Reply to "Our Military Are Saints: Go to the Middle East

What I used as a headline there was a reply to a comment I made to a woman's post exemplifying a few ways common usage could be adjusted to more clearly ascribe responsibility for rape. It included such things as changing "She was raped" to "He raped her", "Protect your daughter" to "Educate your son" and "We can't change society" to "We will fight for our safety until we get it."

My comment was "We have a serious problem with male culture in our society, regardless of other countries or cultures we may wish to "they do it too!" excuse ourselves by. Male culture in this country, however it might be in others, is a damaged, battered, crippled thing, and it's a massive ego problem on steroids, despite a few bright spots. How can it be otherwise, given the general tone of what we expect males to be like, and feel like? Look at so many of the utterly wrecked psyches in our government, regardless of Party. Look at the ignorance of simple facts, never mind humanistic values. It's been said that the growth of civilization is a battle against testosterone. But it's not that simple. We here have NO useful way of initiating males into mature use of force or power. We have no applicable rites of passage for young men, unless we go to the sad possibilities of "his first car" or "first score". How sad. And such things as our wild west gun culture and muscle car thing parlayed into militarism doesn't help. It's too bad, because had it been otherwise, the efforts we have put into defense and fear could have yielded a paradise on Earth for us and others many times over. There are a number of books which I would recommend, or make, everyone read if I was emperor of the world. Thank goodness I'm not--it's just a fantasy. But most of those books are on the ways of mental clarity in perception and cognition. The one book I'd recommend in this matter is Naomi Wolf's "Vagina: A New Biography". We might better ourselves overall if both men and women read it."

Then came a comment: Anton Z Nemeth go to the middle east.our men are saints. 

So I said:

Yes. I know. I made it a policy to hire Vets when I owned a business in Tucson, AZ. That was the Nam era. I did that after two physicals and 3 attempts to join one of the branches failed, so hey, I did the next best thing, in honor of those who did serve when I couldn't. I've seen many documentaries about how our men and women there have done good, and even great good in some cases. And just recently I just heard happy news about a translator who saved 5 American lives who gained his American citizenship. That's all great stuff.

More recently, in our area, I had a Vet break down in my car about things he did in Fallujah. He was in really bad shape. I listened and consoled him for over half an hour, till he got it back together. There were tear stains on my car seat when he got out. I have also done counseling in the past. Some of it was for Vets. So you might imagine that I have heard some stories? PTSD is rampant, and our military people suicide at about twice the rate of combat deaths. That is utterly tragic. And we hear about our women in the military being raped by our own. So while I have great respect and compassion for those who serve, now am glad I didn't. While we can claim, often legitimately, some military glory, there are accompanying horrors as well. It's what happens in war. And apparently, in the relative peace of our own land. I have relatives who lived through war zones in Europe as well. I have very great reasons to be grateful for our American military. But I'm also not blind to the humanity of men under stress.

And it's difficult to paint our military with the broad brush of sainthood, unless you are being sarcastic, Levi, or Jason. I don't think you are, especially if you have served and are talking about your brothers, and, I hope, your sisters in the service. You, personally, may indeed be saints, and is why you see the military made up of them. And for sure there must be many, or most, I don't doubt. We're just talking numbers here. The rape of American servicewomen by their own is and has been a rampant problem. I'm including one article, but you can find any number of articles from both military and civilian sources on the issue. If the perps who did this stuff to our women--and men, btw--are considered "saints", well, we just might have a moral and a morale problem to deal with. In the meantime, I am sure, also from the stories I was privileged to hear, that our servicemen are honorable and in some cases heroic. There is plenty of testament to that. Thanks for your comments.

https://www.nytimes.com/.../us/military-sexual-assault.html