Long Post 4/19

Peril in War Zones: Sexual Abuse by Fellow GI’s

This article brings to light sexual abuse on military bases, specifically in Iraq and Afghanistan, an issue that I had never heard of before. However, I’m not surprised to hear it either. The article discusses how females in the military who are sexually assaulted or harassed have difficulty with reporting abuse, receiving support, and having their perpetrator convicted. Although the military has a stated “zero tolerance” policy for abuse or harassment, these things are often overlooked, dealt with poorly, or simply left unreported for various reasons. The usual he-said-she-said issue is prevalent as well as the fact that the “commander’s focus on the mission overshadows other concerns” such as sexual assault. Many women who are sexually assaulted in the military deal with the hierarchical structure of the military. One woman who was harassed did not report it because she is just a private but the man was a warrant officer. The women often feel like reporting abuse or harassment would mean that nothing would actually be done about it or it could negatively impact their careers. By reporting abuse, females in the military often receive punishment for committing adultery, fraternization, or under-age drinking. This just reiterates that myth that women who are raped “deserved it” because they were doing something else that was wrong. Meanwhile, the men get off free of charge and people pass it off as an act of releasing the stress of being at war. What makes this abuse and lack of follow-through after reports is that the females are forced to continue living and working alongside the men who abuse them. There is no escape without losing their jobs.

All the Men are in the Militias, All the Women are Victims.

This essay looks at the life and mindset of Borislav Herak, a young man from Yugoslavia who joined a militia during the war in the early 90’s. He ended up raping and killing Muslim Bosnian Women. Enloe uses this man to look at what made him do these horrible crimes. When he spoke to reporters about the rapes, he says that he did it because he feared being punished by being sent to the front lines of war or being thrown in jail. He also says he felt guilty about it but he never said anything about it to the other men, and they never talked about it. He and other men were apparently instructed to rape women as a boost to their morale. However, raping women did not help morale, drinking and barbequing was what helped their morale. Enloe proposes that because Borislav was an unsuccessful, lonely young man followed the militia for protection and he received acceptance by the other men. He was also given a house that was once owned by Muslims. So the appeal of this barely there connection with other men was enough to convince him to blindly follow orders to rape and kill women. Enloe ends her essay seeming like she still doesn’t quite have the answer to understanding this mentality. Perhaps if she looked at the stories of other men like Borislav, she could find more patterns that would help her piece together this psychological puzzle.

Spoils of War

This short essay discusses how military leaders actually try to provide their soldiers with prostitutes while they are deployed to satisfying their urges so that they will not rape women instead. Enloe’s main point seems to be that she is criticizing the military for condoning paying women to have sex with the officers but not condoning rape, even though prostitution can be seen as a form of rape. I think that because sex is a private, taboo subject, and the military wants to appear professional, that sex is rarely talked about. However, from these three readings we had today, we can see that sexual abuse is present in many different forms in the military and very little is being done to stop it.

Women at Arms- Living and Fighting Alongside Men, and Fitting In

This article describes the difficulties and differences that females serving in Iraq experience. Although the separate accommodations for women were not abundant at the start of the war, soldiers seem to have learned by experience to figure out what the women need and how their needs are different from the male soldiers. The article mentions that sexual harassment is an issue and that the women often don't know how to respond, but this article definitely made it seem like much less of an issue that the other article Peril in War Zones. This article focused more on the positive changes that have been made to incorporate women into the military. It also mentions that there is harassment, bias, and hardships, but this article doesn't give many examples of that. My last newsflash was about three female marines serving in Afghanistan and they talked about how the males in their unit had trained together for years and then the women were added into the group for a special mission and the men did not accept them as part of the unified group socially.

I was surprised to hear about married couples living together on bases but I guess thats sort of an ideal situation if both spouses are in the military. In my newsflash I also looked into the military's rules on pregnancy and it did mention that women who are pregnant are not allowed to be deployed, which makes sense. However, it also strongly urges soldiers to be responsible, and try to avoid having pregnancy conflict with their jobs. I noticed that working in the military is such a life-consuming career that pregnancy really doesn't mix well with it. The military also expects mothers to find childcare for their children, even if the mother is deployed overseas. This would be the same treatment that men receive, except that if a woman is in the military, then there is a pretty high chance that her husband is also in the military. I don't know the military's stance on this issue, but I think it would be a good idea if the military made sure that both parents are not deployed overseas at the same time, just in case that they both die or are injured, so as to not leave the children parent-less.