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From: Brian Kessler
T1: Brian.Kessler
Date: 10/27/98
Time: 12:07:25 PM
Remote Name: 207.172.202.199
>I would love to comment back to you about everything you wrote but I don't have >the time now.
I look forward to your response since nobody else seems to have the guts or the wherewithall to make one.
>I don't know exactly what you meant about that explicit statement about rape. I >could be wrong but it sounded almost as if you condone it or you think that >there is no way to stop it. If your ordering people to kill how can you say >that they can't rape. The whole military system has to agree and punish people >caught committing acts of rape. One thing most soldiers have are respect to >authority and will abide by the rules if they know that they will be seriously >punished. I don't give a crap if their horny and can't smoothly sweet talk some >woman in Vietnamese, they have no right to rape them, in or out of war.
I don't necessarily condone it, merely contextualize it. The sexual instinct is the most primative instinct within man and ultimately is stronger even than our drive to eat and sleep. On its own, it is extremely powerful. We may debate whether it is instinctual or cultural, but sex and violence do go hand in hand; thus the violence of war is likely to incite that instinct yet further. The military can and does add chemicals (salt peter and gun powder, for examples) to the food to attempt to lower the male sex drive, but it can't be repressed entirely, especially when many of the same hormones are needed for or produced during periods of violence.
I won't debate that women get horny. Of course they do, but I think it niave to think that it means exactly the same thing to a woman as it does to a man. Sexual repression for either gender is essentially unhealthy. However, speaking as a man I can tell you that it doesn't take a week of celebacy to start wreaking havoc on the male mind. Prolonged celebacy can lead to both depression, attention deficits, and irrational behavior. These are not qualities beneficial to soldiers.
Nor is it beneficial to soldiers or their commanding officers if they can not relate openly and honestly to each other about what their needs are and seeing to it that their needs are met. If a commanding officer is going to get high and mighty about rapes commited by soldiers, that will only alienate the soldiers from the commanding officers. If the soldiers are removed from the fighting force than that force is so much the weaker for the shortage in manpower. And if you get on the men's bad side by trying to moralize at them while simultaneously telling them to go out and kill, that's one less person you can expect to do something heroic to save your ass.
You want me to say rape is evil, fine: RAPE IS EVIL. So is war.