US Government Demonstrates Surprising Deference to Muslim Sensibilities
by trafficking in presumably non-Muslim Chinese women rather than local Afghans. Of course, it wasn’t really the “US government.” It was private security personnel. Paid by the government. To perform official government functions. In a country with a huge US military presence.
Why, that’s almost like not being responsible.
Years ago I mused that sex was the great uncovered story of the Iraq War – you just don’t have large, sustained military operations without prostitution. Occupation without prostitution would be, to borrow from Henry V, like sausages without mustard. But while no society enjoys foreigners coming in and turning their more marginal female citizens into whores, it would be especially dicey in Muslim cultures. The fact that we’ve gone years at a time with only the occasional glimpse of the picture shows just how deferential toward the Pentagon – or compromised – the so-called “enemedia” really is.
Comment by SomeCallMeTim —
September 17, 2009 @ 9:00 pm
She’s actually shockingly good, isn’t she? I’ve seen a couple (at least) posts from her that were really good.
Comment by Thoreau —
September 17, 2009 @ 9:22 pm
I’m actually quite shocked that the prostitutes were trafficked by US mercenaris rather than Afghan gangsters and warlords. Not that I’d put it past the mercenaries, I just figured that the warlords would have that shit down and respond to competition with extreme prejudice.
Comment by von Laue —
September 17, 2009 @ 10:15 pm
with a co-ed military, local prostitutes become less or un-necessary. Iraq probably could not have gone on this long if women weren’t at allowed at forward operating bases.
Comment by ajay —
September 18, 2009 @ 6:53 am
3 is pretty nasty stuff. Really nasty, actually.
In fact, it’s the civi contractors back at the logistics bases…
Comment by Barry —
September 18, 2009 @ 9:15 am
Thoreau @2:
Well, any US soldier or mercenary who gets caught by themselves outside the wire probably *is* dealt with with extreme prejudice. In the short run, mercenaries and soldiers can deal with a great deal of civilian dislike by traveling in heavily-armed groups, fortifying up, and killing people who bother them.
Comment by Austin —
September 18, 2009 @ 9:16 am
with a co-ed military, local prostitutes become less or un-necessary.
Except that, even with a co-ed military, sex among the ranks provokes a court martial. I’m afraid that the solution isn’t quite that simple (as most things aren’t).
Comment by matthew h —
September 18, 2009 @ 9:28 am
Brothels, eh? Sounds like an appropriate job for the company named Wackenhut.
Comment by Nick Novitski —
September 18, 2009 @ 11:51 am
Okay, okay, are you ready for this one?
Let’s give the enemedia an enemedema!
Get it?! Enema! Media! Enemy! Enemedema!! I’m killing myself here!
Comment by Jim Henley —
September 18, 2009 @ 2:42 pm
Saves time!
Comment by Dan Hardie —
September 18, 2009 @ 5:55 pm
Sorry, Jim, you haven’t been on a NATO base in Afghanistan, and it shows. There is no way you could smuggle prostitutes onto one of those places, and for a soldier, wandering around Helmand or Kandahar looking for a brothel is out of the question, at any rate if you want a life expectancy longer than five minutes. The only people with the freedom to set up brothels are the mercenaries.
For regular soldiers, there is a lot of punishing Percy in the palm, and a fair bit of screwing on leave, for those with the energy. Fun fact: the primary health centre at the main camp for British troops in Afghanistan had two nurses, two doctors, and one urino-genitary nurse, who was kept fairly busy. When I was there, she was asked to do a hearing test on a guy whose vehicle who had been blown up, but there was a miscommunication and she had his trousers down before he asked what this had to do with his ears.
Comment by von Laue —
September 18, 2009 @ 7:44 pm
Sorry, I should have been clearer. Prostitution in the ranks is what I’ve heard is a real problem from a relative (female army officer) over there. No I don’t have any links to investigative reporting.
Comment by Thoreau —
September 18, 2009 @ 7:52 pm
I haven’t been to one of those bases either, but I’m skeptical that the world’s oldest profession can’t find a way to get past security with a bit of help from military contractors and probably some eager would-be clients with training in covert operations.
Maybe I really just don’t get it, but whenever somebody says “There’s no way that [circle one: Drugs, prostitutes, weapons] could possibly be smuggled in, not with all of these federal employees hanging around!” I get a bit skeptical. I mean, they even get drugs into prisons.
Comment by Barry —
September 19, 2009 @ 10:09 am
In addition – the mercs have authorization to bring people onto the bases (BTW, presumably by flying them in, not by having a bus pull up to the main gate). This would include support personnel; judging from Iraq, these people would be from just about every third-world country on Earth, with the exception of Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan itself. If a company unloads a group of 100 very mixed people from an corporate-leased aircraft on a large base, and the USAF checks only an overall list of people, then it’d be pretty easy to slide in some women for prostitution. Especially if they’re already hiring women for misc cleaning and cooking jobs.
Comment by Doctor Memory —
September 19, 2009 @ 1:11 pm
Thoreau@12: Well yes. But the nice thing about drugs is that you can keep a financially significant amount of them in less than a square centimeter of space, can swallow them if you’re about to be caught, and they don’t set off metal detectors. Smuggling of prostitutes (100-200lbs; needs oxygen, food a the ability to leave eventually) and handguns (made of metal, can generally only be used once without giving away that you’ve got one) into prison — while probably not completely unknown — is a fair bit rarer.
Comment by Dan Hardie —
September 21, 2009 @ 12:05 pm
Thoreau, get a prostitute onto a base and the pimp has to feed her, give her somewhere to sleep, somewhere to operate and he also has to advertise her presence without attracting the attention of the MPs and the command structure, in an environment where space is at a major premium and everyone is worried about infiltrators blowing the joint up. Speaking as someone who served in Afghanistan, I shall shortly be telling Thoreau how a physics department in a US university works, and I bet I don’t make any errors at all.