Thursday, March 21, 2013

Serious issues need to be treated seriously

Myla Haider was with the Army's Criminal Investigation Command and she's also an Iraq War veteran.  Quil Lawrence (NPR's Morning Edition -- audio will be up shortly and text by afternoon) shares her story which includes being raped before going to Iraq.  She didn't report it and explains why to Lawrence, "I've never met one victim who was able to report the crime and still retain their military career.  Not one." 

And she found that to be especially true when her rapist went on to rape other women.  Faced with whether she should keep silent or join the other women, she went with the truth.  And for that, she was discredited and her work was judged suspect. 

Assault and rape are serious crimes.  They needed to be treated as such.

"Search and Destroy: The Rape of Iraq."  That pops in the inbox.  Clicking to open, I see the byline.  Pepe Escobar.  Not someone known for championing women.  In fact, he's known for writing with blatant sexism.  But I read through thinking maybe there's some point to this.

There's not.

Why does it always seem to be the men who do not take rape seriously who end up insisting that they're using "rape as a metaphor."  In the world of film, that nonsense is no longer accepted having been rebuked for several decades now.

I would not use "rape" to describe Iraq.  And someone who would reveals deep ignorance about rape.  For example, does Escobar mean to say that Iraq was harmed/violated once and now lives with the after effects?  From his previous writing, no.  So if he were going to compare it to rape, he would really mean gang-rape. That I'm pointing this out goes to how uninformed he is on the topic and how he shouldn't be using it as a metaphor.

I read through the awful article, waiting for something of value.  Iraqi women and girls are being raped and tortured in Iraqi prisons and detention centers, according to both self-disclosers and two different committees in Iraq's Parliament.  So maybe Escobar was going to build up to that.  Crude possibly but considering how little coverage there has been of the topic, it might justify the title.

Or maybe he was working up to writing about Abeer?

From the roundtable we did last week:  "Iraq Roundtable," "Iraq roundtable,"  "Talking Iraq roundtable," "The roundtable on Iraq." "a roundtable on iraq," "Iraq," "Roundtable on Iraq,"  "A roundtable on Iraq,"  "The Iraq Roundtable," "The Iraq Roundtable,"  "The Iraq Roundtable," "Iraq Roundtable," "Talking Iraq Roundtable," "Talking Iraq" and "THIS JUST IN! IRAQ!":

Betty: I certainly would.  I'll go with  the March 12, 2006, gang-rape and mur
der of Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi.  To me that really was one of the biggest stories.  Also one of the most telling.  For any who don't know, Abeer was a young teenager.  14-years-old.  And American soldiers, with Steven D. Green as ringleader, plotted to rape her.  They entered her family home, the gang-rape began with two soldiers -- one holding Abeer down while the other had his turn at rape -- and Green went into the other room with the parents and Abeer's five-year-old sister.  Abeer was being raped and could hear the gun shots -- and probably the screams -- of her parents and her baby sister as she was being raped.  And how awful that she's being gang-raped but she also knows that she's going to die.  At that moment, she knows.  "I must get out of this"?  That line from Tori Amos' "Me and A Gun."  Where the woman is getting raped and she's thinking about bisquits and anything else to try to leave her body during this horrific crime and she's telling herself "I must get out of this."  But before the gang-rape was over, Abeer knew she wouldn't.  She heard the gun shots and I'm sure there were screams and cries and that she heard those as well. 



Mike: Right.  She hears all of that, like Betty said.  And I agree, there were screams and cries.  Steven D. Green is shooting the little five-year-old girl, the mother and the father.  I would assume that the father being the strongest that he shoots him first.  And that has the mother and daughter screaming and crying.  And Abeer hears that gun shot and the cries and screams.  Then another gun shot.  Then a third.  And nothing.  And then Steven D. Green's in the room and the other two US soldiers step away and Green begins raping Abeer.  And she knows this man raping her is the man who just killed her parents and her kid sister.  And she knows he's going to kill her.  And he does.  Then, to try to hide their War Crimes, they set her body on fire.  It's just disgusting.  And it's really like the story of the illegal war.  America was going to 'help.' And Green was stationed in the corner of Abeer's block to provide security, to 'help.'  And instead, he starts lusting after this 14-year-old girl, staring at her, he can't keep his hands to himself and she complains to her parents and they get a relative who'll take Abeer in.  But the night before she leaves, Green and company break into her house and that's that.


Elaine: I'm going to agree with Betty and Mike.  I think it was telling.  I think Mike's right about how it is basically a metaphor for the US actions in Iraq.   I agree with Betty's logical conclusion that Abeer heard screams and cries while she was being raped -- and gun shots.  But what I'd point out was that we saw the reaction to Abeer.



C.I.: Which was?


Elaine: Silence.  Jane Fonda gave a great speech about her.  But Women's Media Center, which Fonda's a part of, could have amplified the speech, could have given the story life.  They ignored it.  So many other outlets did as well.  There were several military trials of the soldiers involved.  Steven D. Green, the ringleader, had a civilian trial because he'd already left the military.  There was no rush to cover it.  This is after the others have confessed their crimes.  Green is the last one tried.  The Nation wasn't interested, Democracy Now! didn't give a damn.  That's just to name a few.  My point being that the War Crimes -- and that's what was done to Abeer and her family, War Crimes -- were ignored by the bulk of the media.  This let us know how unimportant Iraq was to so many in the press -- no matter how often they used it during a pledge cycle to beg for more money.




But Escobar doesn't mention Abeer either.


Again, I am not personally fond of rape as a metaphor, I've read far too many bad scripts over the years where the woman's assaulted in a myriad of ways and been told it's a "metaphor" -- usually for the way the West interacts with the world -- apparently assaulting a man can't stand in for the way the West interacts with the world.  I'm not in the mood and I doubt I'm the only one who feels that way.

In the 21st century, if you're going to put "rape" in the title of your long column, your column better have something to do with rape.

Escobar can share,  "I was driving through Texas on an assignment, and virtually everybody deemed the whole show [Abu Ghraib] 'normal'."  Really?  At the drive through?  Lowell George's Dallas Alice wait on you, did she?  Texas is one of the two biggest states (in the US, only Alaska is bigger).  And though xenophobe Pepe Escobar loves to stereotype, 'normal' seems an unnatural reaction.  I wasn't driving through in the days after Abu Ghraib broke, I was speaking at the University of Texas in Austin and then at Baylor in Waco and Rice in Houston.  (That's from my head.  That may not be the day's order.  It started in Austin and then we moved north so Houston or Waco would be next based on their location.)    I didn't encounter people telling me that Abu Ghraib was 'normal.'  

Maybe "driving through" polls aren't worth mentioning?


The following community sites -- plus Iraq Veterans Against the War, Antiwar.com, Ms. magazine blog, Cindy Sheehan and the Pacifica Evening News  -- updated last night and this morning:







Senator Patty Murray serves on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and is the Chair of the Senate Budget Committee.  Her office issued the following yesterday:


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
CONTACT: Murray Press Office
(202) 224-2834

Murray Reiterates Mental Health Challenges Facing Veterans

"Over the coming year, VA has its work cut out for it."

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, expressed concern for the mental health challenges that lie ahead for veterans during a hearing entitled, “VA Mental Health Care: Ensuring Timely Access to High-Quality Care.”

“Over the coming year, VA has its work cut out for it,” said Senator Murray. “This includes continuing to work towards implementing the Mental Health ACCESS Act, meeting the goals of hiring 1,600 new mental health care professionals, continuing to bring down wait times and improving access to care, and partnering with community providers to ensure that veterans have access to the care they need.”
In February, the Department of Veterans Affairs released a comprehensive report on veterans who die by suicide. The report indicates that the percentage of veterans who die by suicide has decreased slightly since 1999, while the estimated total number of Veterans who have died by suicide has increased to over 8,000 a year. 

Senator Murray’s Mental Health ACCESS Act was signed into law by President Obama as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. The ACCESS Act creates a comprehensive, standardized suicide prevention program; expands eligibility for Department of Veterans Affairs mental health services to family members; strengthens oversight of DoD Mental Health Care and the Integrated Disability Evaluation System (IDES); improves training and education for our health care providers; creates more peer-to-peer counseling opportunities; and requires VA to establish accurate and reliable measures for mental health services. Making mental health a top priority during her time as Chairman, Senator Murray crafted the amendment after a major study by the RAND Corporation showed that there are serious gaps and a lack of consistency in military services’ suicide prevention programs.

Senator Murray’s full remarks:

“Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, I really appreciate you holding this hearing.  Providing timely access to high-quality care is extremely important for our veterans, servicemembers, and their families.

“I appreciate the witnesses coming to testify before us to help further the conversation that this Committee has been having for the past several years.

“I know it is not always easy to do, and we appreciate your courage in coming here so that we can learn from you.

“VA and Congress have made important strides towards addressing the invisible wounds of war. But we still have a lot to do.

“VA’s recent report on suicides among the nation’s veterans is very troubling.  And I am quite concerned that my home state of Washington appears to have a very high percentage of the known veteran suicides.

“Over the coming year, VA has its work cut out for it. This includes continuing to work towards implementing the Mental Health ACCESS Act, meeting the goals of hiring 1,600 new mental health care professionals, continuing to bring down wait times and improving access to care, and partnering with community providers to ensure that veterans have access to the care they need.

“Army, and all of DoD, also have significant challenges ahead. Just a few of these challenges are reforming the IDES process and the diagnosis of mental health conditions, addressing the problems with developing and integrated electronic health record, and ending the unacceptably high rates of military sexual trauma.

“I look forward to continuing to work with VA, the Pentagon, and my colleagues on this Committee towards meeting these goals.”


###


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Meghan Roh
Press Secretary | New Media Director
Office of U.S. Senator Patty Murray
Mobile: (202) 365-1235
Office: (202) 224-2834
@PattyMurray | @SenateBudget | @MegRoh


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