Lt. Col. Jeffrey Kusinski was arrested the other day for groping a woman in a parking lot at one in the morning in Washington, D.C.’s Crystal City. Just another incident involving sexual coercion and an American solider, one of a number of recent incidents that have dramatized the alarming extent of the problem – except for one thing: Kusinski was in charge of the Air Force’s Sexual Assault and Prevention unit.
With over 500 sexual assaults every week, and a rule that permits commanders to dismiss all charges – regardless of how much evidence is amassed against the accused – the US military is a veritable rapists’ paradise. Reports of rapes have increased by 30 percent since 2007 – a huge jump. And that’s just the reported rapes, which, by the Pentagon’s estimates, account for only 20 percent of the total. Over at Lackland Air Force Base, in Texas, it’s an orgy of sexual harassment, with 32 instructors accused of “inappropriate” behavior with 62 trainees. It’s a wonder they have time for anything else.
What in the name of all that’s holy is going on?
To begin with, part of the problem is the way the military deals with such incidents: the victim is supposed to report it to her (or his) immediate superior – who is very often the perpetrator. But the issue goes a lot deeper than that, rooted as it is in the very nature of warfare.
What kind of person signs up for the US military? I would put them in two categories: 1) Someone who wants and needs the kind of discipline which is the defining characteristic of military life, and chooses to take advantage of career opportunities that might not be available otherwise, and 2) A gung-ho macho jerk who loves violence for its own sake. Of course, these two categories are not mutually exclusive, and while those who belong exclusively in the latter category are no doubt less numerous than the former, of one thing we can be certain: the sort of person who joins the military lacks the aversion to violence possessed by most civilized human beings. Which is not to say they are homicidal maniacs: it is to say, however, that they their willingness – and ability – to tamp down violent impulses is less than the average person’s.
But this doesn’t explain anything, really: after all, we’ve had a military for as long as the country’s been around, and rape was never a pandemic – or, at least, it wasn’t as brazen as it is today. What is different about this moment in history?
I would contend it’s a combination of two factors: 1) the general decline in traditional standards of morality, and 2) the specific nature of the 21st century American military as an instrument of global dominance.
On the first point: the ranks of the military are filled with those who could not find gainful employment otherwise – in short, our soldiers come from the “lower” ranks of society. This wouldn’t matter much in previous eras, because America was more or less morally homogenous: there was no significant “morality gap” between the upper and lower classes in society. Indeed, if anything, the rich and the upper-middle class were a bit more risqué because they had the leisure, the opportunity, and the money to act on their inner desires, whilst the lower orders were taught from birth to repress and channel their urges into more productive and socially useful activities.
These days, however, the “morality gap” is about as wide as the income gap in general: the lower you go on the socio-economic totem pole, the lower the standard of what passes for “morality.” Out of wedlock births increase as income decreases, and there are alarming indications this “morality gap” is increasing, with out of wedlock firstborn births the majority for the first time.
In short, one reason sexual violence is more of a problem in the military these days is because of a general lowering of moral standards in the society at large. The phrase “casual sex” is, today, a redundancy – because is there any other kind?
But wait – how does this explain sexual violence? After all, one could approach sexual matters from a “modern” (i.e. sluttish) perspective and still abhor sexual violence. So where is that coming from?
For the past decade or so, the US military has been rampaging all over the globe. In an unprecedented series of regime-changing military campaigns, American soldiers have been engaged in wars of conquest from Iraq to Afghanistan, with enlisted personnel sent on multiple deployments for extended periods. Not subject to local laws, and encouraged to employ maximum violence on a battlefield where the locals are the enemy, our troops have unleashed a wave of violence in the countries they occupy that most Americans are completely unaware of.
That’s why the “Collateral Murder” video revealed by Wikileaks – and leaked by Bradley Manning – caused such a sensation: people began to ask “Is this what our soldiers are doing over there?” The plain and simple answer to that question is: yes. According to the official propaganda – and our “embedded” media – our soldiers in Iraq were just helping little old ladies cross the street, and when they weren’t doing that they were building schools and setting up clinics. When the “Collateral Muder” video surfaced, along with the Abu Ghraib revelations – and all the other atrocities committed our dauntless defenders of the American Way – the American people were actually shocked.
Yet sexual violence – a criminal behavior generally – in the military has been a problem for years: just ask the people of Okinawa, who have had to live side by side with an American military base that has been a constant source of criminal activity – rapes, robberies, murders, you name it. Protests against the presence of the base has been gong on for decades, to no avail. The area around our overseas bases is always a “hot zone,” rife with prostitution, drugs, back alley dives, and other unsavory aspects of human existence. It comes with the territory.
Rape isn’t about sex, it’s about power: the power to dominate, and humiliate one’s victims. It is, in short, the sexual equivalent of war – which is why it is so often practiced as a deliberate war strategy. In Imperial America, where the cult of the military has been taken to ridiculous extremes, the soldier is valorized and put on a pedestal so high that it’s no wonder they feel they can get away with anything. Held in tandem with the idea that our military is the best, the strongest, the most dominant in all the world, is it any wonder that rape is part of the military culture?
For the past twelve years, the US military has been given free rein in Iraq and Afghanistan, killing, raping, pillaging, and otherwise doing the Devil’s work. Why is anybody surprised that, when they come home, they keep doing what they’ve been doing all along?
It’s no accident that rape in the US military has become such a major problem at a moment when two rising trends – imperialism and political correctness – are coinciding. Imperialism, and the cult of militarism, have imbued military personnel with unprecedented social status – the military is the most trusted institution in America – as well as a sense of their own invincibility. On the other hand, political correctness has mandated a sexually integrated military, with women (and openly gay men) living and working alongside testosterone-soaked heterosexual men who have come to believe they are exempt from the rules us lowly civilians must live by. It’s a fateful, and very dangerous, collision.
The rape pandemic in the military is yet another case of “blowback,” with the consequences of American foreign policy coming back to haunt us in a particularly violent – and chilling – way.
NOTES IN THE MARGIN
You can check out my Twitter feed by going here. But please note that my tweets are sometimes deliberately provocative, often made in jest, and largely consist of me thinking out loud.
I’ve written a couple of books, which you might want to peruse. Here is the link for buying the second edition of my 1993 book, Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement, with an Introduction by Prof. George W. Carey, a Foreword by Patrick J. Buchanan, and critical essays by Scott Richert and David Gordon (ISI Books, 2008).
You can buy An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard (Prometheus Books, 2000), my biography of the great libertarian thinker, here.
Read more by Justin Raimondo
- Why This War? – October 9th, 2014
- The Hermit Kingdom in Crisis – October 7th, 2014
- The ‘Bitter Truth': Empire and the Death of Liberalism – October 5th, 2014
- A Note to My Readers – October 2nd, 2014
- China Is a Paper Tiger – September 30th, 2014
RickR30
May 14th, 2013 at 10:33 pm
People who sign up for the military are
3) the kind who are willing to do anything for a lot of money. Joining the military these days is like ending up in a gold mine. And the more you are willing to dehumanize yourself, the more money they throw at you.
4) a few how genuinely want to protect this country, but quickly end up disenchanted, if they didn't figure the money is worth up putting up with doing stuff they didn't know they had to do.
This business of having women everywhere in the military mentioned in the last paragraph should be up there among the reasons for prevalence of rape. As well as the testosterone-laddeness of the military-milieu.
I don't see though the morality gap between the rich and poor. The idea that being wealthy equates being moral is one uniquely American perversion of ethics.
Do I really have to mention all the crimes of the upper classes? Those crimes, unlike low-class crimes don't just victimize one or two people, but entire nations. I would even argue that the entire imperial project is an upper-class project- and how many people have they killed, maimed, tortured, destroyed with their wars alone?
And when it to comes social/economical classes, prostitution has an important social function but it's not all that available to the lower and middle class, despite what Hollywood portrays, but it is very available to the rich. Indeed, the rich are still very much "risque" because they do have the time, money, and opportunity. The difference is that crimes of that rich are rarely prosecuted, while the crimes of the poor are prosecuted with a mad zeal. Add to that the high-class defense of the rich vs. the low class defense of the poor and you'd think the the rich are truly holy. Except they aren't.
lowlyWHisper
May 15th, 2013 at 12:23 am
"What is different about this moment in history?"
Err, traditionally women and men had different roles in society. Men fought, women cooked. These divisions are being erased, but you can't erase biological reality. It is the false premise of equality that is the underlying cause of these rapes.
Oswaldwasalefty
May 15th, 2013 at 2:36 am
I have to take issue with Justin's class analysis here. It is at odds with Glen Greenwald's well documented writing about the issues of justice and class. Increasingly, it is the wealthy who are becoming more and more immune from legal sanction for just about anything they do, whether it is waging aggressive war abroad or ripping off the public at home. Meanwhile, the lower classes are being subjected to what is easily the most punitive legal and penal system in the world. The average Joe finds himself doing many years of hard time for what would be considered minor crimes in the rest of the civilized world.
Here is a great example of the "morality gap" in action, where we find that the highest paid university president in the nation for 2012 was none other than the disgraced former Penn State President, and child abuse enabler, Graham Spanier:
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/educatio…
Show me one case of a working class person accused of anything approaching what Spanier is charged with walking off with any money at all, much less $2.9 million.
Yet people in positions of power and privilege walk away from bankrupt companies and looted investment institutions all the time and are rarely, if ever, criminally charged, their social standing still in place and a nice golden parachute.
I agree that the U.S. military's mission of aggressive war around the world is a contributing factor in the internal rape culture of the military. Humiliation of entire nation's via military invasion and occupation, and the humiliation of individual women by soldiers go hand in glove.
Check out the enlightened commentary of Osaka's mayor about the use comfort women by the Japanese armed forces during World War II:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/14/japan…
I guess there must be a contest to see who can be the biggest Neanderthal on this issue.
Needless to say this kind of vulgar commentary isn't playing well in China and Korea:
http://japandailypress.com/china-s-korea-angered-…
guest
May 15th, 2013 at 4:09 am
"These days, however, the “morality gap” is about as wide as the income gap in general: the lower you go on the socio-economic totem pole, the lower the standard of what passes for “morality.”"
This assertion is wholly unsubstantiated.
Actually, the last 10 years or so have seen an almost constant stream of sordid scandals involving the top layers of the society exhibiting a shocking (and rarely punished) lack of ethics regarding sexual behaviors — from widespread pederasty in Church, televangelists whoring around, high-ranking military indulging in extra-marital affairs (e.g. Petraeus), politicians involved in sexual harassment, gang-rapes by top-sportsmen, orgies with prostitutes by bankers and brokers, etc.
The morality of the "lower classes" might have gone done, but there is no evidence whatsoever that the gap with the "higher classes" has widened — I tend to believe it has actually narrowed.
Stefan
May 15th, 2013 at 4:55 am
Uhm. Could someone please mention the TOTAL LACK OF ALLOWED SEX in the military as the main reason?
This along with the fact that EVERYBODY NEEDS SEX, and, especially, if you're doing some killing or helping people kill, YOU NEED SEX to correct the balance, so the devilish energy does not eat you.
I feel reluctant to even post here anymore as Justin never listens to anyone. His theories, this time, are frankly very weak. He doesn't seem to see some of the fundamental reasons behind sex and violence.
[Also, while I'm at it: Justin never acknowledges that there are peace makers in Europe, working and active right now. Is everything about America for you, Justin?]
Donna
May 15th, 2013 at 8:37 am
"Out of wedlock births"? Really? That's your criterion for morality? On what planet is this immoral? What theological seminary did you grow up in?! And the idea that the poor are more "immoral" than the rich was debunked decades ago by progressive sociologists. Do some reading once in awhile instead of pontificating absurdities.
Macmungo
May 15th, 2013 at 9:09 am
Justin — As always, interesting article. You've described the boys in the military, but what about the girls? Yahoo says (approximately)13.7% of the Army is female; 15% of the Navy; 6% of the Marines; and 20% of the Air Force. That's alot of females who join the military. How would you characterize them?
Stefan
May 15th, 2013 at 9:36 am
Negative rating? Hello? Is anything I said not true? Or is it the 'You must not criticize Justin' meme?
Justin Rules
May 15th, 2013 at 9:54 am
There have been several criticisms of Justin's comment that the morality gap between the "rich" and "poor" has increased. Some of these criticisms have pointed to recent scandals of the upper classes involving certain celebrities or political figures. While these examples are sensational and receive widespread media attention, they are not necessarily reflective of trends in the broad upper classes.
Simple statistics will indicate that, for example, murder and other violent crime rates are significantly more prevalent among the lower classes. While we can argue the reasons for these crime rates, Justin's point that the morality gap is increasing ON AVERAGE should thus be given proper consideration. This is especially true as the income gap between the rich and the poor increases, the middle class declines, and the US continues to import an underclass from countries with very different levels of morality versus those traditionally held in the US.
musings
May 15th, 2013 at 11:43 am
I don't think that's the point of the article, so much as that of the non-domestic toleration of rape by the US military (and I saw this in a case I read in criminal law about Okinawa – I could see the "correct" answer was to defend the soldiers as having had diminished capacity because of supposed drunken-ness, quite an interesting position for a criminal law textbook to take). In this culture, even though women in the military are also unsafe, the soldiers and sailors home on leave also commit rapes, having learned that for them it is okay. You have to wonder how it plays with their own daughters and friends.
If we say someone is a sex criminal and Megan's Law requires their registration, what do we say about military known to have committed rape? Are they subject to that same registry? Or do we wait until they re-offend domestically?
When a male soldier rapes a female soldier, isn't that person a sex criminal and does that person not have to register?
A penis acts voluntarily and he-said/she-said is kind of trumped by bruises and evidence of a defensive fight.
musings
May 15th, 2013 at 11:46 am
Small example: one of my richest relatives was accidentally given a bank statement which credited her with ten times her actual deposit. She knew it was wrong, so she withdrew the money and closed her account. She liked to brag about it.
My mother lost her wallet with a twenty-dollar bill in it. The wallet was found by the road by a man looking for work. He returned it to her. For his trouble, she called the newspaper and they ran a story which hopefully got him a job.
There's class, and then there's real class.
Aaron
May 15th, 2013 at 12:48 pm
I note Raimondo has chosen not to use this article to defend Israel's apartheid policies.
Perhaps there is hope…
Rich
May 15th, 2013 at 5:03 pm
There is a very low threshold in what is considered "sexual assault" in the military. Very often, the females will start drinking with the male soldiers, trying to be "one of the boys" and then will regret their actions the following day. I'm not sure that putting females in the kind of living conditions most of the military live in is a smart idea, but, of course, the US government rarely does anything smart. When I was in the Army, I avoided female soldiers, but there is a long list of stories I could give that would quickly change the numbers cited in Justin's article.
Monster from the Id
May 15th, 2013 at 6:43 pm
I agree with Rick. Justin wrote a mostly fine article, but he did fumble the ball with that bull$#!+ about Our (alleged) Betters being more moral than we lowly peasants.
Pash
May 15th, 2013 at 7:59 pm
Justin, specific nature of the 21st century US military as instrument of global dominance? 21st century? really? i would have thought you would know your history better than that. just look up a list of all major US military deployments. you will see at a glance that an instrument of global dominance has been the nature of the US military since its inception. it is a nation of barbarians. the barbarian hoards came over from europe, took over this land, and kept spreading, wading their way through the blood of anyone opposed.
Sam Lowry
May 15th, 2013 at 8:56 pm
The elite indeed have no morals. They perceive the plebeian as an evolutionary embarrassment to humanity, thought of as best nothing but a resource to be exploited. They're the ones who wage wars and bail out banks at our expense. (If you think I am exaggerating, see for example "The Intellectuals and the Masses" by John Carey.)
However, there is occasionally a difference worth noting between the actual elite and the bourgeoisie. There is indeed a lot of crossbreeding between the two, but the important point is that the elite have (through for example the works of Marx and Keynes) recruited the proletariat against the bourgeoisie in the service of the elite. They have done so exactly (and consciously) by attacking bourgeoisie morality (such as Keynes' rejection of the virtue of savings).
"The [classical] liberal, of course, does not deny that there are some superior people—he is not an egalitarian—but he denies that anyone has authority to decide who these superior people are."—F. A. Hayek, "Why I Am Not a Conservative"
Stefan
May 16th, 2013 at 4:18 am
> Simple statistics will indicate that, for example, murder and other violent crime rates are significantly more prevalent among the lower classes.
Simple logic will indicate what's going on. "Lower class" people are the deprived people of this dying society. "Crime" includes things like stealing (because you are poor and need to live) and drugs (to make life tolerable). It does not indicate lower "morality".
Indeed, if anythig, the "higher classes" show a lack of morality by accepting the wrong society that creates any "lower classes" whatsoever.
Stefan
May 16th, 2013 at 4:20 am
The sexual revolution is fundamentally connected to the anti-war revolution. Indeed, you can say it is the same thing. Sexual repression (and poverty) are the two forces that even allow a military to exist.
They need to grab your balls, so to speak, to get you on board. In a sexually free society, no recruiters could ever send you to war.
richard vajs
May 16th, 2013 at 4:56 am
Lets just face it – America has become very corrupt. Any country that invades other countries for their mineral wealth or for just jealousy (why else does our crappy little ally, Israel, urge us to destroy Iran). And this corruption is "glorified" by the American media – "Thank-you for your service, you baby-killing rapist, Sergeant!".
The military is a corrupting institution. I was in the military, and I personally saw the stupidity, viciousness, the disfigurement of prostitutes, the wanton destruction, the drinking, the puke, the blood – the whole ball of crap. Only the desperate or those with a swinish streak stay in for a career.
mojo
May 16th, 2013 at 9:25 am
One needs to wonder why USA government is even dare using the word democracy…, where everything is about USA militarism.., a regime so deep that even the entire government social economic and social politics influenced by it and needs, forced or have to work the way that system demands the government to do. Based on the history however, the beginning of USA democracy started with its constitution and accomplished by Abraham Lincoln.., first one is about an individualism and other is about the double standard of falsified "democracy" where the slaves are freed but native Americans are killed by thousands, drunkd and forced under the USA militarism to sign their land to white immigrant Europeans..,
The very same politics is practiced as we speak, the only thing that is changed, when it come to USA forgiven policy, is that USA have created another militarism force (NATO) forcing the very same idea on the world, raping the world in cooperation with Neo fascism, apartheid, tyrants and other dictatorial regimes.., so the word democracy, in real time and in real terms, never practiced by the majority of USA government, latest USA government act against humanity in Syria is by the way USA government supporting terrorism whom themselves admits that they are terrorists.
Justin Raimondo
May 16th, 2013 at 10:19 am
If think you misunderstood my point, which is probably my fault not yours: my point being that the less affluent have finally caught up with the more affluent in their disregard for traditional standards of morality.
Joneve McCormick
May 16th, 2013 at 11:05 am
Simply brilliant, spot on.
Bravo Mr. Raimondo, yet again.
RickR30
May 16th, 2013 at 11:05 am
Now with that we can all agree.
Monster from the Id
May 16th, 2013 at 11:23 am
OK, thanks for clarifying that.
Stefan
May 17th, 2013 at 7:19 am
The comments ratings are insane.
Once again: THERE IS A TOTAL LACK OF ALLOWED SEX IN THE MILITARY.
Can you people not acknowledge this very simple truth? Is it taboo for you to acknowledge this?
Something's wrong with you guys. Now I know why Antiwar.com doesn't really start a peace movement: There's a taboo in finding the real reasons for war.
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4orce
May 20th, 2013 at 4:25 pm
. . . los dosaparaceidos . . .
yet 'don't cry4me, argentine'
like silver itself, am being repressed
coerced
manipulated
suppresed
Surprised . . . ! . . . that people like raimondo r in fact ffound to B alike f-f-fronting4The Bank
thanx
all angst aside
from the backside
banxside
poor justin
ThisJustIn: Bullet-in-DaBrain; but remain calm
jus'another LHO, lowered, into his grave
2B made hole again; now buried. soon xhumed
jus like silver'n'gold, espied wit his li'l i
tarnished. not polished
prose.
j.prose