I have seen only a few references to soldiers having sex with prostitutes, but
none that provide any sense of its prevalence. Given the large numbers of US
troops in Iraq for year-long tours, one would assume that prostitution is
fairly common, as has been the case in other US occupations such as those in
Japan, Germany, South Korea, or Vietnam, yet data is lacking. In a brief
conversation, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War said that prostitution
was common, but gave no further details.
Patrick Cockburn mentions in an article on the Green Zone, that prostitutes
made regular visits to the zone, which even possessed at least one brothel.
Interestingly, the women in the house were writing pro-Baath, antioccupation
messages, which were unreadable by clients as they were in Arabic. The question
of prostitution is especially important as occupations are known for leaving
behind a multitude of women and girls whose service as prostitutes makes them
unable to successfully reintegrate into their country once the occupation
troops are gone. Given the fundamentalist turn of contemporary Iraq, the fate
of prostitutes and their children could be bleak indeed.
Increasing suspicion that prostitution in certain areas might be fairly common
is the fact that, among the US officials serving in the Coalition Provisional
Authority, an active night life was quite common as was indicated by accounts
of CPA officials, reporters, and others living it up in the Green Zone, with a
raucous bar scene and Iraqi hawkers making pornography available. These reports
do make a passing reference to the sad fate of the lowly troops nearby who see
this exciting life while being banned by regulations from even consuming
alcohol.
Obviously, despite regulations, sex (and drinking) does occur between male and
female troops, as Lynndie England's pregnancy by Charles Graner made clear.
But, with women at about 15% of the armed forces, the male-female ratio is
disproportionate. Thus, interested female soldiers will have much greater
opportunities to find similarly inclined male soldiers than the reverse. The
situation also exposes the female troops to a serious threat of rape on many
bases, a threat which has largely been ignored by the brass. Rape by American
troops is also a danger for Iraqi women, but its prevalence is unclear. In
addition to the trauma of the rape itself, these female victims are also at
risk from other Iraqis as fundamentalist Islam becomes the dominant ideology
there.
A recent article that chronicled the sexual realtionship of a male American
soldier who shot a male Iraqi after having sex gives another tiny glimpse into
this murky subject. Evidently a US soldier had sex with an Iraqi teen, became
upset, possibly due to shame, and killed the teen. While I would in no way
claim that this behavior is common, this is undoubtedly not the only instance
of situational homosexuality by troops in Iraq, and probably not the only
instance of such sex with an Iraqi. Given that US troops come
disproportionately from conservative rural America, where the campaign against
homosexuality has been a mainstay of churches for a long time, the shame that
apparently led to the tragedy in this case may also occur in other instances.
We will never understand the whole story of the Iraq occupation until
considerably more light is shed upon the daily lives of the US occupation
troops. While about half of US troops are married, marriage often provides only
modest consolation when faced with loneliness and sexual frustration during
long periods in an alien land; marriage can, of course, increase the conflict
experienced by those troops who do become sexually active.
Sex is obviously occurring among these 130,000+ American young people brought
up in a culture of "get mine," as is sexual frustration and conflict over
sexual desires and behavior. As a psychoanalyst, I am well aware of the various
ways people have of turning their heads away from realities that make them
uncomfortable. Yet, even I am surprised by the massive denial of the sexuality
obviously being expressed and repressed in a variety of ways among these troops
stationed in a land and in which they are then kept isolated. This denial
interferes both with a full accounting of the costs of the occupation to
Iraqis, and to the occupation troops themselves.
Copyright OpEdNews
Stephen Soldz is psychoanalyst, psychologist, public health researcher, and
faculty member at the Institute for the Study of Violence of the Boston
Graduate School of Psychoanalysis. He is a member of Roslindale Neighbors for
Peace and Justice and founder of Psychoanalysts for Peace and Justice. He
maintains the Iraq Occupation and Resistance Report web page and the Psyche,
Science, and Society blog.
