(aka "The Part that George Allen Didn't Get... ")
I've been thinking a bit about this topic. I was thinking about it a while back; however, I just didn't exactly know how to approach a topic that makes me want to scream bloody murder at folks like George Allen who get upset when a bunch of words are strung together into sentences that describe events that are so disturbing that they make that small place in my gut frozen with some sort of dread/fear/horror.
And I've been toying with this diary all bloody afternoon...evening...night...and now it's some unholy hour in the morning, and I find myself typing. It's was Friday night...and I'm sober dammit! So Sen. Allen, thanks. Thanks for bringing the subject up. And thanks for whining about the graphic words...and not the real issue. And thanks...ever so...for pissing me off and pretty much screwing up a perfectly good rainy Friday night with your offended sensibilities.
What is this topic? Good question...
As many of you are probably already aware, Sen. Allen sent a press release off to Matt Drudge discussing some scenes that appear in Jim Webb's book
Lost Soldiers. Seems that he was appalled that a book discussing Vietnam vets, Vietnam, and the context within which a
novelist explores the darkness and nightmare scenarios that are the consequences of war.
In his response to Allen's complaints, Webb's point is pretty clear--War sucks, and those folks who vote to go to war without considering the fallout do so at our peril. he also points out that there are consequences to our actions. And part of his job as a novelist--one who explores war torn people, places, and things--is to explore the impact of those consequences.
In addition to Webb's quick response to the charges of offending Allen's delicate sensibilities, Steven Jarding posted his own response to the FP as well as to the Webb campaign site. Personally, I thought that the response was brilliant. I think that everyone should go read it. But I found this part especially compelling:
Jim Webb wrote of things he witnessed. They may have been ugly, but we should learn from their ugliness about the consequences of our votes and actions before we send men and women into war.
And Senator, you would not know this, but, war is demeaning, war is repugnant. People die and get maimed there. Innocent boys and girls are forced into prostitution, and are forced to perform heinous acts there. Jim Webb witnessed it all. And he wrote about it. You don't think this is happening in Iraq?
It's that question Jarding asks that's been under my skin since I first read his response:
You don't think this is happening in Iraq?
Senator Allen? It is. In Iraq, innocents are being forced into prostitution. They are being moved out of Iraq to places like the UAE and Syria with promises of domestic jobs that will get them out of the war zone only to be forced into the sex trade.
Meet Mariam:
Mariam, 16, relives the day her father in Baghdad sold her off as a domestic worker in one of the prosperous Gulf nations. Instead, she was forced into the sex trade.
"I was a virgin and didn't understand what sex was. I was told that they [the traffickers] were going to get good money for my first night with an old local man who paid for my virginity. He was aggressive and hit me all the time," Mariam, who refused to reveal her real name, told IRIN.
IN that same article, the Organisation for Women's Freedom NGO reports that:
While accurate statistics are hard to come by, the Women's Freedom NGO estimates that nearly 3,500 Iraqi women have gone missing since the US-led occupation of Iraq began in 2003 and that there is a high chance many have been traded for sex work. It says 25 percent of these women have been trafficked abroad since the start of 2006, many unaware of their fate.
3,500 Iraqi women have gone missing?
Another?
Meet Farah:
Farah, a 15-year-old, is brought to our table, dressed in camouflage pants and heavy makeup.
Farah sits, swings her long dark hair, shakes hands all around, then pointedly asks, "Who am I speaking to?" I'm taken aback by her businesslike tone and point to the Syrian reporter. Farah pleasantly chats with him, negotiating how much time she'll share, and if a "next step" will be taken. Farah locks eyes with the waiter, nods, and a bottle of champagne is brought to our table. "That'll be 7,000 Syrian pounds," says the waiter. That's $140. The champagne signals the beginning of the process. Conversation is next, and "anything else" will cost more.
Like most of the girls at the Manara disco, she is an Iraqi, a Sunni from Fallujah, one of Iraq's most war-torn areas. She got married in the United Arab Emirates, divorced four months afterward, and found work at the disco through a cousin. She says she's working "just to make some money for my family," who also now live in Syria. Farah says she's the family's breadwinner.--link
Farah is one of the many girls who can be found at this Syrian disco. That same Salon.com article notes that:
The story of a Sunni girl from Fallujah selling herself in a Damascus nightclub represents startling new fallout from the Iraq war, one human rights organizations and experts are only beginning to address. An increasing number of young Iraqi women and girls who fled Iraq during the turmoil are turning to prostitution in Syria, although there are no reliable statistics on how many girls are involved. That might partly explain why so little reporting has been done on the topic. For journalists and human rights workers, securing contact with Iraqi sex workers in Syria is difficult and dangerous because the topic is taboo.
One more?
Meet Hassan:
One boy whose story was told in the report was "Hassan Feiraz, a 16-year-old boy, has started a desperate new life since being forced into the sex trade in Baghdad, joining a growing number of adolescents soliciting in Iraq under the threat of street gangs or the force of poverty.
"Every day I cry at night," Feiraz said. "I'm a homosexual and was forced to work as a prostitute because one of the people I had sex with took pictures of me in bed and said that, if I didn't work for him, he was going to send the pictures to my family. My life is a disaster today. I could be killed by my family to restore their honour," he said, explaining that homosexuality was totally unacceptable in Iraq due to religious beliefs.--link
Hassan is one of many young Iraqi boys who have been lured into the sex trade only to be faced with the other side of a double edged sword--honor killings:
So-called "honor killings" of gay youth are endorsed by many Iraqi religious leaders. "Sheikh Hussein Salah, one of the heads of the Shi'ite Muslim community in Iraq, told IRIN in Baghdad that the families of those boys engaged in homosexual practices should 'kill them', whether the situation was forced on them or they entered into it freely. During Saddam Hussein's regime, Salah said, homosexuality was illegal and homosexual practices were punishable by death. 'We hope that this will be applied under the new constitution,' he added
A while back I wrote a diary about one of the other consequences in Iraq. There are real consequences when it comes to voting to go to war. But the ones who are pay the consequences aren't the ones who authorized it.
Senator Allen, the scenes in Jim Webb's novel may appear graphic to your delicate sensibilities. But I suspect that they are nothing compared to the reality lived by children and teenagers who are forced into the sex trade:
The IRIN report says there are only two small local NGOs trying to help the child sex workers. "On of them, Iraqi Peace and Better Future (IPBF), has collected the names of more than 50 teenage boys who say they cannot leave the trade because of threats. Few cases have been resolved, however. 'We have been trying to do our best in taking those unlucky boys and girls from the streets of the capital," said Abdallah Jassim, spokesman for IPBF. 'But sometimes we are stopped by the gangs, who threaten us. And the government cannot offer us special security on a daily basis.' The Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) is also waiting for approval and funding for a proposed rehabilitation project for teenagers, it said. So far it has had few donors."
Maybe if you'd served in Vietnam, you'd be more aware of what happens when the cameras get turned off. Maybe you'd be more aware of the veryvery real issues that Jim Webb writes about...and less concerned with your false outrage for women.
Oh. And BTW? Like the fact that Webb's book takes place twenty five years after the helicopters pulled out, the fact of these young people being forced into the sex trade isn't going to go away when the troops leave. It's going to be around for quite a long time. (h/t Demena for the reminder)
Note: I want to add here that this forced sex trade is prevalent throughout the world.