Gates, Rumsfeld Sued Over U.S. Military's Rape Epidemic

Yahoo News ^ | 15Feb2011 | Jesse Ellison

[ConorMacNessa]

A landmark lawsuit filed Tuesday against Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, alleges that the military's repeated failures to take action in rape cases created a culture where violence against women was tolerated, violating the plaintiffs’ Constitutional rights.

“There are three types of women in the Army,” says Rebecca Havrilla, a former sergeant and explosive-ordnance-disposal technician. “Bitch, dyke, and whore.” During the four years that Havrilla was on active duty, she was called all three—by fellow soldiers, team leaders, even unit commanders. Once, during a sexual-assault prevention training, the 28-year-old South Carolina native claims, she watched a fellow soldier—male—strip naked and dance on top of a table as the rest of the team laughed. While deployed in Afghanistan, Havrilla spent four months working under a man she alleges bit her neck, pulled her into his bed, and grabbed her butt and waist—on a daily basis. When, on the last day of her deployment, she alleges she was raped by a soldier she considered a friend, it was, she says, “the icing on the cake.”

[Amberdawn]

By your logic, it’s the women in the military who are paying the price. That’s like saying that a woman in police uniform gets raped, it’s to be expected. Gross.

[Amberdawn]

Lol! So firing a gun does give you a woody? Sounds like rationalization to me.

[armordog99]

That is not what I am saying. I have fired guns for most of my life and not had that reaction. It is the actual life or death combat situations.

I am a history buff. When I would read about ancient battles and how it was common practice that after an army took a city they would go on a rampage of indiscriminate killing, raping and pillaging I could not understand how they could do that. Now I do.

My hypothesis is that combat results in our reptile brain becoming extremely active. In fact they have done functional MRI’s on combat veterans with PTSD and there is way more activity in the reptile portion of the brain then there is in people without PTSD.

I am not rationalizing it. It is still wrong by our societies standards. The military puts alot of time and money into training Soldiers to be discplined and not allow those impulses to take over.

[Amberdawn]

O.K., but you realize many will read that the wrong way. I MIGHT just understand one army’s soldiers raping the women of the enemy as “justified” revenge for real atrocities; what I will not understand is raping one’s “own”.

[armordog99]

Well this is the first war we have fought were we have alot of females in the combat zone. It is also the first war were prostitutes are not readily available.

I state that last one because men use sex as a means of releasing stress. This is the only long term war we have been in were prostitutes are not available. I am not saying that it is right I am just making an observation.

[Ramius]

Well, some women in the military *are* paying the price are they not? I fully accept that women are in the military now and they’re there to stay. All I said was that such things were predicted by those who argued against allowing women in the military— and they were right. Not all the effects of allowing women in the military are good effects.

But there is no excuse. Soldiers must (and generally do) have that sense of honor as a gentleman. Basic chivalry demands that a warrior rushes to the *defense* of women, and has no mercy on those who abuse them. Psychopaths and predators have no place in the military and must be rooted out.

[armordog99]

The other thing that is never reported is how many false allegations are made. During one deployment I was talking to the brigade EO officer and she stated to me that more than half the rape accusations she investigated appeared to be false. Most also involved alcohol even though alcohol is prohibited by general order #1.

This takes away command time from actually fighting the war to policing the Soldiers. Also don't get me started on fraternization between the ranks.

[kroll]

I bet she is suing for Disability because of “trauma”

Obviously, the devious vixen! Getting raped is funnnn! \sarc

[kroll]

The timing is suspicious.

There is an election every two years in America, so the timing is Always suspicious. Brilliantly original argument that...The women should just shut up and take it right?\sarc

[kroll]

All the justifies and apologists on this thread make me sick.

Agree with you completely. I guess I must be stupid to think that conservatives were actually moral people....

[listenhillary]

Was I talking to you? Get lost wipe.

[Amberdawn]

I can’t say whether this war is the first where prostitutes were unavailable or not historically. I have heard commanders say that their soldiers are more disciplined BECAUSE there weren’t any bars and prostitutes around, but that still doesn’t explain why the U.S. soldiers who rape U.S. females see them as merely pieces of meat, instead of fellow soldiers in a deadly combat zone.

[apoliticalone]

Amen to that. Will the globalist banksters that have sold us out as a nation ever be held to account, or will we continue to be oblivious and spend our time on Facebook, watching Dancing with the Stars and NFL?

[apoliticalone]

I don’t agree with women in combat zones because it creates un-needed tension. Just like I don’t support women competing in male sports such as football or wrestling. That said any service man who rapes a woman (either a fellow American service woman or a local) needs to be castrated. It should be an offense with lasting implications.