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TechnoratiCulture of Unpunished Sexual Assault in Military
MARFA, Texas - Sexual assault of women serving in the U.S. military, while brought to light in recent reports, has a long tradition in that institution.
Women in America were first allowed into the military during the Revolutionary War in 1775, and their travails are as old.
Maricela Guzman served in the Navy from 1998 to 2002 as a computer technician on the island of Diego Garcia, and later in Naples, Italy. She was raped while in boot camp, but was too scared to talk about the assault for the rest of her time in the military.
In her own words she, "survived by becoming a workaholic. Fortunately or unfortunately the military took advantage of this, and I was much awarded as a soldier for my work ethic."
Guzman decided to dissociate from the military on witnessing the way it treated the native population in Diego Garcia. Post discharge, her life became unmanageable. The effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from her rape had taken a heavy toll.
After undergoing a divorce, a failed suicide attempt and homelessness, she moved in with her parents. A chance encounter with a female veteran at a political event in Los Angeles prompted her to contact the veteran's administration (VA) for help. She began seeing a therapist there who diagnosed her with PTSD from her rape.
She told IPS that the VA denied her claim nevertheless, "Because they said I couldn't prove it ... since I had not brought it up when it happened and also because I had not shown any deviant behaviour while in the service. I was outraged and felt compelled to talk about what happened."
Like countless others, Guzman learned early that the culture of the military promoted silence about sexual assault. Her experience over the years has convinced her that sexual violence is a systemic problem in the military.
"It has been happening since women were allowed into the service and will continue to happen after Iraq and Afghanistan," Guzman told IPS, "Through the gossip mill we would hear of women who had reported being raped. No confidentiality was maintained nor any protection given to them making them susceptible to fresh attacks."
"The boys' club culture is strong and the competition exclusive," Guzman added, "To get ahead women have to be better than men. That forces many not to report rape, because it is a blemish and can ruin your career."
She is not hopeful of any radical change in policy anytime soon, but, "One good thing that has come out of this war is that people want to talk about this now."
More than 190,000 female soldiers have served thus far in Iraq and Afghanistan on the front lines, often having to confront sexual assault and harassment from their own comrades in arms.
The VA's PTSD centre claims that the incidence of rape, assault, and harassment were higher in wartime during the 1991 U.S. attack on Iraq than during peacetime. Thus far, the numbers from Iraq show a continuance, and increase, of this disturbing trend.
The military is notorious for its sexist and misogynistic culture. Drill instructors indoctrinate new recruits by routinely calling them "girl," "pussy," "bitch," and "dyke." Pornography is prevalent, and misogynistic rhymes have existed for decades.
Understandably, Department of Defense (DoD) numbers for sexual assaults in the military are far lower than numbers provided by other sources, primarily because the Pentagon only counts rapes that soldiers have officially reported. Even according to the Pentagon, 80 percent of assaults go unreported.
Pentagon spokesperson Cynthia Smith told IPS, "We understand this is very important for everyone to get involved in preventing sexual assault, and are calling on everyone to get involved, step in, and watch each others' backs."
According to the DoD Report on Sexual Assault in the Military for Fiscal Year 2007, "There were 2,688 total reports of sexual assault involving Military Service Members," of which "The Military Services completed a total of 1,955 criminal investigations on reports made during or prior to FY07."
The criminal investigations yielded the shockingly low number of only 181 courts martial. "We understand that one sex assault is too many in the DoD," Smith told IPS, "We have an office working on prevention and response."
A 1995 study published in the Archives of Family Medicine found that 90 percent of female veterans from the 1991 U.S. attack on Iraq and earlier wars had been sexually harassed. A 2003 survey of women veterans from the period encompassing Vietnam and the 1991 Iraq attack, published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, found that 30 percent of the women soldiers said they were raped.
In 2004, a study of veterans from Vietnam and all wars since, published in the journal of Military Medicine, found that 71 percent of the women were sexually assaulted or raped while serving.
At the 2006 National Convention of Veterans for Peace in Seattle, April Fitzsimmons, who early in her career was raped by a soldier, met with 45 other female vets, and began compiling information.
"I asked for a show of hands of women veterans who had been assaulted while on duty, and half the women raised their hands," Fitzsimmons told IPS, "So I knew we had to do something."
She, along with other women veterans like Guzman, founded the Service Women's Action Network (SWAN) to help military women who have been victims of sexual violence.
It is an uphill battle for women in the U.S. military to take on the system that clearly represses attempts to change it.
"When victims come forward, they are ostracised, doubted, and isolated from their communities," Fitzsimmons told IPS, "Many of the perpetrators are officers who use their ranks to coerce women to sleep with them. It's a closely interwoven community, so the perpetrators are safe within the system and can fearlessly move free amongst their victims."
Fitzsimmons shared with IPS a view that underscores the gravity of the problem.
"The crisis is so severe that I'm telling women to simply not join the military because it's completely unsafe and puts them at risk. Until something changes at the top, no woman should join the military."
Two testimonies
April Fitzsimmons served in the Air Force from 1985 to 1989, as an intelligence analyst and intelligence briefer for a two-star general. Early in her military career, another solider sexually assaulted her.
Nineteen years old at the time of her rape, Fitzsimmons reported the assault, and named her perpetrator, who was removed from the base. However, she declined the offer of counselling "because there was a stigma attached to it," she told IPS.
"Those who seek counselling are perceived to be at risk, as being too weak and vulnerable and it would have meant forfeiting my top-secret clearance to keep military intelligence classified," she explained.
Another reason for maintaining silence on the matter was that Fitzsimmons was declared "airman (sic) of the year," in the European command.
"I didn't want to lose that," she says, "I wanted the whole thing to go away."
Fitzsimmons created a one-woman play, Need to Know, which has been running for six years. In the play, she addresses her own sexual assault in the military. When news of rapes and sexual assaults by U.S. soldiers in Iraq, against both other soldiers and Iraqis began to surface, Fitzsimmons became more active.
"After reading about the 14-year-old Iraqi girl, Abeer Qasim Hamza, who was raped by several soldiers, and about Suzanne Swift, a soldier who after being raped by another U.S. soldier went AWOL (absent without leave) rather than redeploy with the command that was responsible for allowing the rape to occur, I was convinced that there was a cycle of sexual violence in the military that was neither being seen nor addressed," she says.
It is not difficult to ascertain the reason for so few sexual assaults being reported in the military. Jen Hogg of the New York Army National Guard told IPS, "I helped a woman report a sexual assault while she was in basic training. She was grabbed between the legs from behind while going up stairs. She was not able to pinpoint the person who did it."
Hogg explained that her friend was afraid to report the incident to her drill sergeant, and went on to explain why, which also sheds light on why so many women opt not to report being sexually assaulted.
"During training, the position of authority the drill sergeant holds makes any and all reporting a daunting task, and most people are scared to even approach him or her," Hogg told IPS, "In this case, the drill sergeant's response was swift but caused resentment towards the female that made the report, because her identity was not hidden from males who were punished as a whole for the one."
The incident displays another tactic used in the military to suppress women's reportage of being sexually assaulted - that of not respecting their anonymity, which opens them up to further assaults.
"After this incident many of the males said harassing things to her as they passed her during training, so much so that she regretted having addressed the issue," Hogg continued, "You can be ostracised as the woman who had dared to speak up. Women willing to speak up are trained to shut up, which results in an atmosphere of silence. After my experiences in basic and advanced individual training I never reported an incident again."
Hogg herself faced verbal sexual harassment.
"When I removed my protective top in the heat I would often hear comments such as ‘where you been hiding them puppies' in reference to my breasts."
Based on her friends' experience, Hogg did not even consider reporting.
To make matters worse, according to Department of Defense statistics, 84-85 percent of soldiers convicted of rape or sexual assault leave the military with honourable discharges. Not only are they not penalised, they are honoured.
43 Comments so far
Show AllIts only war. What the hell do people think happens in war. War is the ultimate obscenity. If you don't want to take a chance on getting raped, or if you don't want to take a chance on getting your nuts shot off, either by the enemy or by "friendly fire" then stay the hell out of the military. Who the hell with the common sense your "god" gave a cat would enlist in the military, an organization that exists to destroy, murder, pillage and rape. It just makes no sense. Do you think there is truly "honor" in the military? Honor in killing innocent human beings? Really? You join the military. You get raped. You join the military. You get your nuts shot off. Like you didn't know this could happen? Sure. Okay. Rape is wrong. Always. But a smart woman doesn't walk naked into a fraternity party. And a smart woman does not join the military. And a smart man does not join the military. But what if our country is attacked? Then the attackers should stay out of range of my shotgun. One does not need to join a killing, murdering organization in order to defend one's country. One does not go 12,000 miles from home to kill innocent people in order to defend one's country.
Thanks for that. I was a Marine. I am a woman. Women have been part of our armed forces for generations. At no point in my decision making process leading up to my enlisting did even a specter of the horrors that *I* experienced even flicker in my mind. I was young. I was idealistic. I was naive. And I was ripe for the picking by the men that recruited me as an ideal candidate for the role that I fulfilled in the Marine Corps.
Never was the remote possibility that those who were serving *with* me as fellow Marines and men were capable of inflicting harm upon me even a consideration. Never was I advised that as a woman, I was a second class citizen. Never was the fact that if I served side by side with men in combat I might be considered a sub-human target for them even discussed. At any point. Not in my time with my recruiters, not in my time with my drill instructors, not in my time at my specialty school. In fact, it wasn't until after Tailhook and after a campaign to educate men and women about sexual harrassment and sensitivity was my gender even an issue. Until then, I was just another Marine.
Suggesting that a person lacks intelligence for expecting a modicum of decency, respect and safety among their peers is reprehensible. Suggesting that a person should have known better is pathetic. Suggesting that a woman should have known what was coming to her is borderline criminal.
Sioux Rose
COMMON: I admire MANY men who contribute their deep commentary on this site; however, not many truly understand how women FEEL, or how sexism impacts our lives. I was lucky to have escaped two near-rapes; but the sense of being attacked and nearly overpowered remains with me. Many of my friends have been raped. I believe the U.N calculated that 50% of women will know either rape or male violence/abuse during the course of their lives.
On Sunday there was an article posted written by Frank Rich about "the banality of evil." I got up early and happened to have posted the first comment, which led to a LONG thread. I had just read Robert Jensen's book, "Getting Off" as it had been referred to me by two people, and I was curious about the role pornography plays in many social aspects of American life. I had no idea what content the popular films involve or the degree to which these "scenes" degrade women. My daughter dated a West Point Cadet and she still corresponds with him. At one point he was rooming with 3 other guys and she told me they viewed a good deal of porn. I encourage you to read the book to understand the pervasive/invasive nature of something akin to a slick, sick mental disorder now impacting the inner fantasy lives of a lot of males. When the porn is "used" often, it begins to replace healthy contact and distort the way men see women. I believe that apart from the huge $ being made through this twisted venue, THAT is the purpose. There are few things more empowering and beautiful than a loving relationship that involves a nurturing sensual component. As one of my friends put it, "Good sex is a straight shot to God." In the East, the practice of Tantra is directly opposed to the Western idea of pursuing orgasm as THE event, which for many entails a rush to the "finish line." Jensen points out that Porn is efficient in delivering that release, often for men alone. If you want to understand the inner lives of a lot of men in the military, read that book. I hope for the day (for my daughters, and granddaughter) that such spiritual assaults upon the feminine no longer pass for commerce, recreation, or so-called "free" speech. The contamination of MILLIONS of minds has an impact on the quality of society we all share. Just because something is taking place in the "privacy" of one's home does not mean that the collective consciousness is not impacted by the vile images and the emotions they feed. I would not be surprised if your attackers were not contaminated by this source.
One more point: people on this site often explain how important it is that we talk with our neighbors, try to educate the Fox "news" crowd. I live in the Bible belt and was having lunch at a little out-of-the way spot when the few people in the cozy little spot all began to speak. They were all Republican conservatives, but we found common ground when as they ranted against liberals being responsible for the breakdown in morals, I told them that I, too, felt something had gone amiss when the DECENCY standards were removed. Women have been cheapened by media, and young girls have been indirectly taught to be servile to men's sexual wants. Many of these girls get pregnant and find themselves alone to raise children. Nothing is sacred in our culture, and life itself is tossed about without any sense of grace. I believe the careless attitude towards love & bonding & sex & relationships, added to the degradation of women in porn all act to desensitize persons so that their nation can incarcerate so many, follow rules that are equivalent to an economic war declared on workers, and worst of all: build and use bombs and other weapons of mass destruction while all the while calling others evil. The nation's soul is sick. Can there be true freedom without respect for life? This is the key aspect that's gone missing.
The purpose of the military is to force control through violence or threat of violence. Thus this "revelation". What has been the primary source of rape and pillage throughout history?
"He's the universal soldier, and he really is to blame...."
Part of fixing it is to end the "might is right" mindset.
A too rare beam of sunshine is coming for womanhood though, Souter resigned....
And, Obama will nominate/appoint Elena Kagan or Kathleen Sullivan to the Supreme Court. The Dean of Harvard Law School and former Dean of Stanford Law respectively. Forward thinkers and Good women.
(Lisa Jackson in the EPA too, another good woman was an important appointment. way cool.)
Kagan or Sullivan, we'll see a woman step into this phenomonally powerful position and that will be cause for celebration. Yes yes yes.
Just a ray of sunshine, but a strong one!
I am new to Common Dreams and clearly naive. I had thought that those supporting the Common Dreams project would be fairly intelligent, open-minded and the sort that would show empathy for others who had suffered abuse. Man! Was I quickly disabused of that notion! Ms. Guzman clearly incurred significant trauma as a result of what was done to her, but just about all of the comments are anything but understanding of her problem and of how wide-spread sexual depradation is in the military.
The degree or pervasiveness of it is no surprise in view of the context, i.e. isolated stations, a 99 per cent male environment, men of prime mating age bubbling over with testosterone. The easy way to respond would be for me to laugh it off and simply say that, "Men are pigs!" and what else could one expect? But the hard truth is that the lack of sympathy and understanding is reflective of men in general, at least younger men. Womens' organizations pushed for "allowing" women in the service, and I had no problem with it at the time the decision was made. I now believe it was a mistake, however, a mistake that was made by many, many people that cannot be fully or fairly corrected. At the very least, however, all soldiers (men and women) must be fully warned of serious consequences resulting from such actions and anonimity of the victims must be maintained. And there must be follow-through, that is, appropriate punishment for those who step over the line.
"I had thought that those supporting the Common Dreams project would be fairly intelligent, open-minded and the sort that would show empathy for others who had suffered abuse. Man! Was I quickly disabused of that notion! Ms. Guzman clearly incurred significant trauma as a result of what was done to her, but just about all of the comments are anything but understanding of her problem and of how wide-spread sexual depradation is in the military."
... did you even read the comments on this article? Any of them?
Is there even a single one which supports your description above?
What happened to Ms. Guzman is horrible. It should not have happened.
What happened and continues to happen to Iraqi and Afghan women, children and men is horrible. It should not have happened, and it should be stopped.
The military is a place that promotes nationalism/patriotism, obedience in carrying out shocking violence, and dehumanization on an industrial scale. THE MILITARY IS A PLACE THAT CULTIVATES MENTAL ILLNESS.
Some reasons so many rapes are occuring:
1) The crowd the military attracts. When I was young, my parents used to say, "are you going to do your homework and become an upright citizen, or will you join the military and kill innocent women and children to feed your woman and children?"
2) The very military missions on which we embark are so devoid of any moral justification that everyone involved knows that they are in an exercise in corruption on a genocidal scale. When you are fighting for freedom, things like that don't happen in your ranks. The First Nation fighters did not rape the women in their ranks, neither did Fidel and Che...or the Palestinians, etc.
STOP MEDIA CONTROL!!!
Run that bit about the US military ``liberating'' the women of Afghanistan by me again......
The military mind -- like the religious one -- is more about conformity, and a tolerance (if not a liking) for violence, which is its purpose. During my stint in the Navy, I did not find myself with morally or intellectually superior beings. Quite the contrary!
I did, however, enjoy the military (late 50s) because of the adventure, comraderie,and opportunity for learning.
But, as with religion, it's an unforgivable sacrilege to say anything negative about military personnel. Even President Obama becomes fawning and reverential around the military.
Being a pretty woman in the military must be like dragging a cart full of cash through the slums.
When you teach people to view other people as objects to be used instead of fellow human beings to be respected, you have made murder and rape permissible.
It may be difficult to do the first time, but anybody can be desensitized to anything.
Any person especially young people can be turned into completely amoral monsters. This fact has not been lost on those who recruit child soldiers.
It is horrifying that drill seargents yell sexual abuse at women serving the US.
That should be made illegal. By decree of BO now. And, though not court-admissable, polygraphs work. All recruits should be told ANY allegation of sexual assault, and accuser & accused will be ordered to polygraph. And if the results show truth by the victim and a lying denial by the accused, they will be court-martialed if possible w/o polygraph evidence, likely obtainable with alleged witnesses also being polygraphed and threatened. At a bare minimum a dishonorable discharge. And for the victim a transfer of choice, leave w/ money, a raise in grade and the option to leave with $$$ + an honorable. And, all officers should know that if this happens under them, they've had their last promotion, and will be redeploying to the Mojave. Where they will finish their careers picking gravel out of the tarmac from dusk to dawn.
Common Dreamgirl
Thanks for being so candid about your experience. Not only should women not join the military, no one should join the military-ever. Even if we have 'evil-doers' at our shores we can easily rise up -like minutemen/women- and take care of ourselves. Also, how bizarre is it that they call their 'law' the uniformed code of mj? Justice depends upon accuracy and their is very little of that in the service. Hang in there. You did nothing wrong that you should have to carry with you. You trusted your country as you saw it;they see it another way. It is they who are wrong. Semper Phi to yourself only and to your family of friends.
So...military men have sexually-assaulted military women throughout American history and even today---and do Americans really care enough about this to hold them "accountable" for their actions? First of all, it smacks of a disrespectful treatment of the history of the City on the Hill of, say, a Jeremiah Wright, you know that "crazy old uncle" that our President had to throw under the bus because of his "God damn America" spoutings off? And even if such shameful things have happened in the past, hasn't the U.S. Pentagon not itself decreed that this crap has to stop? So look. we've got a war (or two or whatever) that our military has to fight so for god's sake, let's "move on" and forget about the past, we never read any of that Forbidden History anyway. If we can condemn past torture and torturers and say we won't prosecute them since we must "move on" and have prohibited further torture, why won't that same little shell game work in the case of a few (or a lot) of sexual assaulters?
Did you ever wonder how many young men sign up for the army for the opportunities to rape that it will present?
Our wonderful armed forces. They marginalize and persecute gays, and a woman has a pretty good chance of being molested if she decides to join. My sister was raped by a sergeant who gave her a ride (out to the woods) while she was serving in Germany. She later learned that several other female soldiers had been raped by the same man. Unfortunately, like most such incidents, they were never reported. On the rebound, my sister confided in and later married a fellow soldier, who turned out to be an abuser and a child molester. This career soldier was passed around from base to base whenever complaints about him were reported. He was finally caught and incarcerated after being released from the army with an honorable discharge. The state of Georgia obtained his army files and found out the whole sordid story. He served 10 years after confessing to the attempted rape of the young daughter of his best friend. My sister is still getting over her marriage and I wonder if she will ever get over being raped. There must be a way for men to be trained into effective soldiers without this cult of macho masculinity. The first step would be to get rid of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. We could do well to examine the policy of other armed forces. I'm getting so tired of being told that things that work in other parts of the world wouldn't here because they are "un-American".
Sioux Rose
GEORGE: Your story makes me wonder how many rapes go unreported? However, as Ray related, the culture of militarism is about brute force and releasing the monster from the cage of conscience. To be able to kill makes all other trespasses fairly easy. It's a wonder more men don't succumb, but then an entire caste of women have (by virtue of poverty for the most part) been adapted to serve/service the "need" of American GI's across the globe. From comfort women to houses of "ill repute," the U.S. Mars-ruled military has contaminated the entire globe. If it's not leaving behind depleted uranium, bombs, unexploded land mines, or Agent Orange, it's unwanted babies and Goddess knows how many cases of V.D. or a shame that becomes the story of the broken womens' lives.
My sister was very sheltered in a middle class fundamentalist home, and joined the army partly to escape her home environment. She got much more than she bargained for. I am proud of her for dealing with her rape and marriage situation as well as she has. Her marriage did result in two boys who are now in their late twenties. One of them is a responsible husband and father and the other a total fuck up alcoholic who is serving his third or forth term in Iraq. I'm pretty sure the later was molested by his dad. I liked him as a kid, but he's a stranger to me now. She raised her boys by herself with a little help from me and the folks. If I have one regret, it is that she ever joined the army. It is not the place for sane men, and certainly not the place for women.
Ray Berthiaume
I'm sorry, George, but making an "effective soldier" means so warping his conscience that he will kill on command with no regrets. Once a human becomes accustomed to killing another human, rape is insignificant. If anything it is a diversion.
Afraid you are absolutely correct, Ray. But rape is never insignificant. And I was thinking of the armed forces in places like Scandinavia where is required a certain level of 'gentlemanleness' and accountability that ours seems to lack.
Sioux Rose
RAY: You said what I would have said. Thank you for sharing a right-on analysis!
I agree. Let's stop breeding killers and this behavior will be an aberration.
The ladies should be justified in shooting the perp and the co that let it happen.
Welcome to America!
michael jordan
http://sites.google.com/site/apolloguide/
Kaye Whitley is the director of the Pentagon's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response office. It's too bad she wasn't interviewed in this article seeing how the DOD just last month released the Department of Defense reports of sexual assault in the military, year 2008. I would like to hear her response to Jamail's assertions.
In addition, Dahr Jamail cites 2007 data when fiscal year 2008 is available. If he'd included this information, the reader would note an increase in reporting of sexual assaults as was noted in an CNN report filed March 17, 2009. CNN report is a summary of the press conference Whitley conducted last month at the release of the report for fiscal year 2008. Both links are provided below.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/17/military.assaults/
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4379
War is Hell, just another example. Do not vote for any more warmongers and get our country back to peaceful pursuits as fast as possible. Our country is falling into ruin while we are building up ever more military, to blow up the rest of the world, and we are actually blowing ourselves up.
What is most tragic about this, is that in order to press this issue further in to the public forum, the very existence of women in the military must be reevaluated. As a woman and a former Marine, I would vehemently protest, discourage and counsel the decision of any woman to join the armed services. The emotional, physical and psychic abuse inflicted upon women is constant, brutal and immeasurable. The effects are forever.
I was harassed, groped, monitored, publically shamed, punished under false claims through Non Judicial Punishment, placed on house arrest many times for insignificant infractions, stalked, screamed at daily, assaulted, abused, bullied, endured death threats and survived in a constant state of adrenalyn enhanced hyper vigilance. I slept with the lights on every night with a club under my pillow.
In spite of years of counseling, occasional institutionalization, medication, loving support from friends and family and a lifetime since of taking care of myself, the psychic scars do not heal.
My story, as indicated in this article, is far from unique. My ability to recognize the horror that I survived and my willingness to be open and frank about it, however, is. To this day, I am received with snarling skepticism and rebuked if I suggest that my time in the military was anything but a patriotic adventure. It's an impossible break in continuity to those who rigidly believe that our men and women in uniform can be anything but patriotic do-gooders.
I take responsibility for everything that I claim in this post. I also acknowledge that the military is populated by people who do take their responsibility to protect and defend our nation and the standards of behavior expected in theory under the UCMJ. They do far out number the predators, abusers, sociopaths and psychopaths that make life a horror for good women but their ability to over ride the harm done by abusers is tragically limited.
Ray Berthiaume
I am so sorry and ashamed that you experienced what you did.
You are a true beauty, CDgirl. Thanks for sharing this.
Your doubtless sincere aspiration to save the world through the imperialist US military was doomed to fail, as it's purpose is anything but bringing justice and freedom to the world. It is the armed wing of capitalist control, and must be disbanded.
Sioux Rose
COMMON DREAMGIRL: I am so sorry for your tale and experience of terror. I have encouraged persons in this forum to check out Professor Robert Jensen's book on pornography because I believe our nation is becoming increasingly given to depraved indifference to all aspects of life; and I an convinced that part of this insidious process begins with how men see (or in groups are taught to regard) women. Unfortunately porn has become a gigantic WWW business and many films are being made that increasingly degrade women in ways that I am sick about. The fear of the Divine feminine, added to the disgust taught men around things feminine, cuts off their feelings; and when there are no feelings, conscience is muted, and anything goes. It's a return to a pure ego-driven animalistic state, that which is associated quite powerfully with the archetype of Mars, the god of war. All of these dehumanizing acts and aspects of consciousness work together; and in sum, they have created THE beast. The beast is best seen in the enormous apparatus of the US military with over 700 bases, now undermining law to justify practices of torture, many of which simulate sexual humilitation... this connection between killing and desecrating the birth canal is REAL, and it has its roots in religious perversion. So long as persons are taught that only the male side of THE force is holy or Divine, these types of behaviors will and do run rampant in so-called society/civilization.
We must be careful about pitting the sexes against each other. The sole way forward is the economic equality of communism. In the end, the oppression of women is rooted in their relative poverty.
If you really want universal peace, sustainability, equality and affluence, there is simply no other path but to build the party of international workers' revolution to unify the world's economy and people.
I used to think people who hated the opposite sex were stupid.
After my second divorce I understood why some men hate women. After seeing the movie FOUR MONTHS, THREE WEEKS, TWO DAYS I understood why some women hate men.
Sioux Rose
On Sunday I opened a discussion relating violence with pornography. It evolved to over 225 responses. Notice this article mentions, while essentially sliding over the use of sexist jingles and porn in the military "culture." These items dehumanize the OTHER, and play a tremendous role in desensitizing many men to women, or others that they can overpower and take advantage of. While I believe that war is the ultimate obscenity, every time a war takes place, rape ALWAYS results. All violent images become part of the individual's unconscious as well as the collective unconscious. To the degree disgusting images are being produced in countless porn films where the ante on what DOES disgust is being constantly upped, we will see a further degradation of society, and what happens between people. There is so little investment in peace, beauty, diplomacy, caring, giving, edifying... and so much invested in bringing out the worst in persons, f--king them one way or another, when not blowing out their brains or allowing our "civilized" nation to project so much of its wealth towards yet more toxic ways to take out yet more lives. America has led mankind into a pit, a moral black hole... and is courting its own karmic boomerang.
I believe that articles like this bring up the core issues effecting our society...
Authoritarian power structures like the armed forces create cultures of domination and exploitation...
Both within their own rank and file and the greater communities they overlap...
Rape and other forms of assault are tools to establish dominance within and terror without...
With all the "Dont ask... Dont tell"... I wonder how many enlisted men have been raped by another soldier or officer...
Imagine the stigma and PTSD resulting from that... Where your story would be laughed at and repercussions severe...
Unfortunately, it is not "a few bad apples"... This is systemic... There weren't whorehouses in SEAsia until the marines landed...
They break you down to build you up the army way, as my dad used to say... This indoctrination into a cult of violence strips an individual of one's conscience and empathy... In order to get past the innate & visceral ethic to not kill or rape our fellow man...
The conditioning & programming that folks go through in boot camp amounts to brainwashing...
By reducing folks to a childish mental state of blind obedience and dissociation between one's actions and the effect on others...
I believe this partly explains why so many soldiers are committing suicide, dying of dehydration in the night, and incidents of "friendly fire"...
There was a soldier in the Vietnam War that was raped. He had a wife at home with a new baby. The soldier committed suicide afterwards. The rapist was Henry Kissinger!
"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." ~ Thomas Jefferson
Sioux Rose
GOLDEN MEAN: Your wisdom and sensitivity tie all the important points together. Thank you.
For those interested - read about the rape/murder/cover-up of LaVena Johnson; also study Suzanne Swift's horror stories of the military. And Ray is correct - this has been going on for years, as reported here, also by Ret. Col. Ann Wright, and various others.
Oh, what a susprise: An imperialist army whose mission is to maintain illegitimacy has a culture of violence and disrespect for the weak!
Stop all military funding! For universal peace, sustainability, equality and affluence! These humanitarian demands are absolutely beyond the ability of capitalism, underscoring it as an inappropriate economic model for our time.
To move forward, we must build an international movement of toilers, led by a Leninist party. This may sound canned, but that is because it is so widely misunderstood that I am forced to repeat it over and over. Watch this posting, and you will see that nobody can effectively challenge this call. Stop fooling yourself with liberal reform schemes, and get on board!
After all the press that events like tailhook received, it is hard to believe that anybody considers this to be NEWS !
I tired of apologists coming here and posting the "this is old news" bull. Shoo! Shoo!
These are the men who are killing the Pashtun women in order to save them from Taliban oppression
You miss the point, Ray. The idea is to sow illusions that the armed wing of imperialism can be sanitized. This is brought to you by the same apologists who want you to believe that the Democrats can also be made humanitarian. Only suckers believe it, but the nonstop propaganda has most of us falling into that category.