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Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Fresh new terrors in Iraq

Posted by on January 31 at 11:41 AM

Truthout.org has a chilling editorial on a military cover-up concerning the deaths of several women serving in Iraq.

Apparently, female soldiers are dying from dehydration. They stop drinking water in the afternoons— despite the hundred-degree desert climate—because they don’t want to go pee at night. Why? Because these women are afraid of getting raped on the way to the bathroom. So they’ve been dying in their sleep instead, while the military continues to ignore and hide the problem.

Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski, Sanchez’s top deputy in Iraq, saw “dehydration” listed as the cause of death on the death certificate of a female master sergeant in September 2003. Under orders from Sanchez, he directed that the cause of death no longer be listed, stated [Col. Janis Karpinski who has testified before a panel of judges at the Commission of Inquiry for Crimes against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration]. The official explanation for this was to protect the women’s privacy rights.
…There was an 800 number women could use to report sexual assaults. But no one had a phone, Karpinski said. And no one answered that number, which was based in the United States. Any woman who successfully connected to it would get a recording. Even after more than 83 incidents were reported during a six-month period in Iraq and Kuwait, the 24-hour rape hot line was still answered by a machine that told callers to leave a message.

Bastards. If the military isn’t going to protect its female soldiers, it should at the very least pay for cosmetic surgery for women, so they can have (detachable) rows of jagged teeth or a few sharp, angry pincers guarding their vaginas. Sound horrible? No more so than getting raped when you’re trying to pee, or dying to prevent it. Jesus.


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A South African woman has invented a female condom that attaches itself to a rapist's penis. It's extremely painful and can only be removed by a doctor. That way rapists can be identified when they seek medical attention. She developed it to counter the rape epidemic in South Africa, but it sounds like they need to be standard issue for female soldiers.

Pincers? Better solution - allow soldiers to carry arms 24x7. You'd think this would not be a problem in Iraq .. and it's not at the forward bases .. but in the rear area bases arms are locked up unless needed.

Or let only the female soldiers carry 24x7. Problem solved and no need for surgery.

Unless of course the soldier attacking the woman is 50 pounds heavier than her and takes her gun and then uses it against her, that could exacerbate the problem no?

I'd give odds to the soldier who is armed in that scenario, Christina.

It's like wearing a seatbelt. Yes, in some circumstances it's possible for the belt to do more harm than good but you are still better off buckling up than not. Guns are an effective equalizer for women.

I don't think that guns are the solution for violence against women Brian. Guns are rarely effective for anything except shooting people and adding edginess to paintings in the wiskey bar.

No, you are right. Guns are not the solution for violence against women. On the other hand a gun is a valid solution for violence against a woman.

Guns are rarely effective for anything except shooting people

I am a simple (some say simple-minded) guy. You have a rapist. You have a woman. Man attempts rape, is shot, dies. One less rapist in the world. This is a good thing, nu?

Shooting one rapist doesn't really do a hell of a lot of good in a world where 1 in 4 (1 in 3?) women are sexually harrassed by thier mid 20's. Besides there are likely reprecussions to shooting someone I would imagine. So then you have woman who does not want to get raped shoots man and kills him and then possibly risks going to jail. Not a viable way of dealing with rape.

We might be coming at this from differnet points of view. You're taking the top-down approach, and looking at the over all picture. I'm coming at it from the bottom, on an individual level.

They are both valid approaches. But I submit my approach has a better chance of success, where it matters - to the individual.

Myself if it came down to the choice of a rapist doing his deed or my shooting the cad, I'd choose the latter and take my chances with a jury.

This seems like a perfectly viable means of dealing with, if not rape, then rapists.

Huh. So here's this totally fucked up thing that's happening to soldiers in Iraq who are there on our behalf and you guys can't lay off your pissing contest about whether guns are a valid self-defense tool for women. That's awesome.

Let me just stand in for the common sense you both seem to lack: you understand each other perfectly well. You just don't agree and it's unlikely that you ever will so there's no point in your continuing this moronic debate.

M'kay? That's great. B'bye now.

Otherhow, that's totally fucking disturbing about the thing in Iraq. It's like we haven't moved an inch since Tailhook. One of the many ironies of Bush's unilateral approach to his status as "commander-in-chief of the military" is that he claims absolute right to send the military wherever he wants to fight whoever he tells them to fight-- but he doesn't take any responsibility for shit like this. So he's the "commander-in-chief", but nobody expects him to be a leader and order changes in practice and policy that would make female soldiers safe in the field.

Hunh. I thought Christina and I were having a rather nice discussion. But how nice you can project your angsty irritation on the rest of us. Go .. you.

Holla and Happy Thanksgiving.

This is the coolest La Cocina.

Hope you come back soon!!

A very nice website !! Very well Done !!!

I like your website alot...its lots of fun... you have to help me out with mine...

Your pictures are great.

It looks like you really had a nice time.

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