Does Military Service Turn Young Men Into Sexual Predators?

[Magda Hassan]

Colombia: Sexual Violence as Weapon of War [URL="http://upsidedownworld.org/main/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2168&pop=1&page=0&Itemid=68"]
[/URL] [URL="http://upsidedownworld.org/main/index2.php?option=com_content&task=emailform&id=2168&itemid=68"]
[/URL] Written by Helda Martínez Wednesday, 21 October 2009 (IPS) - Sexual violence is used as a weapon of war in Colombia by all parties in the country’s longstanding armed conflict, and its main victims are women and girls, states a report recently released by Intermón Oxfam, backing up claims made repeatedly by national and international human rights groups.

At the launch of the report, released simultaneously in Bogota and Madrid, Paula San Pedro of Intermón Oxfam – the Spanish branch of the relief and development organisation Oxfam International - stressed that all of the armed groups in Colombia, including government security forces, far-right paramilitary forces and leftist guerrilla rebels, use sexual violence as a weapon of war, "to the extent that it has become an integral part of the conflict."

The report, "Sexual Violence in Colombia: A Weapon of War", has served to shine light on an issue that has been repeatedly raised over the past two decades by women’s, human rights, Afro-Colombian and peasant farmers' organisations, as well as some female legislators, yet has been largely ignored by both the government and the general public.

In Colombia, the report's launch coincided with a World Peace Summit held in Bogota in early October, where personal testimonials and audiovisual presentations highlighted the powerlessness felt by women and other particularly vulnerable sectors of the civilian population throughout more than four decades of civil war.

Over four million people have been forcibly displaced by the ongoing conflict since 1995, according to figures from a number of non-governmental organisations, including the Consultancy on Human Rights and Displacement (CODHES). This figure represents roughly 10 percent of the country’s total population of 42 million.

The majority of the displaced are peasant farmers and black or indigenous Colombians forced off their land, often after witnessing the killing of family members or rape of women from their communities.

This South American country has been in the grip of civil war since 1964, when the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the much smaller National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas rose up in arms. The paramilitary groups that emerged in the 1980s to combat the leftist insurgents alongside the government forces remain active despite the reported demobilisation of tens of thousands of their numbers between 2002 and 2006.

Permanent scars

Intermón Oxfam and other humanitarian groups maintain that 60 percent of the total number of displaced Colombians are women, and that two of every 10 of them have fled their homes to escape sexual violence.

Unfortunately, there are no official figures to reflect this situation, because in many cases, women do not report being raped "out of fear or shame," explained Alexandra Quintero, the research coordinator at Sisma-Mujer, an NGO which produces annual reports on violence against women in different spheres.

Some victims of sexual violence suffer from temporary or permanent mental illness, as reported by participants at the World Peace Summit. "Permanent scars" was the term used by a 53-year-old Afro-Colombian woman from the northwestern province of Chocó, who called herself María (not her real name).

María told IPS that before the armed conflict spread into Chocó, "we lived peacefully on the banks of the Atrato River. That was up until 1988, more or less, when the cruelest part of the war began. Every time we heard a boat motor we would freeze."

The population of the province of Chocó, on the Pacific coast, is mainly black. The province also has the highest poverty rates in the country, and almost all transportation is by boat over the many rivers and streams that run through it.

"They dragged people out of their beds in the middle of the night. They killed the men and raped the women," recalled María, with a mix of anger and resignation.

María knows a woman who was gang-raped by a group of guerrilla fighters, but she was also a witness to the cruelty of the paramilitary forces and the atrocities committed by government soldiers against women in the region.

"It’s a trauma that you never recover from, no matter how much they talk about reparations, because it’s something a woman feels in the flesh," she said. Whether the victim is a young girl or a grown woman, "when she doesn’t want something done to her body, it shouldn’t happen," she stressed.

This is what led María to join a group of women from Chocó that organises protests, sit-ins and other actions to raise awareness about the problem. "We need to participate more actively and make ourselves visible, because we have been badly beaten down," she said.

Machista culture trumps modern laws

The persistent struggle waged by women eventually had an impact in the judicial and legislative arenas, leading to reforms of existing laws and the adoption of new ones. Their achievements include the recognition of women as victims of sexual violence and of their right to compensation.

Nevertheless, "these legislative advances do not appear to have had any effect in actual practice," Quintero told IPS.

This is because the modernisation of the country’s laws has done nothing to change the underlying culture or to curb acts of aggression against women "in a particularly machista and patriarchal society," said San Pedro, the coordinator of the Intermón Oxfam report, at its launch in Madrid.

The report estimates that "between 60 and 70 percent of Colombian women have suffered some form of sexual, physical, emotional or political violence" - statistics that show that violence against women is a phenomenon that goes beyond the problem of the armed conflict.

Moreover, it is a phenomenon that has actually worsened instead of diminishing in recent years. Sources consulted by IPS concurred that the "democratic security policy" implemented by the right-wing government of President Álvaro Uribe has resulted in a rise in violence against women.

"This policy has signified greater insecurity for women, because the so-called demobilisation of the paramilitary groups, who continue to control many regions of the country, has particularly affected women and girls," María Eugenia Ramírez of the Bogota-based Latin American Institute for Alternative Rights told IPS.

This insecurity is reflected in "sexual violence, genital mutilation, harassment and forced recruitment. Conclusion: the armed conflict has exacerbated the violence that women have historically faced," said Ramírez.

Quintero said this conclusion is backed up by the findings of a report coordinated by her organisation, Sisma-Mujer, which will be released in November by the National Network of Women.

The upcoming report reveals that the number of human rights violations in general, and those committed by members of government security forces in particular, has tripled since 2006.

The sources consulted for the report include the non-governmental Colombian Commission of Jurists (CCJ) and the forensic Legal Medicine Institute, noted Quintero, who stressed that the report addresses the violation of human rights of the population in general.

The report confirms that there has been no improvement in terms of the vulnerability of the population in general or of women and girls specifically as compared to previous studies.

The 2007 edition of the report quoted an alarming figure provided by the CCJ: "Between January 2002 and June 2006, an average of one woman a day died a violent death in Colombia."

The National Trade Union School contributed some detailed statistics in 2005: "Women trade unionists suffered 15 acts of femicide, 102 death threats, 10 arbitrary detentions, 15 acts of harassment and persecution for their union activity, two attempted murders, seven forced displacements and one kidnapping."

Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court reported early this year, based on figures supplied by women's organisations, that of the 518 victims of constitutional violations registered since 1993, 183 were victims of sexual assault.

Of the total number of cases, 58 percent were attributed to paramilitary forces, 23 percent to government security forces, eight percent to insurgent groups, and the remainder to unknown perpetrators.

While there may be variations among the different reports compiled, they all concur in highlighting an aggravating factor with regard to violence against women: impunity. The report to be released by Sisma-Mujer in November maintains that the perpetrators of this violence go unpunished in an astounding 97 percent of cases, according to Quintero.

"There is not a single region in the country where women can feel safe," said San Pedro, before going on to stress that "Afro-Colombian and indigenous women are the most vulnerable to sexual violence, given the triple discrimination they suffer because of their gender, ethnicity and poverty."
From Upside Down World

[Ed Jewett]

Rape in the Ranks: The Enemy Within

Submitted by davidswanson on Tue, 2009-10-27 15:18
By Ann Wright

Journalists Pascale Bourgaux and Mercedes Gallego in their trips to Iraq as war correspondents were stunned to hear from military women in Iraq that they should be very careful working in military units due to sexual assault and rape.
When they left Iraq they decided to investigate the issue of rape in the U.S. military. In 2007, they filmed the stories of four military women who had been raped and made a documentary, “Rape in the Ranks: The Enemy Within.” The documentary was shown for the first time in the United States on October 26 at the New York Independent Film Festival.
Tina Priest was raped in Iraq and then found dead of a gunshot in her dormitory room. The U.S. Army claims Tina committed suicide 11 days after she was raped. The mother and sister of Tina Priest don’t believe Tina committed suicide. The documentary captures remarkable interactions with them and military officers from Fort Hood who arrive at their doorstep. Tina’s rapist was never prosecuted.
Jessica Kenyon was raped twice during her one year career in the US Army, once in basic training and once in Korea. She is now a counselor (www.militarysexualtrauma.org) for other veterans who have been raped—women and men. Jessica’s rapists were never prosecuted.
Suzanne Swift was raped repeatedly by her squad leader while they were in Iraq. She was court-martialed for refusing to go back to Iraq with the unit in which the rapist still served. The rapist was never prosecuted, returned to Iraq as a private security contractor and later fired from a position with a law enforcement agency in the Seattle area. Suzanne is now out of the military and in college.
Stephanie (last name not disclosed), was raped at Fort Lewis, Washington. Like the majority of women who have been raped in the military, she never reported it as she thought no one would believe her as the rapist was a senior officer. Stephanie and her husband both served in Iraq. Her husband committed suicide after his return from Iraq. Stephanie speaks frequently on the issue of military suicides.
The 29 minute documentary “Rape in the Ranks: The Enemy Within” has been shown in Europe. One day after the screening in the New York Independent Film Festival, onOctober 27, 2009, clips of the documentary were shown on Democracy Now as a part of an interview with director Pascal Bourgaux.
We hope the film production company will make the documentary available by DVD or on their website.
In a related event, Veterans for Peace launched a Military Rape Awareness campaign in early October, 2009 with a press conference at the Armed Forces Recruiting Station in Times Square, New York City. Violence against women activist Eve Ensler and military rape survivor Sandra Lee spoke of their traumas from rape.
The video statement by Staff Sgt. Sandra Lee is really powerful (Elaine Brower made the video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o75YetoTCyw
Veterans for Peace suggests that a warning to women about rape in the military be placed on recruiting station doors. Bumper stickers that state “Warning: 1 in 3 women are Raped in the Military” are available from Veterans for Peace.
About the Author: Ann Wright is a 29 year US Army/Army Reserves veteran who retired as a Colonel and a former US diplomat who resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq. She served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia. In December, 2001 she was on the small team that reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. She is the co-author of the book "Dissent: Voices of Conscience." (www.voicesofconscience.com). She has written frequently on rape in the military.


http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/47332

[Ed Jewett]

What we are talking about here is the dehumanization of one or more humans. As is said elsewhere by Chris Hedges, war is the ultimate hate crime. If being taught to be a soldier to fight war tends to be dehumanizing in some cases (I will allow for the fact that the recruit brings in some of what transform that person into a rapist, war criminal or avid killer), then military training tends toward the creation of enabling other types of dehumanization.

"The importance of positivism [in the development of an athlete] has been noted [in earlier chapters of "Summon The Magic" and its source books], yet some feel that the team plays a little better when they get barked at. This continues as the young athlete moves into the world of work; some supervisors and managers are adept at barking too. Hinkson, in "The Art of Team Coaching", calls this the militaristic model which he says has "fallen by the wayside because it doesn't reflect the social realities of the modern athlete."

James Loehr** compares military and sport toughening models:

Even if we are uncomfortable with a discussion of military approaches, we have to admit the effectiveness of the system used to develop and toughen military recruits. Undisciplined, immature, unfocused and fearful teenagers are transformed, in an 8-week period, into soldiers that can undertake 20 mile hikes carrying 60-100 pounds of gear, overcome a wide variety of obstacles, and conquer their ultimate fear. The techniques involved in this remarkable conversion have been refined over thousands of years. Studying this approach might yield important insights.

The first place we might look is at the process of marching. Even today, when soldiers don't march into battle, they march because marching is for between battles. Marching develops and demonstrates an attitude that shows no weakness, no deviation, no fatigue, no negativism, no fear. What you see when you see a military unit in drill or on the march is precision, unit synchronization, decisive clean movement, total focus, confidence, and positive energy. Even the breathing is synchronized to movement. Marching is practice for being decisive, looking strong and acting confidently (regardless of feelings); it requires discipline, sustained concentration, and poise (all of which are essential elements in conquering emotions, especially the fear of death). The next time you observe an athletic competition, observe how the athletes walk into competition; watch their body language at the moments in the gaps between competitive movement.

Further inquiry into soldier-making reveals the following effective elements:

1. A strict code concerning how one acts and behaves, especially under stress (head, chin and shoulders up, with quick and decisive response to commands).

2. No visible sign of weakness or negative emotion is permitted. (No matter how you feel, this is the way you act.) [This is akin to the directives of a stern, authoritarian, abusive parent.]

3. Regular exposure to high levels of physical training as well as mental and emotional stress (courtesy of the obnoxious drill instructor) to accelerate the toughening process. (The more elite the unit, the higher the stress.)

4. Precise control, regulation and requirement of cycles of sleeping, eating, drinking and rest, with mandatory meals.

5. A rigorous physical fitness program, including aerobic, anaerobic and strength training.

6. An enforced schedule of trained recovery, including the items in #4, as well as regularly-scheduled R&R.


Some of the undesirable features of this military training system are:

1. The stripping of personal identity and its replacement with group identity. (Where this happens in civilian life (gangs and cults), it usually indicates low self-esteem.)

2. Military values, beliefs and skills have little application in civilian life.

3. Blind adherence to authority is rarely appropriate outside the military.

4. Mental and emotional inflexibility and rigidity are severely limiting. Even on the battlefield, and in any emergency situation, inflexible thinking leads straight to disaster.

5. An acquired dislike for physical training, and/or intense mental and emotional stress, is a common result of the pain and boredom of the process, although others adopt a pattern of fitness that they follow for life.


Many coaches draw on military training methods. The sports training model has many parallels. One clear commonality: A higher level of fitness automatically makes an individual tougher mentally. There are sporting codes which are similar: Never show weakness; never talk negatively; no whining; think positively; look energetic and confident at all times; follow a precise way of thinking and acting after making mistakes. Similarly, coaches suggest or require adherence to rules regarding sleep, alcohol, drugs, and meals. And a visit to any early pre-season sports camp will show repeated exposure to progressively-increasing levels of competitive stress.

But when coaches become obnoxious drill instructors, it can exact a heavy price: it undermines an athlete's natural love for sport and kills his or her motivation and intrinsic drive to excel in it. This happens over a short time frame, and potentially lasts a lifetime.

# # # # # # # # #

One approach used in military training was presented at the 19th Annual Springfield College Department of Psychology Conference in June 2002 ("Winning in Sport and Life") by Dave Czesniuk, a performance enhancement instructor at West Point. Dave's job was to prepare a team of volunteers (admittedly a group with high abilities, motivation and previous success) to compete in the annual Sandhurst event.

Named after Great Britain's equivalent to West Point (and always won by a team of soldiers from Sandhurst, who prepare year round), the event is scored by team only and requires nine teammates to traverse five miles over rugged terrain as fast as possible while undertaking a series of challenges or skill stations that include (among others): marksmanship; the setup, use and takedown of technical gear; rappelling down a cliff and over a river; and working together to get all nine team members over an 8-foot wall without using any aids.

The team gets very limited opportunities to "scrimmage" the event; team members are, of course, also involved in athletics, other military training, and an intense curriculum of study. Dave described participation in the event as similar to belonging to a club at another college; success was based entirely on what the individuals brought to the attempt.

Training consisted of physical fitness and limited work in each of the skill stations, but Dave's primary role was to meet with each individual to establish and create an audio CD training tool. The audio tool consisted of each volunteer reading a script, out loud and in his own voice. (The brain, of course, responds much more effectively to one's own voice.)

The "script" described, in detail, each key moment of the entire event as well as the role that individual would play in the complex interaction with his teammates at each skill station. The script also utilized goal statements, affirmations and cues specific to the individual and his role. Here's a fictional example:

"As I cross over the checkpoint line, I focus on returning my breathing to a normal rate while I take the whoozamajingle out of Betsy's rucksack. Okay, now, Ralph hands me the whatzit and, remembering to deploy the ground spikes, I open the tripod and put it in place within five seconds. While I hold the tripod steady, Betsy then places the unit atop the tripod. Once this is secured, I turn to George and begin gathering all of the thingamajigs.... [After the skill station] As I place the whoozamajingle back in Betsy's rucksack, I shout "Great precision, Hellcats!" and then shout "ten seconds to mount up" and begin slow, deep inhalations as I remind myself that I have to finish this upcoming stretch first, in four minutes and ten seconds, because I'm carrying the thingamabob."

Once a complete-event recorded script is polished and mixed with appropriate music, the recruit is asked to listen to the CD at least once a day, and preferably twice, or at least as much as possible within the highly-demanding daily schedule of a West Point cadet.

As the late springtime event neared, the training intensified; each team member took part in an indoor drill during which he was asked to touch and deactivate, as fast as possible, a series of randomly-appearing lights on a 3' x 4' Activision board while simultaneously balancing on a bongo board and reciting his script out loud!

Sound stressful enough? Sound effective?"



** See Toughness Training for Life, James E. Loehr, Ed.D., Plume/Penguin, New York 1993, as well as The New Toughness Training for Sports: Mental. Emotional and Physical Conditioning from One of the World's Premier Sports Psychologists, James E. Loehr, Ed.D., Dutton Books, New York 1994.

[Dawn Meredith]

Magda:
Forgive the personal question but how did you come to be in the military at all? Was it required where you live?
Having been a devout pacifist my entire life and continually trying to talk young male offenders out of signing onto our war machine I have often wondered what occurs to cause people to seek out this life. Obviously poverty here in the US is a prime factor- young men receive a $20,000 sign on bonus. Misplaced "patriotism" especially after 9-11 is another culprit.

But you appear not to fit into any of the catagories that cause "normal human beings" to become part of an evil killing machine that allows, indeed promotes, war without end. You seem way too intelligent, peace-loving and politically aware of what war is really all about.

Dawn

[Keith Millea]

What hope do we have for sanity?I suggest women buy a handgun.Take lessons on weapon training.Get your concealed handgun permit.


http://airamerica.com/news/10-28-2009/ca...f-girl-15/


Richmond, California Rattled By 15-Year-Old Girl's Gang Rape At A School Dance

Wednesday October 28, 2009 8:17 a.m.

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Police cars sit parked outside Richmond High School on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009, in Richmond, Calif. Authorities are investigating the rape and beating of a 15-year-old girl on school grounds following a homecoming dance last Friday which, according to police, lasted more than two hours and was witnessed by up to 20 people. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

By Associated Press

Related Content

• 4 More Charged In Gang Rape Of California Teenager
  

RICHMOND, Calif. (AP) — The gang rape and beating of a 15-year-old girl on school grounds after her homecoming dance was horrific enough. But even more shocking, police say, was that up to two-dozen people watched and did nothing to stop it.
The attack over the weekend rattled this crime-ridden city of 120,000 in the San Francisco Bay area, where one police official called it one of the most heinous crimes he has ever seen. Some students have already left the school in response to the attack.
"It's not safe there at all," said 16-year-old Jennie Steinberg, whose mother let her transfer out of the school Tuesday. "I'm not going back."
The victim, a sophomore, had left the dance and was drinking alcohol in a school courtyard with a group when she was attacked, police said.
Two suspects were in custody Monday, but police said as many as seven ranging in age from 15 to mid-20s attacked the girl for more than two hours at a dimly lit area near benches Saturday night. As many as two-dozen people saw the rape without notifying police.
Officers found the girl semiconscious and naked from the waist down near a picnic table. She remains hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.
"This was a barbaric act. I still cannot get my head around the fact that numerous people either watched, walked away or participated in her assault," Lt. Mark Gagan said Tuesday. "It's one of the most disturbing crimes in my 15 years as a police officer."
Gagan would not comment on rumors that observers took video of the attack on cell phones and may have posted it online.
Manuel Ortega, a 19-year-old former student, was arrested after trying to flee the scene. He is being held on $800,000 bail for investigation of rape and robbery. Attempts to reach Ortega at the jail Tuesday were unsuccessful.
A 15-year-old student also was booked late Monday on one count of sexual assault, Gagan said.
Late Tuesday, SWAT teams were preparing to make more arrests as police are also offering a $20,000 reward they hope will bring more people forward with any information.
Even though he said as many as two-dozen people were witnesses, Gagan said officials are still trying to determine the exact number of people involved.
"I'm confident that the list will expand and at the end of our investigation we will get a clear indication of who was there and who did what," Gagan said.
The attack occurred in a city that has dealt with its share of vicious crimes in recent years, and the school recently approved surveillance cameras after a series of violent crimes. In one case a few years back, a student was shot outside the school, ran inside and died in the then-principal's hands, said Marin Trujillo, a spokesman for the West Contra Costa Unified School District.
Richmond is an industrialized conclave near the San Francisco Bay that is known as one of the nation's most dangerous cities. In 2007, Richmond had 47 homicides, and the murder rate led the state for cities with populations of 100,000 or more, surpassing Los Angeles and Oakland.

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[Magda Hassan]

Magda:
Forgive the personal question but how did you come to be in the military at all? Was it required where you live?
Having been a devout pacifist my entire life and continually trying to talk young male offenders out of signing onto our war machine I have often wondered what occurs to cause people to seek out this life. Obviously poverty here in the US is a prime factor- young men receive a $20,000 sign on bonus. Misplaced "patriotism" especially after 9-11 is another culprit.

But you appear not to fit into any of the catagories that cause "normal human beings" to become part of an evil killing machine that allows, indeed promotes, war without end. You seem way too intelligent, peace-loving and politically aware of what war is really all about.

Dawn

No. Since we pulled out of Vietnam the military here has been all voluntary. No conscription. I have often wondered what possessed me to do it as well. Given that my life is quite surreal compared to most I think it basically came down to trying to get a 'real' job. Something I have little experience of before or since. My Private Benjamin moment if you like. I was studying and also applied for the Public Service at the same time but this came up first. It was quite an education being there and the rampant stupidity I saw there probably did much to make me a pacifist and radicalised me in other ways too. The areas I worked in there were not the usual branches of the military either. Not that I was their run of the mill recruit either.

[Ed Jewett]

Abu Ghraib: “Most of the women in the prison were raped — some of them left prison pregnant.”

September 12th, 2010 Via: Independent:
Yet nothing comes closer to Titus Andronicus than the insistent, terrible stories of gang rape by United States personnel in Abu Ghraib. You hear this repeatedly in Amman, and a very accurate source of mine in Washington – a man who deals with military personnel – tells me they are true. This, he says, is why Barack Obama changed his mind about releasing the photographs which George W Bush refused to make public. The pictures we saw – of the humiliation of men – were outrageous enough. But the ones we haven’t seen show Americans raping Iraqi women.
Lima Nabil, a journalist who now runs a home for on-the-run girls, sips coffee as the boiling Jordanian sun frowns through the window at us. “In Abu Ghraib,” she says, “women were tortured by the Americans much more than the men. One woman said she witnessed five girls being raped. Most of the women in the prison were raped – some of them left prison pregnant. Families killed some of these women – because of the shame.”
Posted in Atrocities

[Jan Klimkowski]

Abu Ghraib: “Most of the women in the prison were raped — some of them left prison pregnant.”

September 12th, 2010 Via: Independent:
Yet nothing comes closer to Titus Andronicus than the insistent, terrible stories of gang rape by United States personnel in Abu Ghraib. You hear this repeatedly in Amman, and a very accurate source of mine in Washington – a man who deals with military personnel – tells me they are true. This, he says, is why Barack Obama changed his mind about releasing the photographs which George W Bush refused to make public. The pictures we saw – of the humiliation of men – were outrageous enough. But the ones we haven’t seen show Americans raping Iraqi women.
Lima Nabil, a journalist who now runs a home for on-the-run girls, sips coffee as the boiling Jordanian sun frowns through the window at us. “In Abu Ghraib,” she says, “women were tortured by the Americans much more than the men. One woman said she witnessed five girls being raped. Most of the women in the prison were raped – some of them left prison pregnant. Families killed some of these women – because of the shame.”
Posted in Atrocities

And the officer in charge of Abu Ghraib was a woman. Brigadier General Janis Karpinski was demoted to Colonel after what passed for a military inquiry.

Of course much of the horror at Abu Ghraib was led by psyops practioners, using templates from deep black shrinks. It wasn't simply a "few bad apples" as per the official US government and Pentagon cover story.

So much for exporting western democratic values and morality to the supposedly inferior "ragheads" of the Middle East.

Gandhi articulates the hypocrisy of western geopolitical neo-imperialism pefectly in Magda's signature.

[Ed Jewett]

I wasn't sure what thread to put this Abu Ghraib/rape story in but, of course, yon Klimkowski fellow has it correctly above. Elsewhere, I have noted my self-diagnosis of "cultural estrangement" and indeed even the theft of my nation and its values. The military psyops nature of the genesis of this thing is correct as far as it goes in this locality but we know also that the purposeful induction of what was termed elsewhere (lost the source, alas) as "the normalization of abnormality" into our culture through fundamanentalist practice, ritualized practices, and the perversions of "belonging" (did anyone note that the new ghoul in economics is a Skull and Bones member?) has trickled down to our 20- and 30-somethings. I note that the leading 9/11 truther is a theologian with expertise in the study of evil. The troops are taking finger trophies and killing for sport (no doubt that has somehow come home to America already as well), and one soldier emptied his clip into the body of a dead child 'to make sure'.

Where is Hannah Arendt when we need her? Well, Arthur Silber's work is archived.

Can we do an epidemiological tracing of this to determine the fomites and the vectors?

Can we mimic John Snow and construct a map of the outbreak?

[Magda Hassan]

Plus there will be a whole bunch of serial murders and rapes when these psychopaths are back home and looking for the same sort of thrill.