NEWS: Beyond My Ability to Bitch

CULTURE: Beyond My Ability to Bitch

Some things are just beyond . . . well, I can't even say what they're beyond.

The up side is that the story's been getting plenty of news coverage since the woman involved contacted Texas and North Carolina legislators, so probably the USAF will end up dropping the charges.

Hat tip to the Reclusive Leftist, who apparently has deeper wells of outrage than I'm capable of mustering.

Bitch_PhD suggests that their propensity to rape coworkers makes men unfit for military service. Not all men, of course, but only the ones who can prove that they're not potential rapists should be allowed to do these jobs.

Bitch Doctor said...

Well, since rape is legally defined as unwanted penile/vaginal intercourse, that DOES mean every man is a "potential rapist".

It's too bad the alleged victim did not pursue courtroom justice, because sadly that's the only way the alleged rapists would have been brought to justice. I know the legal proceedings for rape are exceptionally painful for all involved, but it just seems like it could be worse for her to file charges and then drop them...

No...what's sad it she couldn't face seeing these men while recounting her story so she dropped the charges...but they are oh so willing to testify against her.
Oh but they won't be court-martialed for taking part in the indecent acts or giving a minor alcohol. They get immunity for testifying against the girl. That makes fucking loads of sense there!
Some people.

That shit got fucked up and some lawyers should get fired there.

That would be correct. Surely making war is important enough that this sort of behaviour shouldn't be allowed to interfere with it.

Careful what you say, I made a similar comment some time ago and was crucified for being a violence pornographer. I said it about child molesters and rapists though.

Christ, what a revolting story.

Also, I think it's really sad that she refused to testify because she "wanted to move on with her life." I would like to believe that seeing your rapists convicted and punished would be the best way to do that, and it's sort of awful that she didn't think, for whatever reason, that that was a realistic scenario.

I have no words for this.

Oh, I agree. I'm just saying that I think it's a very demoralizing state of affairs.

Jesus. Not to mention the fact that apparently female soldiers have died of dehydration because they didn't want to use the latrines alone at night, for fear of being raped by fellow soldiers.

This war keeps lookin' better and better, don't it?

Hey, I didn't say it.

http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=269157

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/08/airforce_rape_controversy_070808/

From what I went around reading, it seems like the others agreed to the indecent acts charges and they were punished. I couldn't find any other story where it said they had 'immunity' from rape charges in the future.

It seems to be the case that the military has not tried to hide knowledge of this case, and for the sake of dealing out SOME 'justice,' they resorted to this. If there was any sort of punishment to be levied against the three men, she had to either carry forward with her case (which seems as though she would have won) or she had to be brought up on the same charges, as she was (albeit an unwilling one) a participant in the events.

While this case is quite distressing, it was and is within her power to make the choice between the two, sadly, extremely difficult options. The military, at no point, seemed to be refusing her the right to seek out justice against the people who wronged her.

I don't understand this at all, not even a little bit. How can a human being do this to another human being? What happens that makes this possible? What is it that turns a smiling, happy child into the sort of creature that would think to do something like this? It's beyond me. I can't wrap my brain around it. That's a person. It's a PERSON. She's no different than you. What could possibly make this behavior acceptable in your mind?

I come from a horrible background, but for everything I've experienced, it would never occur to me that I could do something like this. I can't even stand to type it out, it's so awful.

Things like this make me feel incredibly alone in the world. I feel like I don't understand anyone or anything around me. I am incapable of making sense of this on any level.

Yeah, I hear ya. FTR posted a story about some guys who tried to dig up a young woman's body to have sex with it after seeing a hot picture of her in the obits. I just couldn't wrap my head around it. Some other poster said the same thing you are saying now... the feeling of not belonging in this world, not being able to comprehend how people could do that.

That entire issue is bullshit. I am not saying she is lying, I am saying the USAF blatantly violated federal law. In accordance with the sexual assault policy reform in 2005, a SAVI (Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention) Representative is supposed to meet with her, assist, advise, and defend her in regards to the case. If no SAVI rep was assigned (and I cannot imagine a SAVI rep allowing this to happen) then its a violation of DoD policy. The convening authority is going to get their balls cut off. I hate it when mother fuckers do shit like this to victims. As if they haven't been through enough.

Unless he's impotent. Or he lost his penis in an accident. Or he doesn't have a particularly strong sex drive.

Isn't anyone here aware of the long marriage of rape and war? I'm not going to draw a universal principle here; I'm sure that there are plenty of servicepeople out there who are quite decent human beings. But I can't help but feel that there are a great number of people out there who can't separate the violence they experience on the battefield from the violence they perpetrate in rape.

I'm afraid that as long as we consider violent solutions to our societal problems "necessary," we're always going to have to rely on people who are willing to commit acts of violence to meet those ends. And, unfortunately, such occupations will draw certain individuals who cannot distinguish one type of violence from another. I'm not sure that one can come up with any system that will weed out all the bad apples, since, particularly in cases such as this one, the bad apples are more or less encouraged to keep on acting as they always have.

My apologies... I see upon rereading that you only "suggested" it.



Sock puppet said...

... some might say that rape & war/po-tay-to po-tah-to...

Isn't there also another - albeit distinctly unlikely - possibily here that maybe she wasn't raped, afterall? I know that's REALLY farfetched (and I'm not using sarcastic overtones here, nobody in their right mind would fake a rape report... but, if she wasn't in her right mind...) but it's happened before. What about the Duke incident?

My people have been a warrior culture for thousands of years. Our definitionof a warrior is far different than a typical soldier.
We were and still are to some extent taught that our duty, and our honor was to protect the people. Our soldiers also have a code of ethics they are taught. Whats happening right now is nobody wants to enlist, the standards are dropping, and more bad apples are slipping through the system. It's absolutely appaling to me that someone could even violate someone else in that manner. It doesnt make me feel alone, it infuriates me.

+1
And the fact the people get away with it is even worse.