Posts Tagged ‘non-combat incident’

The topic of rape in the military, rape of female military members by male military members, has been discussed here somewhat frequently. What I find astonishing is that after years of war, it is only NOW hitting mainline media as an acceptable topic.

I have concluded that the media is useless. They literally “don’t ask” about anything they know the Administration doesn’t want to hear about at all. Everyone knew the Bush Administration didn ‘t give a shit about military rape. After all, if it is American on American, it causes no diplomatic furor, right? It isn’t as if those horn-dogs are attacking young Iraqi girls, right? Oh, wait, they did that TOO? And such thoughtful young troops, they were, too: killed the families to try to avoid an ‘incident’ that would embarrass the folks back home. Right.

American women in uniform have quite possibly died because of fear of sexual assault. After all, in an environment where it is 120 degrees, not drinking enough water predisposes one to heat stroke. But nobody will ever be charged for those “non-combat” deaths. Why did they not drink? Drinking plenty of water means you might have to use the latrine after dark. Using the latrine after dark means you might have to take one for the team because your “battle buddy” wants to be more than friends at work.

I have had an Iraqi War vet tell me they posted guards on the women’s tent in their unit. And gave the women knives or side arms when possible. Why? Because the contractor goons would drive up in their black SUVs and just “commandeer” women for a party—pretty much regardless what the women thought about it. So, it isn’t just military members willing to rape American service women.

Apparently, women are a kind of flesh and blood “two-fer” in Iraq and Afghanistan. They get their military jobs done by day, and by night they serve other services seen as vital — sex toys! Because if they tell, their career is over. They are shipped out of unit to “protect” them, they are not given confidentiality or any other small comfort afforded civilian rape victims. They are viewed as trouble-makers.

Many years ago, when I was a military member, a male co-worker walked up as I stretched to reach something over my head. He slapped me on the ass, telling me it was too tempting to resist—it was “there”. I told him to get out of my sight by a count of three. He stood there laughing, right up until I threw a typewriter at him. Then, aggrieved, he told me he had ‘time in grade’ on me, thus outranked and and that I was out of line. Right. He filed a complaint for my ‘violence and assault’ against him.

He was complacent enough about his familiar act to admit he had slapped me on the ass. He got a rude awakening, since then my action was in my own defense. He was never allowed near me again. Unfortunately, the rapists on Iraq and Afghanistan KNOW they are doing wrong, and do it in darkness and solitude. But one attitude hasn’t changed a bit: the women they abuse are “there”…..apparently seen as for service on several levels.

I seriously advocate knives. Let those rapists explain why they need stitches. They might be as shut-mouthed about it as the soldier whose foot I once broke. He crept up behind me and seized me around the waist. I put my military heel into his instep with great force. He limped for weeks, but kept his mouth shut and kept away from me.

If the military doesn’t really want to ask, they can not ask about the wounds of men who don’t deserve the name!
Yes, I am advocating violence and bloodshed. Self-defense when the system is not defending you and penalizes you for being the victim is a sensible last resort. After all, the military loves to posit Christian ideals, right? Sexual purity is such an ideal, correct?
Guard that jewel between your legs, ladies—even if it means removing the jewels between HIS!

The picture heading this post is my personal favorite knife—hard to make me drop it with my fingers laced in those holes. And good for slashing.

I know I promised more on Nekysia.  Sorry, not happening.  It was an intense experience for me and frankly, rendered me nigh onto speechless.  And what I could say about it, I prefer to say among friends and not publicly.  So, instead, a bit of a wrap up in news….both personal and public, and my not in the least humble opinion of both.  And just a small announcement, since I will be killing the message boards, you may all expect more chatty and catty posts of this type in the future.  You have been warned.  And to any bloggers out there?  I would love to re-open comments….please let me know if you have any spam-defeating ideas that would facilitate that action!

(1) Yes, the fancy website page of buttons to go here and there on the website is gone.  We are paring back.  Soon there will be ONLY this blog—no slide show, no links page, no message board.  There is so little participation at any of those former or soon-to-be-former places that I simply do not see the worth of spending time, energy, and money on them.

(2) My sprained foot is better.  I can again walk without cast or crutches.  I can drive.  Yay.

(3) My allergies are worse, the shot serums in my desensitization series are making me very ill.  I am feverish and testy and tired.  Do not provoke me, I WILL claim responsibility for my actions, but will still gleefully gut you if you piss me off.  My priorities are getting day to day stuff done successfully, so I won’t waste any energy on patience with morons.

(Public part)

(4) Ted Kennedy is dead.  My household is in official mourning.  Do not expect me to be sensible tomorrow, I intend to drink myself to sleep tonight. Admittedly, with my 12% alcohol home-brewed sage beer, this will only take a glass or two.

(5) Bob Novak died this month, too.  Boo fucking hoo.  Good riddance.

(6) The former Lt. Calley is finally “sorry” for the massacre committed on his watch in Viet Nam.  I rather imagine the phrase “too little, too late” applies to this for a lot of folks.  But, at the same time, I think war engenders this kind of thing, I understand it even as I dislike it.  I think anyone who has not been to war, especially a war where the most harmless looking person can suddenly be your death, needs to keep their sweetness and light mouth SHUT.  No, this does not mean such things should be countenanced with a smile, but nor do I like the idea of politically motivated crucifixions of lower ranking sorts when the shit DOES roll from uphill.  This current war in Iraq is providing much grist for the misery mill because it does roll downhill.(See #3 above for possible repercussions of emailing me to call me a bloody minded bitch, ok?)

(7) Doctors in Africa have figured out a low cost method of helping infertile women achieve pregnancy.  Well, the Moronic Shit of the Year Award now has a home!  We have six billion people on a planet where starvation is a daily event and water woes are only just beginning.  In Africa, there are so many orphans that they could start their own country….so helping infertile women produce yet MORE children strikes me as beyond stupid.  Oh, and lest anyone think that is a racist stance, I also am against infertile Americans or Europeans spending tons of money and resources on child-bearing efforts.

(8) Dick Cheney thinks that investigating the CIA’s nastier interrogation techniques just proves that Obama doesn’t want to “protect the country.”  Give me a fucking break, Dick, you dick!  You are just afraid your dirty, bloody goddamned laundry is going to be hung to dry on a public clothesline.  You and your buddy George ran the country like a privately owned thuggery, complete with a privately owned Army (Blackwater/Xe) and now you want to cry patriotism to keep it all under wraps?  Fuck you and your fear-flogging secrecy, and for wiping your corrupt ass with the Constitution.

(9) A lot of 19 year old soldiers and Marines have died in the current wars.  A lot of them are listed as “non-combat incidents” too.  One of them, Pvt Keiffer Wilhelm, died this month.  I still cannot find out if he died of injuries from unspecified causes or if he was a suicide.  But his immediate supervisors, four assholes who bullied him unmercifully, are being charged with “cruelty.”  I think they should be charged, at the very least, with manslaughter….but will take what I can get.  So, they should officially consider themselves cursed from here at the Walk of the Fallen, because, yes, I am one of those kinda-like-Medea sort of witches who believes in righteous vengeance and smiting at need.  NCOs SHOULD protect and care for their troops, especially 19 year old boys.  Instead, these four men, all older and more experienced, tormented this manchild to his death.

Hence:  Enoch Chatman, Bob Clements, Jarrett Taylor, Daniel Webster—-you are hereby cursed.

May your casual cruelty and the harm you did follow you through all your lives, be they long or short.  May your families see you for the bullies you became and reject you, may your dearest friends run from you in horror and dismay.  May you suffer for depriving young Wilhelm of life and for lying about it.  May you suffer the grief of his family members who had to bury his too young body one hundred fold.  You are a blemish and a pollution upon the face of the U.S. military and a disgrace to American manhood.

And I think nine is a nice number to stop upon.  That is all.  For today.

The Army wants to do the “right” thing.  They want to offer counseling and support to troops in Iraq suffering from the stresses of war.  So at Camp Liberty, one could go talk it over in group, apparently.

The Army has rules, though.  In a war zone, every troop will at all times have his weapon with him.

And at Camp Liberty, these two “right” things collided to make a very wrong thing: five men were shot to death by a fellow service member.  And yes, their names will appear on my more routine moon phase listing as well.  But I just have to mention here, that when the names were released, their cause of death was listed by the Dept. of Defense as merely “a non-combat incident.”  Wow, and the British are accused of under-statement.

Army Maj. Matthew P. Houseal, 54, of Amarillo, Texas.

Army Sgt. Christian E. Bueno-Galdos, 25, of Paterson, N.J.

Army Spc. Jacob D. Barton, 20, of Lenox, Mo.

Army Pfc. Michael E. Yates Jr., 19, of Federalsburg, Md.

Navy Commander Charles K. Springle, 52, of Wilmington, N.C.,

One would think checking weapons at the door wouldn’t be too damned difficult..

The military  identified the gunman as Sgt. John M. Russell, 44, of Sherman, Tex. Russell has been charged with five counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault. Days before the shootings, his superiors had actually taken his own weapon from him in worry over his state of mind.  He took a rifle from another soldier and went to the clinic to kill.  The comment was made by one officer that many troops don’t seek mental health care because of the stigma attached.  Now, they may avoid it for fear of being shot!

If anything good can come out of something so tragic, I hope it will be to draw the attention of the American people to the growing list of blandly reported “non-combat incident” deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan.

(Chart from http://icasualties.org/Iraq/HostileNonHostile.aspx )

Just a word on this topic, because as I wasted time today, (stalling on housework because I am asthmatic and unmotivated) I noted those terms as search terms that bring folks to the website.  Likely that was not a satisfying experience since it is probably they found only the lists of the dead with “non-hostile incident” or “non-combat cause” named as the cause of death.

First off, for the non-military who might be curious, “non-hostile” does not mean natural causes by any means.  It merely means that the death was not caused by the enemy combatants of any sort.  The individual so killed may indeed have been shot, or beat to death, or strangled—but not by an Iraqi or Afghani enemy.

Non-combat deaths could include any number of things, from an ordinary accident to illness.  It could include suicide, although that could be listed as non-hostile as well.

Movies and television shows prepare folks to expect deaths in wartime.  But it only prepares them to expect gunshot or bombs and such as the cause.  The historical truth from time immemorial is that as many or more troops die of non-combat and non-hostile causes.  Illness used to kill literally half of any given army.  That is better now, but not eradicated as a cause of death.  Accidents are still a big killer; people get tired and make mistakes, or they get clumsy or fall asleep at the wheel.  Soldiers and Marines are not immune to exhaustion—they ARE people just like the rest of us in that regard.  Also, because the men and women at war are people, just like people anywhere else, ordinary disagreements happen.  But when they happen where people are routinely armed sometimes death is the result.  Violence between military members is not unheard of at all; in fact sexual assault has been a major problem this war.  At least one woman who is dead was probably murdered following a possible sexual assault.

It is a dangerous world in Iraq and Afghanistan, even if the enemy is no place nearby.  Keep our men and women in your hearts and prayers.  For purposes of the Labyrinth, I don’t care what caused the death; I contend they likely would be alive if they were not sent to the war—-so all the deaths are war-caused for me.  I keep all their names, I hold them all as dedicated to service of the country.  And I am dedicated to their memory.  I count them in my beads—all are precious losses to me.

Obviously, getting the DOD news releases with the names of those who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan is not one of the more pleasant parts of my daily life. But I find there is now an unpleasant undercurrent beneath the usual feelings of frustration and grief for those lost lives.

Every time I get a listing that is a woman’s name and the cause of death is given as “a non-combat incident” I feel myself tense up. My neck gets rigid and I have to fight the urge to clench my teeth. Always, I am reassured in print that “the incident is under investigation.” Right.

Like the woman who was found dead with evidence of rape, beatings and murder—-but was ruled a suicide? “Investigated” like that?  Like Jennifer Cole, who died August 2nd of a gunshot wound in a non-combat incident still under investigation? As much as I hate this kind of thing, I can’t even imagine the horror of family and friends getting said notification. How can you know what to believe of what the military tells you in the wake of a woman’s death in a war zone?  Almost 40% of the women who have died in this war have died in non-combat “incidents” and that seems mightily high to me.

The latest name, btw, was one Janelle King. I went to school (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth) with a Janelle. She was a smart, sweet, pretty girl…I imagine an awful lot like this one who shares her name. I mentally cross my fingers and hope it was some terribly ordinary cause of death like a vehicular accident or a fall. But, usually they say if it was some automotive mishap or illness or simple accident. And “non-combat incident” just means it didn’t happen because of the war per se.

I’d like to presume it was something relatively innocent, but my aching neck isn’t having any of it. Why don’t we have a right to the truth about what happens to the women in uniform? Who speaks for them? Who questions on their behalf? Aren’t they the troops we are to be “supporting” too?  Forty percent of them are not dying of combat related causes, so just whose fault is it and why can’t we get a straight answer?

NOT!