The Enemy Within:US Female Soldiers Raped.

The videos and images from prisons in Iraq showed clearly that events had spiraled totally out of control,and those in charge were (and still are) giving it a thumbs up.

Now another atrocity,more shame and disgrace has to be added to the list,it cannot be ignored,though the US military and government has tried since 2004.

Many female soldiers,who face the hardships and struggles of their fellow male soldiers,have to live in fear of the those who are supposed to be on their side.When they leave camp they face danger,and when they return that danger doesn't go away,it doubles.

Appalling new evidence reveals that female soldiers serving in Iraq made fatal decisions in their attempts to avoid rape.

In a startling revelation, the former commander of Abu Ghraib prison testified that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, former senior U.S. military commander in Iraq, gave orders to cover up the cause of death for some female American soldiers serving in Iraq.

Last week, Col. Janis Karpinski told a panel of judges at the Commission of Inquiry for Crimes against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration in New York that several women had died of dehydration because they refused to drink liquids late in the day. They were afraid of being assaulted or even raped by male soldiers if they had to use the women's latrine after dark.

The latrine for female soldiers at Camp Victory wasn't located near their barracks, so they had to go outside if they needed to use the bathroom. "There were no lights near any of their facilities, so women were doubly easy targets in the dark of the night," Karpinski told retired U.S. Army Col. David Hackworth in a September 2004 interview.

It was there that male soldiers assaulted and raped women soldiers. So the women took matters into their own hands. They didn't drink in the late afternoon so they wouldn't have to urinate at night. They didn't get raped. But some died of dehydration in the desert heat, Karpinski said.

www.alternet.org...

Female troops serving in the Iraq war are reporting an insidious enemy in their own camps: fellow American soldiers who sexually assault them.fellow American soldiers who sexually assault them.
At least 37 female service members have sought sexual-trauma counseling and other assistance from civilian rape crisis organizations after returning from war duty in Iraq, Kuwait and other overseas stations, The Denver Post has learned. The women, ranging from enlisted soldiers to officers, have reported poor medical treatment, lack of counseling and incomplete criminal investigations by military officials. Some say they were threatened with punishment after reporting assaults....

Many of the victims are women of high rank. Several are officers. Most were stationed in Kuwait, a common launching point for troops occupying Iraq.

Among the most disturbing trends, say the victim advocates, is a disregard for the women's safety and medical treatment following an assault. Women are being left in the same units as their accused attackers and are not receiving sexual-trauma counseling.

www.uslaboragainstwar.org...

The stories are shocking in their simplicity and brutality: A female military recruit is pinned down at knifepoint and raped repeatedly in her own barracks. Her attackers hid their faces but she identified them by their uniforms; they were her fellow soldiers. During a routine gynecological exam, a female soldier is attacked and raped by her military physician. Yet another young soldier, still adapting to life in a war zone, is raped by her commanding officer. Afraid for her standing in her unit, she feels she has nowhere to turn.

These are true stories, and, sadly, not isolated incidents. Women serving in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq.

Numbers reported by the Department of Defense show a sickening pattern. In 2006, 2,947 sexual assaults were reported -- 73% more than in 2004. The DOD's newest report, released this month, indicates that 2,688 reports were made in 2007, but a recent shift from calendar-year reporting to fiscal-year reporting makes comparisons with data from previous years much more difficult.

www.latimes.com...

I have talked to more than 20 female veterans of the Iraq war in the past few months, interviewing them for up to 10 hours each for a book I am writing on the topic, and every one of them said the danger of rape by other soldiers is so widely recognized in Iraq that their officers routinely told them not to go to the latrines or showers without another woman for protection.

The female soldiers who were at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, for example, where U.S. troops go to demobilize, told me they were warned not to go out at night alone.

"They call Camp Arifjan 'generator city' because it's so loud with generators that even if a woman screams she can't be heard," said Abbie Pickett, 24, a specialist with the 229th Combat Support Engineering Company who spent 15 months in Iraq from 2004-05. Yet, she points out, this is a base, where soldiers are supposed to be safe.
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Spc. Mickiela Montoya, 21, who was in Iraq with the National Guard in 2005, took to carrying a knife with her at all times. "The knife wasn't for the Iraqis," she told me. "It was for the guys on my own side."

Comprehensive statistics on the sexual assault of female soldiers in Iraq have not been collected, but early numbers revealed a problem so bad that former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ordered a task force in 2004 to investigate. As a result, the Defense Department put up a Web site in 2005 designed to clarify that sexual assault is illegal and to help women report it. It also initiated required classes on sexual assault and harassment. The military's definition of sexual assault includes "rape; nonconsensual sodomy; unwanted inappropriate sexual contact or fondling; or attempts to commit these acts."

Unfortunately, with a greater number of women serving in Iraq than ever before, these measures are not keeping women safe. When you add in the high numbers of war-wrecked soldiers being redeployed, and the fact that the military is waiving criminal and violent records for more than one in 10 new Army recruits, the picture for women looks bleak indeed.

www.salon.com...

This type of behaviour shows that if these men have such little respect for their fellow soldiers,then the Iraqi 'enemy' stands little chance of being treated with restraint.


Its also bodes ill for the future.America will not be remembered in most of the world for all the good it has done.Instead,when the US is mentioned many people will think of things like this and they will shake their head in disgust.







[edit on 2-11-2008 by jakyll]

The Bush administration is evil indeed, how can they betray the Americans like this? I am truly sad, it's sickening at best. Please, some force needs to quickly remove the Bush administration, this is very terrible, these female patriotic solders who give their loyalty only to be betrayed, belittled, and abused.

No surprise here....

Soldiers= psychotic, suicidal, rapists.
Go ahead and flame, but you all know its true.

How many more reports do you have to hear about military retards either murdering or torturing Iraqis(and even puppies!), killing themselves, or being victims or rape.
Has anyone run into one of these guys.....I have multiple personal stories of run ins with military personnel, that I would be happy to share.

These people are human garbage, and don't go blaming war. It's hard to have a lot of sympathy for anyone who would sign up for this war.

-Liquid

Of course women are going to get raped. These men are stuck over there for months, or years at a time with no contact with women.. if one comes in site, you better believe they are going to rape her.

That is a sad reality of having women in the service. But they should know the dangers of that happening, before they decide to become a soldier. How could they they not know that would happen?

Men are very sexual. When you take that away from them.. they do things they wouldnt normally do. Sex literally can control them. So whereas they wouldnt rape a woman in normal life, over there they do because sex is taken away from them.

There are many men who do not rape under any circumstances, even if they were forced to endure long, or lifelong, bouts of celibacy. But, war, and the trauma, violence and adrenalin probably has a whole different profile to it, and I can imagine the worst could come out in men due the high stress, trauma, the violence permeating all aspects of their lives.

Edit to add: personal responsibility should of course be taken, but this also must reflect a lack in the government to provide proper training for soldiers.

[edit on 2-11-2008 by mystiq]

Calihan....



What the hell are talking about?
You think just because they hit a dry spell they have to go rape crazy?
Men don't rape because they are horny. It comes from anger, and a lot of other mental problems. You better take a quick psychology course before you go spouting off this kind of crap.

I wasnt saying thats the only reason why they would. OBVIOUSLY they would have to have mental issues from the war as well. But I figured that was a give already....

Originally posted by liquidsmoke206
It comes from anger, and a lot of other mental problems. You better take a quick psychology course before you go spouting off this kind of crap.

To be brutally honest, sorry, it does come fom being horney.
But see, *most* men are capable of compassion and empathy which prevent them from doing harm to others at their personal gain.

*some* men are nothing more than shaved apes.
These are the ones who rape.

It does not come from being horny!

go ahead...go read up on the psychology or rapists and then get back to me.

I suppose people who stab other people to death missed a trip to the gym and needed an arm workout that day.

Expert psychologists define rape as a form of assault where one individual forces another to have sexual intercourse against that person's will. Most experts believe the primary cause of rape is an aggressive desire to dominate the victim rather than an attempt to achieve sexual fulfillment. They consider rape an act of violence rather than principally a sexual encounter.

Please stop viewing men as horny idiots who cant control their penises. Please.

Numbers reported by the Department of Defense show a sickening pattern. In 2006, 2,947 sexual assaults were reported -- 73% more than in 2004. The DOD's newest report, released this month, indicates that 2,688 reports were made in 2007..

A rise in the number of sexual assaults is without doubt a bad thing.

How do these crime rates compare to those in the general population, though? I'm finding the numbers harder to get ahold of than I thought.

Even rounding up, 3000 sexual crimes in a pool of 3 million total DoD employees (factor: 0.0007)...versus the "0.5 per 1000" rapes in the US population (0.0005) reported by the DoJ. Maybe my math is off, but it seems fairly close (0.0007 versus 0.0005) and that US rate only includes the rape crimes...the ratio would be even closer if it included all sexual assaults. Can someone else find some more hard evidence of the civilian US rates of sexual assault? That'd be a good point of comparison.

As I said, though, an increase in the number of DoD sexual assaults is a bad thing.

Originally posted by liquidsmoke206
It does not come from being horny!

go ahead...go read up on the psychology or rapists and then get back to me.

Please stop viewing men as horny idiots who cant control their penises. Please.

"Methinks thou doth protest too much" Hamlet - William Shakespeare

Wow.. ok. Well, id like to see you go over there and get raped by other men soldiers and tell me how you feel about it still.

Same thing happens in prison buddy. Men get raped. They are confined, amongst already having emotional issues... and they do things they WOULDNT do in their normal life.

I dont see why you understand the point im making. I didnt say its because they are horny.

I don't know, I do believe rapes occur, absolutely. But the bit about women not drinking and dying of dehydration sounds too odd. Maybe those women had mental health issues or something that caused the behavior.

I simply cannot believe they were incapable of finding other female soldiers, or sympathetic male soldiers that would walk with them to the bathrooms at night. Women do get abused, but they also weild a LOT of power in those situations because they will have lots of men vying for their attention. Surely they could have used that as protection if they were all that concerned.

Plus sheesh they could have peed in a cup if it came down to it. Surely they knew that lack of water would kill them far faster than anything else.

[edit on 2-11-2008 by Sonya610]

if a man were trying to rape a woman, why wouldn't the woman just simply kick him in the nuts?

Originally posted by mls11.11
if a man were trying to rape a woman, why wouldn't the woman just simply kick him in the nuts?

Wow. Amazing comment there.

Yeah, that nut kicking thing should work. Too bad women didn't figure that out thousands of years ago, we could have erradicated rape long ago!

What is really sad is that it is not just confined to soldiers serving in war zones. Every military academy in America has a problem with females being raped and sexually harassed. They also have a problem with senior cadets and academy staff covering up the attacks. This is a HUGE problem that nobody acknowledges.

Defense Dept surveys Academy sex assaults

Cadet urges investigation into her rape at Academy

Accuser describes assault in Naval Academy rape

Rape victims at Air Force Academy afraid to report

These are the future leaders of our Armed Forces being taught how to cover up their crimes by the current leaders of our Armed Forces.

[edit on 11-2-2008 by groingrinder]

Haha. Kick him in the nuts. I wish it was that simple but unfortunately many woman in a situation such as being raped, become almost paralyzed from shock and cant move.

But the ones who dont, heck yes they better fight back and kick the man in the nuts, or face for that matter.

Calihan= Smoking hot avatar.

Anyway, these stats are about equal to regular US society stats. What is the story again?

Originally posted by groingrinder
EDIT: removed link, as groingrinder fixed it...thanks!

Umm, you might wanna review that link.

It's clearly not a real news item.


[edit on 2-11-2008 by Vault-D]

[edit on 2-11-2008 by Vault-D]

reply to post by calihan123


From the Dept. of Justice... and if you're inclined to search, any and every reliable source of information of the subject will say the same.

Rape Myths

Despite the prevalence of sexual assault in the United States, a number of misconceptions surround this crime and its victims. Some of the most common myths include:

1. Rape is a crime of passion.

The notion that the rapist is controlled by overwhelming lust is far removed from the reality. Psychologists have found that the motivation behind sexual assault is most often the need to dominate and control, rather than the inability to control sexual urges. Rape is primarily an act of power and aggression....

www.ojp.usdoj.gov...

There is nothing sexual about rape. It is about power. Period. And for the record, men are responsible for their behavior-- not women.