Samhita,

While I really respect your views, every time you post about the military (and particularly about rape) I think you are being really unfair. There is a difference between militaries that implement rape as part of their campaign and soliders who band together and attack civilians. A big difference.

If these soldiers were surprised that they were prosecuted for murder, it was for the reason that all murderers are. After a while, they start to think they have gotten away with it. It was another soldier who turned these men in. Would I be shocked if the army overlooked rape? Not terribly, although more surprised if it was the rape of a civilian minor rather than an adult colleague. But I think that really has more to do with a lack of understanding of rape victims. Military commanders (who make charging decisions) don't have the experience with rape victims that your average sex crimes prosecutor does. Also, while the rape law under the UCMJ doesn't have a resistance requirement any more, the force requirement is significant and may make it difficult to obtain convitions.

Based on my own experience, I do think that this kind of behavior is far from "common." But that does not mean that I think the military is doing adequate things to prevent rape and other forms of violence against civilians. Part of it is that we may not have enough boots on the ground, part of it is that we may not have soldiers who are trained enough to deal with a foreign culture, and part of it is that the military doesn't deal effectively with sexual assault anywhere.

Iz

"Will this actually stop the systematic use of violence against women as a weapon of war? Probably not. If anything the soldiers are probably surprised anything is happening to them at all." - Samhita

Unfortunately, this is probably more of an example than precedent. I doubt they will go after this sort of thing in the future with appropriate vigor, if for no other reason than that they don't want to use the manpower. It is much more likely that this will be used to say, “You see, we don’t tolerate rape and abuse�, while rape and abuse continues.

Ismone - Great post.

I'm going to have to take issue with your statement characterization of the view of rape in combat as "just a nasty side effect of war." I'm sorry, but you're being terribly unfair by assuming that that is the bias.

I agree with the previous commenters. I know quite a lot of people in the U.S. military (both male and female, I might add), and implying that members of the military regard this atrocity as "common in a militaristic environment and. . . just a nasty side effect of war" is entirely unfair. The military officers I know are absolutely sickened and outraged.

Do rape and the murder of civilians happen at the hands of our soldiers? Yes, of course. Are these acts sometimes covered up, or simply not inquired too far into? Yes. And these things are appalling and shameful and we should all exert pressure for this to change. But professional, career military officers are as appalled by this behavior as civilians are, not simply because they are (hopefully) decent human beings, but because it is completely outside the bounds of ethical warfare, and because it represents the complete breakdown of order.

Indeed, the members of the military I know cite this as an example of how badly managed this war is--that the military is stretched so thin that it's letting in people who are obviously psychological time-bombs, and doesn't have the resources or the time to investigate minor absues and violations before big ones happen.

None of this is to excuse these horrific crimes in the least. It's just to suggest that, perhaps, you should spend more time around military officers, who are more thoughtful, ethical people that you seem to be giving them credit for being. (A surprising number of them are even [gasp!] politically liberal, too.)

I don't think it has anything to do with militarism. It has to do with the chaos inherent in war. Several studies have found that as many as 2/3 of men say they would be willing to commit rape if they were sure they would get away with it. Well, they got away with it for months, so they were only off by a little.

I hate belonging to the male sex.