NEWS: Don't Believe the Hype

CULTURE: Don't Believe the Hype

As I implied in the the tagline to a recent post, y'all know that Cheney's pushing to get us in a war with Iran now.

Or maybe you don't--because the story ISN'T IN ANY OF THE BIG AMERICAN NEWS ORGANS. According to the Guardian, though,

I guaran-fucking-tee that there will be a lot more "news" about how awful women's rights are in Iran, as the pro-Iran-war propaganda mill gets going. Care about the issue, but don't buy the bullshit: women's rights in Iraq are worse now than they were before we decided to "help the Iraqi people" by replacing a stable totalitarian dictatorship with utter chaos, and while some things have improved in Afghanistan (remember Afghanistan?), the overall picture is grim, not least because chaos and insecurity affect women--who after all, have children to worry about and don't have guns--more than men. (If you truly give a shit about the status of women in Afghanistan, start here and then bookmark RAWA, who was working for change before we knew Afghanistan existed and is still doing so now that we've almost forgotten again.)

Not to mention the situation of our own women soldiers in Iraq, many of whom have died in what are apparently listed as "non-hostile" situations--some of which actually mean "of dehydration, because the women were so afraid of being raped by their own fellow soldiers that they didn't drink enough water so that they wouldn't have to go out at night to pee." (Video at the first link in this paragraph includes interviews with women soldiers on this subject.)

Read that again. Women soldiers in Iraq died because they were so afraid of being raped by their comrades-in-arms that they don't drink enough water, so they can avoid having to go to the latrine.

Oh, the Army's got a nice li'l sexual assault prevention and response web site; but of course, commanders can reject reports they decide "aren't credible," and there's not a whole lot in the way of protecting women who report assault by their peers or superiors. Given that the military tried to cover up these deaths, I kinda doubt women soldiers feel like the bosses have their backs.

For all we know, soldiers are still dying because other soldiers will rape them if they have to go pee. It's difficult to find out, because there's no recent news on this issue, which came to light in January, 2006.

So if you hear the powers that be wringing their hands all of a sudden about how awful things are for Iranian women, ask yourself: if they don't care enough about American women in American uniforms to put that shit in the papers, why are they suddenly so agitated about women's rights in Iran?

Bitch_PhD couldn't fit it into the post, but she wants to point out that a report on sexual assault in the military "found that low sociocultural power (i.e., age, education, race/ethnicity, marital status) and low organizational power (i.e., pay grade and years of active duty service) were associated with an increased likelihood of both sexual assault and sexual harassment." Duh.

At least when/if the troops are ever pulled out of Iraq, they won't have to walk very far to get to their next occupation zone.

I love the fact that rarely is PNAC ever mentioned in any of this. It was all planned out back in '96 and 9/11 gave the people on the list of signees (in that link above) the power and backing to do what they've always wanted to do:

Imperialist aggression.

Oh, and the neo-cons are up to their bald heads in defense company stock, too...that always helps in the decision-making process.

Great article!

that's fucking outrageous. fuckers.

I wish I could say this whole thing was surprising at all. Women aren't just being assaulted overseas. The barracks room above mine is a female-occupied room, and it's been broken into at least twice in the last month. I know at least one of those was an attempted assault, but apparently they were prepared for the fucker. From what I hear from talking to PMO (The MPs), the barracks incidents are much lower than domestic violence reports from base housing, and they can't blame all (or even most) of it on PTSD. Marines are indoctrinated to beat the shit out of stuff, and some people can't turn it off when they get home. Disgusting.

oooh i can't wait for aldoushuxley's comment.

This is actually a big problem in the military I will admit it and it is really sad. I have a friend who was just forcibly sodomized and the guy that did it is thankfully getting his just deserts, court martial trip to Fort Leaven Worth where his anus will get forcibly sodomized. It is especially rough when a unit is deployed, however the military has changed its policy on this and it is really cracking down on rape in the military. I am not just being a mouth piece here, in my career every time a girl has cried rape the male has been punished, this is around three years of experience. I however have had good commanders, their are instances where a commander turns his eye to an incident and that is wrong, and the military has cracked down on commanders who have done this. This has resulted in court Martial and imprisonment for some commanders. Honestly and sadly this is a result of a career that teaches forceful aggression, when you have a majority the minority will always be abused.

check out woman in war.

http://athome.harvard.edu/programs/asc/index.html

You know how I knew we were planning to invade Iran?

I looked at a shower curtain map while sitting on the can about 4 years ago. The colored chunk on the left is Iraq, the colored chunk on the right is Afghanistan, and I'll let you guess what the colored chunk in the middle is called. And honestly, you're dumb if you didn't think that was the plan. It was an AXIS of Evil people, not two holes in the desert full of evil.

Here are the Military's 4 reasons for having rape:
1. Exposition
2. Executive Decision
3. The French Connection
4. Cranberries

I wish I could say I remember a time when the punishment for rape was castration, but I think we all know that a woman has never been thought to be worth a man's junk.

This goes to a conversation I have had with many people. This and other topics have to do with the lack of maturity that Americans have with sex. Far too many in our country are messed up mentally on this subject. Don't know what the answer is, but I wish we could find a way to make them grow up.

What?

sad? It's fucking disgusting.

Well, at least I didn't read this to hear someone defending another stable totalitarian dictatorship.

That's my favorite! 'Stable Totalitarian Dictatorships are cool, as long as I don't have to live in one! Man, GW did away with Habeas Corpus? This fucking stable totalitarian dictatorship sucks!'

Ah, the irony. I guess we should have left Hitler in power to avoid the Choas of Post War Europe!

Who taught you analytical history!? Hitler started invading other countries thus starting the war: it was inevitable because he was a megalomaniac. Saddam was growing old, had no WMDs, and was simply in negotiations to trade Iraqi oil in Euros to sell to China, which would have hurt the US dollar: therefore we invaded Iraq to liberate them to the utter chaos engulfing the country. The two are hardly contiguous in an kind of causational respect.

Great link. I enjoyed what Louise Richardson had to say.

Um, "every time a girl has cried rape"? I'll assume you don't mean this nearly as dismissively as it sounds.

That said, I completely agree with you that this kind of shit is the inevitable result of a career that teaches forceful aggression (and one that bases a lot of its value system on defining "being a man" as "being violent/imposing your will"). I even thought about saying so in the post but figured getting into military rape culture was a subject all its own.

I, personally, keep being impressed by Huxley's straightforwardness, to be honest with y'all.

*cries*

Allow me to retort:

Kuwait.

My girl is in Iraq right now. She says it's a HUGE fucking problem

I choked on my cereal when I read this Wado...

This just makes me really sad. That's about the only way I can phrase it. Give it a while and it will get me pissed.

Disturbing, to say the last. So not even the female marines are safe? Bloody hell.

Sad, sad news. It's amazing we never know anything about this. Or is we do, it's toned down and we barely hear bugger all about it.

aldoushuxley: It's good you're so honest and upfront about it instead of pretending it doesn't exist.

Bitch PhD: I think he meant it in a normal way, but misphrased it And thanks for drawing my attention to this, I had no idea...

Kuwhat?

Kuwait has what to do with your point about, was it, Hitler and Saddam being somehow, uh, analagous?

That would make Donald Rumsfeld who exactly?

National Security Archive

I just got back from Iraq about a month ago. It is true that rape is a problem. Women are told not to go anywhere by themselves even on the FOB where they are supposedly protected. Unfortunately most of the cases I heard of involved someone the woman knew and was friends with. This I find really disturbing.

Another thing I find hard to believe is I still talk to guys, in the military, who don't think women should be in the military. Many think of women as a distraction. I think of them as fellow soldiers who are there to do their job, same as me. I always try to look out for them same as I would do for any of my soldiers.

Additionally, what is not mentioned very often are the number of male on male rapes. We didn't hear about them as much, but that is because they are rarely reported. But I walked into the shower on two occassions to find shit and blood on the floor, so you can only imagine what happened.