Dying to Avoid Rape in Iraq

Dying to Avoid Rape in Iraq:
What the U.S. Government Isn’t Doing to Protect Female Soldiers

Can anyone think of something more horrible or brutal than dying on the battle fields in Iraq? Recent leaks in various underground news sources provide an even worse scenario for women soldiers overseas; a rape threat so strong that it has been compromising countless lives.

At Camp Victory in Iraq, soldier barracks are separated by gender and strangely enough the main water source for the troops is next to the male bunks. In addition the women’s bathrooms are not located near their own bunks, but rather near the water stations and the male barracks. This forces female soldiers to go outside, day or night, to use the bathroom or simply to get a drink of water.

In a January report to The Commission of Inquiry for Crimes against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration, Col. Janis Karpinski released a report that revealed several deaths of female soldiers due to dehydration. This was caused by the refusal of many women to drink liquids after four or five in the afternoon for fear of being raped or sexually assaulted while they left their beds to drink or use the bathroom. This is certainly not the best tactic for surviving desert temperatures of 120 degrees.

Karpinski later said, “there were no lights near any of their facilities, so women were doubly easy targets in the dark of the night”. The US military failed to provide adequate lighting, which is a basic safety precaution.

The fear of rape is grounded in real experiences of female soldiers. In the last year alone, there were 88 reports, of rape and attempted rape in both Iraq and Kuwait (these numbers don’t include . These reports were broken down in the following sectors of the military; 80 reports in were in the army, seven were involved in the air force, and one was concerned with the marines. These are only the reported incidents.

Women who are risking their lives for the United States are facing a threat within their own military, a threat that can be proven to be more destructive than the opposing forces. How can female soldiers be ‘effective’ in battle when they lack support from their fellow military personal? To survive this threat they rejected essential vital liquids, and therefore died in their sleep. These who died escaped rape but lost their lives in the process.

To make matters worse the former commander of Abu Ghraib, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, gave orders to cover up the reasons for these rising fatalities among women in Iraq. This was apparently done for the privacy of the deceased soldiers. He had only this to say on this issue, “the women asked to be here, so now let them take what comes with the territory”. This being said, Rumsfeld recently announced that he was considering promoting this 3 star general to a four star.

The army has offered two solutions: fan international rape hotline that has already seen a cutback of staffing due to fiscal shortages, and a page on the Army’s web site that gives ideas to prevent rape. Both are hard to access in Iraq or Kuwait.

Mainstream media is not focusing on these events, the Department of Defense can not afford this story to surface. This is a huge issue concerning women’s rights and the well being of the troops overseas. Our women are dying off the field, and the government is trying their best to cover this up. Spread this story around, the women in Iraq can’t.