Military Porn Addictions Growing

Agape Press ^ | January 5, 2007 | AFA journal

[balch3]

(AgapePress) - An increasing number of servicemen and women are confessing to pornography addictions and most government-run military base and post exchanges are only adding to the problem by selling it.

In 1996, Congress enacted the Military Honor and Decency Act, which bans military stores from selling sexually explicit material, but according to Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, the act is not being enforced.

"Congress is going to have to take a look at this," Donnelly said. "Certainly the Pentagon is going to have to enforce those rules. It's a matter of good order and discipline and not just a matter of religion or free speech. It's a matter that the military itself needs to be concerned about."

Such concern is apparent among military chaplains like Father Mark Reilly, who recently returned from a Marine Corps tour in Iraq.

"I don't think I've ever been confronted as much face-to-face with men and women -- in and out of confessional -- saying, 'I'm addicted to porn and I don't know how to get out of it,'" Reilly said. "They're looking for a life preserver. It's wrecking their marriages. Like any addiction, they lose control."

Reilly said it's the combination of war stress and being away from loved ones that ignite the lust for pornography. Lust turns to addiction and addiction results in imitative behavior as seen in the Abu Ghraib photos -- made for and by porn addicts.

In The New Republic, Rochelle Gurstein described the Abu Ghraib photos as ones that "speak to the coercive and brutalizing nature of the pornographic imaginations so prevalent in our world today."

Archbishop Edwin O'Brien, who leads the U.S. military archdiocese, believes chaplains can play a big role in military porn sobriety by influencing "what is sold in the [exchanges], what's allowed in a public space, an office or a barracks, and I think a chaplain can have great leverage here."

The pornography that is sold at military exchanges is part of a $57 billion-a-year worldwide industry.

[TADSLOS]

I recommend a troop surge with offensive operations against terrorists in Iraq. Porn addiction will diminish due to lack of idle time.

[Junior]

OK that might be true, but what do you expect servicemembers to do. Many commands don't allow people to date within the command, they can't go to the prostitution houses or they are in trouble. I am not advocating any of this, but as a realist, what do you expect these guys to do? I am totally leaving out morals out of the equation because my morals are must stricter in this regard than others.

The nanny-staters and the do-gooders don't understand the military mindset. Soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are not a bunch of angelic nice guys. They are trained killers who can do and have done things that would turn a civilized person's stomach (and thank God for that). Allowing them this release is the least we can do for them.

[wodinoneeye]

They should be issued 'interns' as was a recent 'commander in chief' .....

[wolfcreek]

What's a soldier stationed in a Muslim country to do? Wasn't there a thread about Iraqi prostitutes?

[Global2010]

Thank You.

[ChuteTheMall]

"I am totally leaving out morals out of the equation because ..."

I think I may have discovered a clue.

[hodaka]

Here's a thought. Several years ago Dr. James Dobson had a interview with Ted Bundy before he was put to death.In the interview Bundy made a (bogus) claim that porn caused him to kill, in which Dobson sold videos of this interview to promote the idea that porn kills. So if we believe this theory, I say ship the military lots of porn so they will be better killers.

[DCPatriot]

[WLR]

Porn weakens our military. Not a victimelss crime.

You thuink as gud as u spel.

You are simply full of baloney my friend.

This is just another example of stretching for a headline to justify someones agenda.

Please stop it.


Let's see fit and healthy young men and some women have an interest in the opposite sex and seeing same... My God what is the world coming too..? We have Jackasses who will not let Soldiers Smoke on post, Sell a Beer to a 18 year old Combat Vet along with Hillarity that passed some idiotic law saying US Servicemen were to be charged with a crime for sleeping with Hookers overseas. Of course all these do goobers are ever ready with Domestic Violence Charges then the obligatory paid for counseling ad nasuem. Oh and be sure you do not damage the plants while training or frighten the little bunnies when you are in the field.

Just stop it... There are enough real problems in this world. Making up others to suit ones agenda is pathetic.


W

[jjm2111]

Have you ever been on a deployment?

This is just stupid. If a man or woman is old and mature enough to die for this country they should be able to look at porn if they so choose (or have a beer for that matter).

[huldah1776]

The same people who are now discovering computer addiction. Its real. Try going a week without logging on! :) Same withdrawal symptons! AAAAAAHHHHHHH! The Dems are winning!

[jjm2111]

Or even outside of confession. Chaplains of any stripe should exercise good judgement in what they reveal to COs.

[Kozak]

So our troops can fight and die for freedom, but not get to experience it themselves, is that your point?

[Loud Mime]

Great Reply - and the replies to your reply as well.

[darkwing104]

They should've been around during WWII! There was all kinds of Porn, on airplanes, in the barracks, bars, ships and such.

What a bunch of crap.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

Porn weakens our military.

You have really strange priorities if you have no problem sending men and women to a foreign land to kill other human beings, and possibly be killed themselves, but you do have a problem with those same men and women looking at pictures of other people having sex.

[BritExPatInFla]

What with all that our soldiers see on a daily basis in Iraq, I'd think the nude female body would be the least harmful to their emotional health. They're seeing people in their units blown up, seeing lost limbs, kids blown up by terrorists....

And the fact that they choose to give themselves a 'release' through a magazine is none of our damn business. Whatever one's religious beliefs are, shouldn't be forced upon another. If a practicing Catholic, for example, believes that even maturbation is a sin, then fine, let them abide by that, but not everyone subscribes to the same views, nor should they be forced to.

[balch3]

I'll take the word of military chaplains. They're actually there, and they see it as a problem.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

I'll take the word of military chaplains. They're actually there, and they see it as a problem.

This silly journalist finds one chaplain to comment on the subject for his story, and suddenly porn in the military is an epidemic? What low standards you have . . .

This thread needs more pictures:

[Aquinasfan]

'I'm addicted to porn and I don't know how to get out of it,'" Reilly said. "They're looking for a life preserver. It's wrecking their marriages. Like any addiction, they lose control."

"Victimless crime" bump