To locate the root of the problem means looking beyond the assaults on U.S. military women—appalling as they are—to the routine incidents of military violence against civilians in combat situations and outside the fences surrounding U.S. bases overseas. Given their mission, soldiers are trained to kill. This means seeing “others” as foreign or less-than-human. Gender and masculinity are at play; so too are racism and national chauvinism.Military training is perfect preparation, and enhancement of previous civilian indoctrination, to view women as mere objects of sexual gratification which is a form of dehumanization. One cannot kill, or rape, another human being without dehumanizing that human being. Hence, words like gooks, ragheads, cunts, etc reflect this process.
in the time remaining, to help us understand how the man-made system of capitalism will lead to the extinction of our human species, and so many others.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Military Sexual Violence: From Frontline to Fenceline
Click here to access article by Annie Isabel Fukushima and Gwyn Kirk from Foreign Policy in Focus.