COMMAND RAPE in the Military. Why are soldiers out of control?

[IndyOp]

LOOK TO THE MILITARY COMMAND. :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke:

SIGN THE PETITION. Please - help this woman & all of the troops being abused, who are then turning around and abusing the Iraqis.

Command Rape

By David Swanson

Suzanne Swift's story begins in an all-too-familiar way. A dead-end job, a friendly military recruiter, a promise that signing-up as military police would mean no deployment to Iraq, a broken promise, and a trip to war. Then it takes a less commonly heard of turn, one involving a practice known as "command rape." Suzanne is back in the U.S. and is refusing to return to Iraq. Until a couple of days ago she was confined by the military and threatened with prosecution. The three superiors whom she has accused of various forms of harassment or assault have not yet been charged. Suzanne's mother, Sara Rich, spoke with me about her daughter's ordeal and recorded this 20-minute conversation.

<http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/downloads/suzanne.mp3>

<snip>

SARA: ...she chose to be a miliary police officer and do 5 years so she would not go to Iraq.

DAVID: And yet they sent her to Iraq anyway?

SARA: That's exactly right. The first thing they said to her when she got off the bus at boot camp, was the sergeant yells, he said "You blankety-blank-blank all think that you're not going to Iraq? Well, your recruiter lied. You're all going to Iraq and you're all going to die!" Scared the hell out of Suzanne.

<snip>

DAVID: And she is now refusing to return; why is that?

SARA: Well, there's a lot of reasons why. When it came down to her redeployment, about 2 weeks before she was due…well first of all, she only got 11 months of stabilization time. You're mandated to have 18 months of stabilization time between deployments in a combat zone, so she was only being given 11 months of stabilization time, and was forced to sign a waiver waiving her rights to that 18 months. This was really hard for her. Then about 2 weeks before they were to be redeployed, she was out on a training mission, and a male sergeant raped a male specialist out on a training expedition, a training that they were doing in Yakima, which kind of triggered all of the sexual abuse and assault and harassment that Suzanne experienced when she was in Iraq the first time.

<snip>

DAVID: But what was done specifically to her that led her to refuse to go back?

SARA: Well, there were two sergeants that harassed her and one that sexually assaulted her in something called command rape while she was in Iraq; then a third harassed her when they returned from Iraq, so three sergeants that we are pressing criminal charges against.

DAVID: Can you define "command rape" for people who are not in the service or familiar with the term?

SARA: Sure, this is something I have learned, and the Army family therapist…I've heard of a lot of stupid things. I have never heard of command rape. It's when your superior has life-or-death decisions over you, so they can tell you to run across a minefield, and you have to comply. Basically they have all the life-or-death decisions over you. They coerce you or do something with you that's sexual it's called command rape.

<snip>

She asks those concerned by this story to visit a website:
http://www.suzanneswift.org

If you go there, please sign the petition. If you can, please contribute financially. And, if you are able to organize others to take part, please hold an event in support of Suzanne Swift on her birthday, July 15th.

[benburch]

1. Randi Rhodes says she was raped while in the Air Force. nt

[redqueen]

2. *sigh* n/t

[AuntPatsy]

3. I'm at a loss for words and its really because not enough

is being done to highlight this very real attrociety going on far too often, no, more often than not we all get to hear that life is so good in the military.

[redqueen]

4. IMO it's like prison rape... accepted, appreciated, deliberately ignored

[IndyOp]

5. That sounds exactly right. Accepted. Appreciated. Deliberately ignored.

Appreciated. Being sexually violent, being the target of sexual violence, increases the intensity of violence soldiers are willing to release on innocent civilians. It keeps the level of fear and secrecy high.

[AuntPatsy]

6. Sadly way too true.

[EFerrari]

7. I'll send this to the L.A. Greens. Maybe they can put it out.

So many things that spur outrage.

:nuke:

[acmejack]

8. I never served with any women.

At least not where they were in my unit, they were in admin, communication and medical type positions though. Not in our kind of billets.

There seems to be a real lack of command involvement, where the hell are all the mid grade NCOs and the junior officers? These guys all appear to be operating autonomously and doing whatever it is they want. They don't appear to have much leadership. Probably just poor perception on my part.

Whatever the reason, this must be stopped, I cannot believe the prevalence of rape in our society as high it is. I think many men are unaware of where the "line" is. I know this sounds stupid, but I really believe that to be a fact.

Please don't flame me too bad, I'm attempting to be thoughtful not provocative!

[redqueen]

9. "I think many men are unaware of where the "line" is"

I honestly do not understand how that could be possible.

[EFerrari]

11. Bad boundaries. And groupthink. My PTSD makes me

more or less painfully aware of boundary incursions. The reverse must also be true.

On top of that, there's the class system of when these incursions are socially permissible.

(This is so hard to think about -- because it is truly horrendous, what is being done to our young people.)

[rman]

12. Sounds like you think it's a matter of ignorance

"unaware of where the line is"

Which you may or may not mean to say.

I'd just like to say that sociopaths don't know any line, except for the one beyond which they think they might get caught.

[acmejack]

13. How is it possible that so many women feel they have been violated?

Date raped? I am willing to bet the majority of those men thought when she said "No" that "She really didn't mean it". I cannot accept that many of us are pigs. That is the point I am attempting to make, is how many of the men honestly thought they were involved in a mutually agreeable sexual experience at the time?

Does this make any sense or should I just hide?

[bobbieinok]

14. there seems to be a lot of 'I just need to be more persuasive' male view

In some romance novels it sure seems that 'no' means 'work harder, I'm open to persuasion'. There's a lot wrong with the mind-set of many romance novels. Then again, they are novels, not real life.

BUT years ago I saw foreign (speaking foreign language, etc) young men reading romance novels at the paperback racks in the library. I thought at the time they were trying to figure out what 'worked' with American females. Boy, could they get some weird ideas.

There also still appears to be the idea that if 'I have heard she's had sex with some other guy, she really wants to have sex with me, no matter what she may say or how she may act because everyone knows women love to play hard to get and are teases.'

I was surprised at the number of males in my class at a conservative christian college who thought it was reasonable for a guy to expect sex in return for his spending money on a date. The question was posed as a view common among African males in a modern African city; the American (majority white) guys seemed to thing it was a very reasonable expectation. Just imagine a date where the guy thinks this is understood and the girl thinks she's just agreed to a movie and a snack and maybe a kiss!

[readmoreoften]

15. It's not a one-to-one ratio.

33% of women are sexually assaulted in their lives. One man can easily sexually assault 40 or 50 women in his lifetime. If you force people to have sex, you'll probably do it more than once in your life. In fact, it's probably your way of being. It could be that only 10% of men are sexually abusive, maybe even 5%, but those men are on the prowl and ready to go.

I had a friend that was pulled into the men's room at grand central station (in the 80s) and publically gang raped. No one called the police for quite some time. People just joined right in. She was in the hospital for 6 months afterward. Scary to think, huh!

[acmejack]

16. Unbelievable.

People are more uncivilized than I think, especially in this Country. You go to other Countries and you see children and women traveling alone at night and it is a common sight, but not here.

That is simply terrifying to hear. I am so sorry and horrified for your friend, I hope she is all right, all things considered, that is...

[readmoreoften]

17. It happened a long time ago.

She's more of an acquaintance, I should say, than a friend. But no, she is not okay. She is a certified mess. I think that one of the greatest weapons against rape is when the males of the culture stigmatize dehumanizing attitudes. For example, if a guy sees a girl walking down the street and he says, "wow that bitch is a piece of ass I'd love to stick my dick in her." The friend could say, "Yeah. She's really pretty. I'd love to ask her out." I think that kind of reframing helps. You don't have to yell at the guy and say, "why do you talk about women like that! don't be an asshole!"

Reframing the discussion instead of an attack. Of course, I think this is best to do when a person is still a young man. I think it's harder to confront when the men are older, especially when they have social power.

[undergroundpanther]

18. A guy says shit like that at me

I treat him like the rapist he is. Knee meet nuts.
Men will not stop raping until it is too costly personally for them to even THINK of it as a power'rush' a 'fetish' or 'entertaining' thing to do to someone else..

If some guy thinks he has a right to demean,threaten and harass or rape others like a rapist,than treat him like a criminal because that is what he IS. As you would defend yourself against a thug, hit him where it hurts the most..to disable or stop him effectively , be it verbally or otherwise, show the thug no pity.

If you must defend yourself,do not be squeamish, rip his sexual weapon right off his body,and leave him to die. He would do the same to you if he gets away with rape. Make it COST him ALOT, personally ,if he violates your human dignity, violates your consent and attempts to invade your body boundaries make him PAY so much in pain he will not entertain the idea he can get away with rape ever again.,I say if a rapist don't wanna lose his dick,he shouldn't use it as an assault weapon 'cause I will defend myself..And I don't care about a rapists feelings or his body,I am sure sure he has no respect for my human dignity for if he did he wouldn't be a rapist..

[undergroundpanther]

19. It is surprising how many men Are pigs

And they are pigs in secret so they won't be seen as pigs.

* Myth: Domestic violence is more accepted in Asian cultures, which allow battering, than it is in Western cultures.

Reality: Unfortunately, acceptance or tolerance of domestic violence exists in many cultures, including Western cultures. Excusing any incidence of violence against women as a product of culture is dangerous because it aids an abuser's justification for his abuse.

# Nearly one in three adult women experience at least one physical assault by a partner during adulthood.
# It is estimated that between one-million and four-million women suffer nonfatal violence from an intimate partner every year.
# 30% of Americans say they know a woman who has been physically abused by her husband or boyfriend in the past year.
# Of those victimized by an intimate partner, 85% are women and 15% are men. .
# Intimate partner violence results in nearly two-million injuries and 1,300 deaths nationwide every year .. That is more than three deaths per day.

http://www.nyawc.org/info/what-is-dv.html
There are alot of pigs out there.There are men that are good too.
One Pig however can ruin alot of lives before he dies.
1 in 4 people have a form of conduct disorder,or a bully problem.
1 bully can mess up an entire community of peaceful people that relate well.1 bully thug father can teach his sons to act as he does,and some of them may be bullies now you got two bullies.
After a few generations of pig abusing a child into another pig childrearing you get a sick situation like this country.

[rman]

10. damn