Rape and Warfare.

         In the reading, "Sex and War: Fighting Men and Comfort Women," Joane Nagel analyzes historical incidents where rape was used as a war tactic. Throughout the reading, Nagel establishes that militaries, past and present, use sexuality as a weapon against their enemies. Although the violence of war is often associated with weapons, sexual assault is often perpetrated by militants against their enemies.
         "Rape in war is at its core an ethnosexual phenomenon." By stating this, Nagel creates an image of the oppressed and oppressors. The prevalence of wars being fought between different countries creates a cultural disparity, allowing for one ethnicity to reign over the other. Though this power differential exists, rape is used by both sides of the war, consequently oppressing the women of both sides as well. Ethnosexual prejudices give rise to the abuse of women, sex slavery, brothels, and prostitution, in which the enslavement and rape of women affects more than just the enemy. Rape tactics defile the enemy, satisfy the hormonally driven soldiers, and permanently scars the women who are abused and dehumanized in the wars.
          Historically, there have been many incidents when the sexual enslavement of women was the main strategy of war. Nagel offers a few accounts that have come to light more recently, and have been deemed "crimes against humanity." An example of an extreme use of women as a sexual commodity in war was during the 1990's. During the Serbian War, soldiers would rape and impregnate Muslim women for the sole purpose of creating Serbian offspring. To make sure that these women did not terminate their pregnancies, the Serbian soldiers imprisoned the women in concentration camps until they gave birth. During World War II, the Soviet Union targeted German women who were stricken by the poverty of war. "The military personnel capitalized on the vulnerability of women who faced economic hardship, malnourishment, or starvation because of the war's disruption." These women turned to prostitution at the hands of the Soviets in order to survive the war. Nagel also sheds light upon the 947 convicted cases of rape as perpetrated by American soldiers during World War II.
         "The logic of rape in war is always the same; rapes are always committed across ethnosexual boundaries, and rape is used by both sides for the familiar, time honored reasons- to rewards the troops, to terrorize and humiliate the enemy, and as a means of creating solidarity and protection through mutual guilt among small groups of soldiers. Ethnic loyalty and ethnic loathing join hands in rape in war." In her concluding words, Nagel sums up the main points of her reading. Rape is perpetuated, and perpetrated, by ethnic differences amongst troops and civilians. Each side of a war partakes in the barbaric system of conquering the women of the opposing side, instilling fear on women and young girls in affected areas. The soldiers who commit these crimes against women, often go unpunished, as it rape is an accepted form of "satisfying" the deserving and patriotic troops. The culture of rape in warfare is disturbing, but the cycle continues, although we would like to consider ourselves as "more evolved." Sex, whether or not it is forced, creates dominating and submissive roles, which ends up minimizing the humanity of a person involved. When it becomes a forced act, the mental and physical anguish can consume a victim for the rest of their lives. These scarring, sexual encounters that servicemen impose on women from other cultures, proliferates stereotypes and prejudices that those in battle have of one another.

Do you believe that rape has been used as a war tactic by U.S. troops overseas? Why do you think cases of rape, as carried out by American soldiers, often go unreported? To what extent would you assume that women soldiers are sexually assaulted by her male counterparts? Have there been any recent accounts of rape in current wars or uprisings?