I suspect that rape by American soldiers is about the last thing Iraqi women have to worry about.
Most of the troops here don’t associate with Iraqi women very much. In Japan and the Philippines, soldiers see a lot more of the local women, be it socially on the town, or on the base, where locals may have jobs. In Iraq, most of the support work on bases is contracted out to companies from the states (KBR) or Kuwait (Gulf Coast Catering), and most of the Iraqis who do work on base are men. We have some women on base, but not very many; most of the Iraqi women I've met on mine are merchants and work with their husbands. It’s hard for a would-be rapist to assault women who aren’t there, or who he doesn't see alone. So acquaintance rape situations involving Iraqi women on American bases – where most troops are stationed; more people do logistics than actual shooting – aren’t as likely to arise as in some other places. I know one guy who married an Iraqi woman, and have met a couple of guys who’ve dated them, but for most soldiers here, socializing with Iraqi women is pretty much a non-issue.
Outside the base -- more than theft or murder, rape under military cover requires willing accomplices. The crime requires time to complete and leaves the attacker vulnerable to an outside threat. He needs somebody to watch his back. (This is how the guys in the current death penalty case allegedly planned and committed their crime, as a unit.) The American military is a pretty professional entity, and it’s under a massive amount of scrutiny -- our scandals, unlike everyone else's, make worldwide headlines. (Everybody knows about Abu Ghraib. How many people know what a filtration camp is, without googling it?) For the few evil enough to *want* to rape somebody, and who can find accomplices to carry it off, the threat of exposure still retains some deterrent value.
In all honesty, Iraqi women are at a hell of a lot more risk of sexual assault or murder at the hands of Islamist insurgent groups like Moqtada al Sadr’s Mahdi army, which openly uses murder, kidnapping, and sexual assault as tools of intimidation. Sadr’s thugs like to leaflet neighborhoods with threatening statements directed at women who are improperly subservient and go out in public wearing clothing more revealing than potato sacks. I don’t know where the feminist leadership is on that one, but then, I don’t know where feminist leadership is/has been on stuff like this (http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,,1851875,00.html), or this (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-2309812,00.html), or this (http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/081zxelz.asp?pg=1), or this (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060907/ap_on_re_mi_ea/saudi_banning_women), or this (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/08/25/wzim25.xml) and this (http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/08/31/1030508143144.html).
On another note -- Jack, you're my bud, but I have to say this to you: there are people committing "deadly-force attacks on civilians" every damn day in Iraq. They've got the Iraqis that I know scared. But I don't see a lot of moral outrage -- in America, in Europe, or even in the Arab world -- when people deliberately bomb an Iraqi marketplace. I wish people would shake off some of their apathy about that.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-09-09 02:11 pm (UTC)Most of the troops here don’t associate with Iraqi women very much. In Japan and the Philippines, soldiers see a lot more of the local women, be it socially on the town, or on the base, where locals may have jobs. In Iraq, most of the support work on bases is contracted out to companies from the states (KBR) or Kuwait (Gulf Coast Catering), and most of the Iraqis who do work on base are men. We have some women on base, but not very many; most of the Iraqi women I've met on mine are merchants and work with their husbands. It’s hard for a would-be rapist to assault women who aren’t there, or who he doesn't see alone. So acquaintance rape situations involving Iraqi women on American bases – where most troops are stationed; more people do logistics than actual shooting – aren’t as likely to arise as in some other places. I know one guy who married an Iraqi woman, and have met a couple of guys who’ve dated them, but for most soldiers here, socializing with Iraqi women is pretty much a non-issue.
Outside the base -- more than theft or murder, rape under military cover requires willing accomplices. The crime requires time to complete and leaves the attacker vulnerable to an outside threat. He needs somebody to watch his back. (This is how the guys in the current death penalty case allegedly planned and committed their crime, as a unit.) The American military is a pretty professional entity, and it’s under a massive amount of scrutiny -- our scandals, unlike everyone else's, make worldwide headlines. (Everybody knows about Abu Ghraib. How many people know what a filtration camp is, without googling it?) For the few evil enough to *want* to rape somebody, and who can find accomplices to carry it off, the threat of exposure still retains some deterrent value.
In all honesty, Iraqi women are at a hell of a lot more risk of sexual assault or murder at the hands of Islamist insurgent groups like Moqtada al Sadr’s Mahdi army, which openly uses murder, kidnapping, and sexual assault as tools of intimidation. Sadr’s thugs like to leaflet neighborhoods with threatening statements directed at women who are improperly subservient and go out in public wearing clothing more revealing than potato sacks. I don’t know where the feminist leadership is on that one, but then, I don’t know where feminist leadership is/has been on stuff like this (http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,,1851875,00.html), or this (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-2309812,00.html), or this (http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/081zxelz.asp?pg=1), or this (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060907/ap_on_re_mi_ea/saudi_banning_women), or this (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/08/25/wzim25.xml) and this (http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/08/31/1030508143144.html).
On another note -- Jack, you're my bud, but I have to say this to you: there are people committing "deadly-force attacks on civilians" every damn day in Iraq. They've got the Iraqis that I know scared. But I don't see a lot of moral outrage -- in America, in Europe, or even in the Arab world -- when people deliberately bomb an Iraqi marketplace. I wish people would shake off some of their apathy about that.