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No sex for 21st century soldiers
By James Dunnigan
October 8, 2004
The U.S. Department of Defense is considering making it illegal for troops to
buy sex from prostitutes. On the face of it, this sounds ludicrous. As long as
there have been soldiers, there has been a lot of sex involved. But the
Pentagon is having serious public relations problems with media stories of
troops consorting with women coerced into prostitution. In fact, there is more
of that going on now. But blame can be placed mainly on the collapse of the
Soviet Union, and growing prosperity in foreign countries where American troops
are stationed.
South Korea, for example, was long regarded as a sexual playground for young
troops. When South Korea was poor, even the relatively low pay of American
soldiers enabled substantial amounts of money to go to entertainment with the
local girls. Even when on field exercise in some remote part of the country, a
few girls would often come out of an isolated village to make, for them, some
big money, by spending a few hours with the GIs. But as South Korea became more
prosperous, South Korean girls were able to get better paying jobs.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, there was nothing to prevent ambitious
Russian girls to come to South Korea (and other places where there were GIs,
like Western Europe, Japan and the Persian Gulf) and make some money by
replacing the South Korean prostitutes now working in factories and offices (or
catering to the more lucrative prostitution business with Korean men.).
Many girls from the Philippines also went to South Korea, although most of them
did not work as prostitutes. Filipinas were favored as hostesses because they
spoke passable English. In fact, many of the Russian and Filipino girls working
in the red light districts were not prostitutes, but dancers or hostesses. The
bars in the red light district made most of their money from selling beer and
booze, not sex. But there was a lot of sex, and in many parts of South Korea,
local, or Russian, gangsters held prostitutes in virtual slavery. This had been
rare in the past, and the police eventually caught up with anyone crossing the
line into slavery. Treating the women badly was not good for business in the
long run. The Russian and Korean gangsters, unlike the men and women running
the bars and brothels, did not think in the long term.
While there were always young women who were badly exploited, most of them knew
exactly what they were getting into. Information on how the sex business worked
in South Korean, or other nations? red light districts, spread fast. But the
Russian mobsters were a particularly brutal lot, and when they were heavy
handed, it made for great headlines. This has been the case all over the world,
from East Asia, to the Persian Gulf to Western Europe and North America. This
Summer, for example, South Korea sought to expel all Russian women who were
working as prostitutes. But many of the more enterprising girls simply went
underground or otherwise stayed in business.
This is the problem the military will have with trying to outlaw prostitution.
The boys and girls will always find each other. In some locations, where
prostitution has been outlawed, the horny troops and enterprising women work
out routines that avoid prosecution, but still allow the business to be done.
Over the centuries, commanders have tried to at least control the prostitution,
if only to prevent the activity from reducing the combat ability of the troops.
However, dealing with the prostitution problem was never considered a major
chore. It was on the same level with too much drunkenness, and not as serious a
problem as poor training or living conditions for the troops. Moreover, many
nations take a dim view of prostitution (while others do not), and even
admitting that the troops are paying for sex while off duty can do damage to a
commanders career. In light of that, American military commanders are making
these usual moves, and outlawing prostitution. After a while (months, years),
when it becomes obvious that this solution is causing more problems than it is
solving, the rules will be changed again. In the meantime, the troops will
spend a lot of time, energy and money getting around the new regulations.
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