Posted on 01/29/2004 7:20:48 AM PST by Modernman
CAMP RED CLOUD, South Korea - The 2nd Infantry Division wants lap dancing banned in Area I nightclubs frequented by U.S. soldiers, according to documents to be presented this week to the Korean Special Tourist Association and local mayors.
Club owners and mayors will have 30 days to respond to a proposed association and 2nd ID Good Commerce Practices Guide, which sets out standards expected of clubs near U.S. bases in Area I.
Last year lap dancing was explicitly authorized in an attachment to the 2nd ID's 2002-2003 policy. The proposed guide states: "Though lap dancing is authorized under 2nd Infantry Division policy, it has not been defined. For the purposes of good order and discipline, lap dancing will be defined here," and the definition integrated into conduct standards.
The proposed guide defines lap dancing as an activity that occurs "when a club dancer is approached by or offers to dance for a soldier … typically of the opposite sex. This interaction between dancer and soldier is typically done at very close quarters."
The guide then imposes such strict rules for the practice that it effectively bans it, stating, "This type of behavior does not honor either individual involved. Since soldiers are soldiers 24/7, they are not at liberty to lower their professional bearing after hours."
It suggests lap dancing be treated as "client-focused exotic dancing" and that club owners "prohibit any physical contact between dancers and customers" and "ban the practice of customers placing money/bills in dancers' garments: g-strings, bras, garters or other apparel." The guide also would "require that private dances in remote areas of the club be directly visible" to military police inspecting a club.
The man who wrote the guide, 2nd ID assistant chief of staff Lt. Col. Chris Bailey, said he researched lap dancing laws in the United States and Britain before preparing the policy.
"We are following trends in the U.S.," Bailey said. "Lap dancing has taken on a new level of interest in the American media. It is outlawed in Los Angeles and Las Vegas."
He said lap dancing is associated with other undesirable activity such as human trafficking, which the proposed guide also includes measures to prevent. The 2nd ID also has imposed other rules and procedures in recent years after media reports that suggested the military was doing too little to prevent human trafficking in South Korea.
The new policy also states that clubs for South Korean augmentees to the U.S. military should "not tolerate prostitution or human trafficking."
Sgt. 1st Class Stuart Greer, of the 2nd ID's Headquarters and Headquarters Company, told soldiers gathered at Camp Red Cloud for New Horizon Day earlier this month that hundreds of thousands of women are human trafficking victims each year.
The crime often involves women duped into moving to a foreign country, then forced to become sex workers there. Greer said he learned about human trafficking after meeting his Philippine wife when she was working in a South Korean nightclub.
"When I was dating my wife, I found out her sister in Bahrain hadn't been paid in 10 months. She was working 16 hours a day, six days a week. Through many e-mails and telephone calls we took this guy to court and he had to pay her and return her to the Philippines," he said.
Southeast Asia is a major source of human trafficking, as is the former Soviet Union, Greer said.
"In 2002, news organizations connected trafficking with the military in South Korea," he said. They suggested that U.S. military "courtesy patrols" were guarding establishments that engaged in human trafficking and condoned prostitution. Indicators of trafficking include money exchanged between soldiers and club employees for unexplained reasons or employees that cannot leave clubs and have no access to their passports, he said.
Greer said he is certain prostitution still happens at some clubs in Area I.
"My wife came here as a dancer. She went to dance school. The club owner said, 'You can dance and make $500 a month or you can sit with the customers and if they buy you a drink you will make more.' But I have heard of other people in clubs that actually engage in prostitution.
"In the club she sat next to me and talked," he said. "The other clubs, they do lap dances."
The Good Commerce Practices Guide will be presented at a Jan. 30 dinner to be attended by Brig. Gen. John Shortal, 2nd ID assistant division commander for support, officials said.
No. But so what? I wouldn't approve of women in my family having "relations" before becoming engaged, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't want to have "relations" with a woman without being engaged.
Is that a double standard? Yeah, maybe it is. So what?
I wrote the growth rate was increasing more rapidly than any other industry (for women specifically, not yet for men and boys). I don't remember the exact source but I think it was at the time some of the porn companies were pitching their prospects to Wall St. and going public.
Okay. That may or may not be true. However, if only 10,000 women are in the porn-industry, or whatever the # is, and it grows by 20% in a year, then that's only 2000 news jobs. If 1,000,0000 women work in medical services, and that only grows by 1% in a year, that's 10,000 new jobs.
It's a misleading statistic. It's like saying Japan had the fastest economic growth rate from 1850-1950. It's a true statement, but when the baseline is essentially 0, it's easy to post huge growth rates.
Wow. That is truly amazing. Is there any reason given for this?
Occupation/guest troops without morals have a far too easy time helping themselves to whatever their command structure permits.
And why are giving "AF-Vets" a bad name???
I see. Because I advocate treating all women with the same respect you think you want for the women in your own extended family you interpret that as giving veterans of my Air Force a bad name. I think you want a candidate other than George W. Bush in 2004. Neither he, nor the men and women who work for him, share your value system. Neither does the military command under his leadership.
Heh. You've obviously never been out on the town with White House staffers. The stories I could tell.....
I, on the other hand, would rather have a brother in a whorehouse than a sister in the Air Force.
You think we're moving towards a porn-based economy? The crucial words in your statement are "if sustained." There is only a need for a certain number of porn-stars, strippers and hookers in our country. Eventually, the supply will outstrip the demand. That's capitalism, baby!
Really ? You are somewhat amusing.
I assume your experience was with low level staffers rather than the more senior members of President Bush's team who actually influence his policies.
The real reason--teetotalling fundamentalist commanding officers.
The supply may indeed eventually outstrip the demand, but will it be with every third, fourth, fifth, tenth boy and girl ? If you have studied history you may remember the Chinese Opium Wars and what percentage of that population became addicted as well as what it took to break that addiction. Once a society becomes so infected with a disease it is painful to remove it.
That's capitalism, baby!
No, it is corruption and decadence, the type one would associate with a fading republic/empire that has nothing of lasting value to share with the world but only wants to exploit them for its own lusts.
That's no the kind of commanders that I have had for the past 23 years.
Is this a policy over all military in all of Germany? I have some Air Force students in right now from Germany...I'll ask them if they have heard of such a thing.
I wouldn't call them low-level staffers. More like mid-level. Anyway, high-level people are too busy to have any type of lives.
My only point is, not every Republican is boring.
On the contrary they have the richest type of lives and influence many others by their leadership. Leadership is a quality worthy of study even if one does not provide it.
That's a lot of porn.....
No, it is corruption and decadence, the type one would associate with a fading republic/empire that has nothing of lasting value to share with the world but only wants to exploit them for its own lusts.
Not sure I see where the harm is. Why is someone giving a lap dance wrong, while someone selling a burger is okay? Both of those things fulfill a human need.
I said consenting adults, remember?
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