Global Cop
posted by Edward at 3/14/2005 02:04:00 AM
Monday, March 14, 2005
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7 Comments:
If committing rape and hiring prostitutes would disqualify UN peacekeepers from duty in Iraq, then the same conclusion should hold for US troops. There are numerous, well-documented cases of rape by US soldiers, for example in Okinawa. On every US military base overseas there are personnel that regularly pay for sex.
If Fox News was "fair and balanced", they would not give the impression that US troops are somehow different in this way than those of other countries.
Show me a case of sexual abuse committed by U.S. military personnel that compares to the U.N. pedophilia scandal. You cite the few cases of rape that occured many years ago, and they made major headlines at the time - but if you think Fox is unfair in their news coverage, your citation of the rare U.S. cases with the U.N. scandal shows that your don't hold yourself to a very high standard of fairness.
The cases in Okinawa did not stop "many years ago". They have been a regular occurance. Because a few such incidents occured shortly after the accidental (and negligent) sinking of a Japanese training ship by a surfacing US submarine, they received enough publicity in Japan to push the Japanese government to request changes in the status of forces agreement. For the first time a US soldier faced a Japanese judge over charges of rape on Japanese soil. These incidents simply do not make headlines in the US.
I have not made a thorough study of sexual abuse committed by US troops with overseas posts but it is highly unlikely that the conditions that led to the incidents in Okinawa are unique.
As far as your request for me to show you "a case of sexual abuse committed by US military personnel" I find it difficult to believe you are sincere. If you haven't heard about recent rapes in Okinawa, it means you are not reading Japanese newspapers. If you claim you haven't heard about the sexual abuse at Abu Ghraib (which is comparable in severity and included minors among the victims) who would believe you?
Why do you quote me out of context when my original quote is right there for all to see? I said "...compareds to the U.N. pedophila scandel."
Can you even make the case that the U.S. military rapes are disporportionate to the occurance of rapes in general society?
Have you been following the U.N. pedophila and rape scandal?
Let's start with the latest story, which was actually TODAY.
I'll post some links on the main blog page tomorrow, it seems that there are still some people who fail to recognize the unprecedented scope of this heinous scandal
Congo sex abuse claims upheld
One of your failures to honestly compare the U.S. military sex scandals to the U.N's was noting how the U.S. military investigates and prosecutes its own members versus the United Nation's utter disregard for the thousands of victims of its peacekeepers, staff and adminitrators.
Maybe you should start watching FoxNews more often, because they have done several investigative reports that have broken this story open and forced the U.N. to respond and begin to put an end to this decades long practice.
Here is some information you should read if you are still not backing down from your first comment
I stand by my first comment: if committing rape and hiring prostitutes is enough to disqualify the UN from sending peace keeping troops to Iraq, then the same should hold for US troops.
You do not dispute that US troops hire 13 year old prostitutes and commit rape. You say that those who are found responsible by the
press will investigated and (some of them) prosecuted (you refrain from discussing punishment, or crimes not widely reported in the press, which would not help your case). All your arguments are about the degree of transgression and the degree of investigation of crimes that have received publicity in the press.
You also make comparisons of rapes by US military personnel with "rapes in general society". This is another question of degree. You seem to be saying that rapes by US troops are not very many. US troops are not held to the same standards of behavior overseas as they are at home.
So should foreign troops be judged on the standards where they are posted? This is also wrong, and would be as apologist for the crimes committed by UN troops in the Congo as your remarks are for crimes committed by US troops overseas. UN troops are in the Congo because of mass rapes and mass murder being committed in a civil war. Holding them to prevailing local standards would not be a good idea. Probably Fox news has not covered the conflict in the Congo very carefully. They are only covering it now because of the UN scandal. Before there was a bigger story, but it got no significant attention from Fox until they could squeeze out something that furthers their political agenda.
This is another reason why Fox's claims of being "fair and balanced" are difficult to take seriously.
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