of drastic drop of volunteer recruits, felons will now be able to enlist in the "Services". Because of their proven disrespect of the law, their presence may well have a definite effect on the statistics above.
I served in the Military and there certainly were some "bad characters" but there are a couple of bad apples in every barrel.
No different than what you find in public life. Don't condemn all because of a few.
militantliberal: Regarding Okinawa and bilateral treaties, the US already has a SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) with the Japanese government and it still hasn't stop all this foolishness. We don't bases around the world. That's just Empire stuff.
Send our Army of Rapists out into to the whole world. That will help America's image problem. Hooray!
I heard Washington wants to let military personnel into the Peace Corps. This reminds me of the scene in Braveheart when the English army declares something about, "We must breed the opposition out of them." (policy of raping foreign women/colonies into submission).
Remember guys, as Rumsfeld explained, "War is a messy business."
Never heard of the W rape case until here. Hey, I live in Ohio. We don't get the real news here.
If we really, really need bases anywhere, we ought to sign bilateral treaties that turn over our soldiers over for trial by civilian authorities. If "our boys" want to enjoy raping Okinawan girls, let them enjoy the thanks fo the locals. If the base is located in some Middle Eastern country with barbaric (pro-prosecution OR pro-defense) Islamic laws, e.g. local girl tried for adultery because of our soldier's rape, the treaty should create a reasonable law code and procedure.
My daughter had a knife thrown at her by her Marine husband in a marital dispute. He missed by inches. The Marine MPs came, arrested him and then released him the next day without investigating the charges. They told her to leave town for her own safety. I have lost all respect for those goons.
As WILLYBILLY related, the dehumanization of life effects soldiers, and as ALASKA MAID related, there is a sexual (contents under pressure/repressed) component as well. It's always intrigued me, too, that missiles, bullets, submarines, bombs, and probably other weapons do resemble something phallic and operate like an ANGRY ejaculation.
Furthermore, the split of the atom is the ultimate umbrage to God/Creator/life forces in that it violates, "Let no man tear asunder what God hath joined together."
I see an esoteric relationship between the use of the atomic bomb and a long-term reverberation that's torn apart HUMAN relationships, particularly between a great many men and women, since.
In addition, this idea that God is a guy, that Creation is a BIG BANG, factor into the religious devotion to BUILDING, warehousing and USING a dizzying array of weapons AS IF such action somehow simulates something close to a Divine power. As I bring up repeatedly (because it's so damned relevant!) this is about homage to MARS, the god of war, and is as far from Jesus as hate is from love.
I truly believe if societies shifted from the patriarchal belief structures that generally only validate the masculine side of the Deity, and instead looked to a more holistic basic for what is holy, sacred and worth honoring, the masculine AND feminine qualities in all persons would be invited to express and we would not see such a disproportionate emphasis on power through WHAT DESTROYS, as in war and its dark toys of combat.
Therefore the KEY to healing our the broken template that mankind is wrestling with distills to seeing in one another the lost holiness. If every man stopped seeing feminine traits as things to hate in himself (men call each other fags, sissies, pussies, etc as the ULTIMATE insult) and if the feminine qualities were lifted to their place right alongside those things long revered (courage, direct action, brute force) we could redesign and heal our societies. The world cannot stand other, for everything indeed IS coming apart at the seems, and NO center can hold. The warrior can only break life, he cannot make it; and this lesson goes, too, to Monsanto and the killer chemical companies who want to stamp the man made seal on all things that belong to HER: the great mother. They end up with sterile seed, and frankenstein like after effects which we are only beginning to recognize, like those bananas that with only one allowable strain, all go under when their biological enemy emerges.
Final thought: Boticelli painted Venus and Mars and had HER towering over the little warrior. When the GREAT Mother decies to send the waves, the winds, the volcanic ash no army is capable of stopping her. It's happened before--this rebellion by the so-called elemental forces, and WILL happen again until mankind learns to honor the DIVINE laws. Balance, equal divinity between both genders as WRIT into our very DNA is a core asepct of the LOGOS.
WTF - "1 in 3 American women that sign up for duty in Iraq can expect to be raped by their compatriots. That this fact does not stop women from signing up, maybe one can infer that they like it (rape, that is, not just killing and destroying)."
It's this kind of sick mentality that keeps women thought of as the next best thing to a hole in the wall.
How would these young women, who want to serve their country too, know about the rapes? You think it's in their military handbook? - #1276 One in three of female enlistees will be raped by male enlistees."
How about the woman who filed rape/assault charges against W and was found dead with a shotgun blast to the head, ruled suicide?
In the western world, only one newspaper reports the suicide of the woman who accused George W Bush of rape
http://www.thoughtcrimenews.com/bushrape.htm
by Simon Aronowitz
Saturday 13th December 2003
Despite the enormity of the story, a virtual news blackout has remained in place since Margie Schoedinger first filed charges against George W Bush in 2002. Schoedinger had accused Bush of rape and other sexual crimes against both her and her husband, only one publication in the USA saw fit to print anything about her or her allegations. That publication was her local newspaper.
Her subsequent suicide earlier this year raised many eyebrows amongst those who learned of her death via the internet. Even though the sequence of events was bizarre, again the American media ignored Schoedinger completely.
Not only are there US bases in Okinawa but also in downtown Tokyo with a barracks in the upscale entertainment district of Roppongi. That's where the characters from M*A*S*H would go for R&R and get laid.
Mr D, the US is in Japan because it is a colony (or client state, if you will) of the US economic system. This little thing we call capitalism. Japan is to the US as East Germany was to the USSR. South Korea and Taiwan and similar American satellites as Poland and Hungary were part of the Eastern Block. Please read Chalmers Johnson - a long-time expert in East Asian affairs for the US gov't at UC Berkeley. His "Blowback" trilogy is very popular right now.
War itself is a highly sexualized activity and until we acknowledge that, nothing will change. What is NOT sexual about, for example, pointing a very large phallic symbol which spews out lethal lead sperm (in other words, a machine gun) at the 'enemy' ? Of course young men indoctrinated into this kind of life will act out.
My father-in-law dropped bombs (another occultly sexual activity) on civilian populations in two wars. By the time I met him, he had been an incestuous (both sons and daughter) sexual deviant for a long time. It's really not rocket science to figure out why. When you are twenty years old, what do you do for an encore after putting in a day's work dropping bombs on people ?
He's been dead for many years now, but we still live under the shadow of what he was paid to do during 'the good war' and 'the forgotten war'.
Can anybody explain what the US Army is still doing in Japan in the year 2008? What is the rational?
When will society sincerely and with action as the goal deal with violence against women and other life forms BY MALES?
http://www.wethepeoplefoundation.org/Update/Update2008-05-22.htm
I don't understand raping Okinawan ladies. They are willing enough to participate with guys who treat them well and have affection for them. Anyone who has to rape an Okinawan woman is sick. They are among the sweetest in the world and are quite responsive to men who treat them with respect.
Stupid jerks.
I was in Okinawa in '82. The poor Okinawans had to deal with snobbish Japanese mainlanders and military punks who believe that all Okinawan women wanted to sucky sucky and fucky fucky. I remember when I was in the barracks that the Okinawan lady who ran the laundry had 50 bucks ripped off by some military punk. She was so mad and I was so ashamed, that I reimbursed that poor women out of my own pay to make her whole. She was so thankful, it made me want to cry. I say no more bases, no more American Empire. It's so dehumanizing. Okinawa you deserve better.
Situation normal.
1 in 3 American women that sign up for duty in Iraq can expect to be raped by their compatriots. That this fact does not stop women from signing up, maybe one can infer that they like it (rape, that is, not just killing and destroying).
If the author's statistic in her last sentence is true, that 1 in 3 women serving in the military are raped by fellow service members, then THAT PROBLEM is where we should start on a culture change. Many male service members today are serving alongside more female service members than in some other deployments of the past, and seriousness about how women are not to be "used" in that setting should set the tone for how the local women of other nations are likewise not to be "used".
Appropriate sex for unmarried young men or women is solo (privately) or none, and stressing that officially without laughing at, belittling or stigmatizing the solo alternative is how you demand adherence to sexually respecting other people.
There could also be some value, I think, to the unheard of idea that part of a male "buddy" culture is that honorable men do not "do" either the wives or future wives of other men (including the men of other nations). Soap opera culture, boys-will-be-boys thinking, and over-emphasis on male "competitiveness" scream otherwise (and soap opera culture, boys-will-be-boys thinking, and "competitiveness" in matters of sex are wrong).
It's great to see a fine public servant like Ann Wright pursuing the issue of sexual assaults perpetrated by US forces stationed abroad.
Along with the rampant peer pressure misogyny prevailing in most overseas barracks environments (I served a year in the Army near the Korean DMZ), we should also not underestimate the influence that prostitution plays in creating the rapist mindset. When testosterone crazed young men get acclimated to a world in which sexual favors are assumed to be almost universally available (at dirt cheap price) from the local women just for the asking, pity the innocent non-prostitute who says no and suddenly gets confronted with angry racial and cultural backlash.
There of course is no excuse, individual or institutional, for forced and/or manipulated sexual assault. Maybe the military command structure would treat the rape issue more seriously as a disciplinary matter if some sort of ceremonial public penance by the unit commanders became standard operating procedure, perhaps modeled after the Army's recent mea culpa over the Koran-as-target-practice incident.
Bill from Saginaw
So much for the legitimate military and its record.
Now what about the dark side?
The mercenaries like Blackwater, et al, who comprise the private armies of the DicknBush machine,are hugely funded and have no legal accountability.
Ain't that just sportsmanlike?
I was in the Marines and spent a month on Okinawa. I was shocked at how the local people were treated by the military. No respect at all. It was like the locals were there to serve the military. Worst of all was that it was mostly condoned by the brass. I remember once seeing a taxi full of Marines refusing to pay the driver for taking them back to the base. The guards at the front gate pointed their weapons at the driver and he had no choice but to drive away.
Hoa binh
Despite what the Japanese government may think, the Okinawans don't consider themselves Japanese. That being said the Okinawans despise the US military in their midst and consider them thugs and barbarians.
I served in the US Navy from 1957-1960. Our ship made the rounds of popular Caribbean R&R ports - Haiti, Puerto Rico, Jamaica - with a storm of adolescent testosterone. As with most foreign ports, it was assumed that the daughters of local residents existed primarily to relieve the sexual appetites of American servicemen. Rapes were probably against the rules as a technical matter, but I doubt whether anybody thought of Kingston as anything but an enormous cathouse. This sense of entitlement has hopefully changed, but the excesses of the post war years described in the article do not surprise me. Surely there were many more "grey area" rapes than were ever discovered or reported.
As willybill states, this is the nature of the military. You train people to kill, which means the dehumization of the object of violence, ie, other human beings and the communities in which they live, work and recreate. What is to be expected of them? This article does not even address the sexual violence and intimidation of women in the military by their fellow soldiers. Incidents in which women are afraid to visit the latrine in the middle of the night for fear of attacks by other soldiers, and their subsequent death from uremic poisoning or other causes.
The lack of enforcement by the military is not unexpected. I was in the army in 1967-68, including VietNam, and was witness to the disregard for human rights, and was probably a perpetrator, myself. No one is exempt from the effects of a military gone berserk.
I am committed to Oneness through Justice and Transformation
peace,
st john
I was thinking the same thing, willybill. We've heard and seen video of other military men's crimes like throwing puppies off of cliffs. Shooting innocent children. You're right -- they are being taught no respect for life. Not even for 'fellow' female soldiers who can't even walk to the latrine at night lest they be raped by one of their own fellow soldiers.
What can we expect. We spend time and treasure training and drugging these men to kill and have NO RESPECT for life. Why is this result a big surprise? AND, why is NO JUSTICE a big surprise?
Many civilizations have methods for deprograming soldiers after wars but America just dumps them on the local population. Is it any wonder that so many end in prison, homeless, insane or dead?