Search Results for: rape military

Judith Grey spells out the appeal of retro this year. Call me crazy (and they do) but I'm just not-so-sure bewildered Americans want a corporate suit cutting his own taxes while ramping up military spending and slashing entitlements. In fact, the more the Obama team emphasizes the cultural differences between the two camps, the better, … Continue reading Mitt Romney As Don Draper

Two big news items: the UN issued a comprehensive report on human rights abuses in the country and Arab League slapped economic sanctions on the regime. The emergence of the Arab League as a bulwark for democratic change in the region is a huge surprise to me. It should be an occasion for neoconservative cheering, surely. And hasn't Obama's "leading from behind" approach helped make that happen? By taking the US out of the equation as a global leader, Obama has allowed indigenous forces to do what needs to be done – and followed up with sanctions of his own. Colum Lynch is tweeting a summary of the UN Report, which Mark L. Goldberg labels "worse than you think:"

Testimonies were received from several men who stated they had been anally raped with batons and that they had witnessed the rape of boys. One man stated that he witnessed a 15-year-old boy being raped in front of his father. A 40-year-old man saw the rape of an 11-year-old boy by three security services officers. He stated: “I have never been so afraid in my whole life. And then they turned to me and said; you are next.” The interviewee was unable to continue his testimony. One 20-year-old university student told the commission that he was subjected to sexual violence in detention, adding that “if my father had been present and seen me, I would have had to commit suicide”. Another man confided while crying, “I don’t feel like a man any more”.

Could these harrowing facts help destabilize the regime? Maybe. But the Arab League sanctions are far more salient:

Contrary to what many believe, male-on-male rape in the military is usually inflicted by heterosexuals to assert "power, intimidation, and domination." Stephen H. Miller argues that confronting these rapes is an added benefit of repealing of Don't Ask Don't Tell: A key argument by those opposed to letting open gays serve in the military was that it would lead … Continue reading The Rapes Few Talk About, Ctd

Jesse Ellison confronts male-on-male rape in the armed forces:  What’s clear is that the Pentagon has only just begun to figure out how to treat men who have been sexually traumatized. Until 2006, sexual assault was classified as a women’s health issue, and even today, Pentagon awareness campaigns target women almost exclusively. Kathleen Chard, the … Continue reading The Rapes Few Talk About

The Pentagon denies the story. Scott Horton says it's true (read his whole post):

The Daily Beast has confirmed that the photographs of abuses at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison which President Obama, in a reversal, decided not to release, depict sexually explicit acts, including a uniformed soldier receiving oral sex from a female prisoner, a government contractor engaged in an act of sodomy with a male prisoner and scenes of forced masturbation, forced exhibition and penetration involving phosphorous sticks and brooms.

President Bush still does not know who actually controverted his policy on keeping Saddam’s military intact and instead disbanded it.  That’s an incredible admission — unbelievable!  This from a revealing New York Times piece today on Bush biographer Robert Draper’s interviews with Bush (and in his forthcoming book Dead Certain:  The Presidency of George W. … Continue reading The Decider Still Doesn’t Know Who Disbanded Iraq’s Military [Steve Clemons]