The Perfect Opportunity

In North Africa and the Middle East right now people are doing something they have not done in a very long time. They are asking the US to back up what we have been saying about our stance regarding liberty, freedom and democracy around the globe. This is a region where many people have pointed at us and accused us of exploiting them and their resources for our gain while giving nothing back in return or caring little for their life styles. Now there is a blank space for America to insert a different image of ourselves and perhaps change some of the narrative. We can inject hope by hitting the reset button.

With all that this nation is involved in in the region, it is true we probably cannot afford to become bogged down in another conflict. Yet if we stand by as we did during the 1990’s and allow another Rwanda like situation – we cannot hope to have changed our image abroad. This is especially true as already Secretary of State Clinton welcomed one of Gadhafi’s sons, Libyan National Security Advisor Mutassim Gadhafi, here in the US to the State Department. Of course that was when the State Department was under the impression the Libyan government was intent on change.

For a long time we dealt with dictators abroad especially in places wealthy American corporations had interests, regardless of whether they hired Americans to work those areas or paid any taxes regarding revenue they made from those areas. We can no longer afford to do that. Now we are watching as the president of hope struggles with whether or not to leave dictators to rule or to support democracy being cried out for by the people of various nations – another mess he inherited. It is also a mess he did not immediately move to rectify or publicly denounce upon taking office. He should have and perhaps should admit our policy of being overly friendly with dictators that can help make wealthy American corporations wealthier was flawed. We need a better balance between diplomacy and encouraging torturers.

Our nation is now reaping the whirlwind of giving aid and comfort to the enemies of democracy worldwide that were not elected and have shown they will use brutal, bloody repression to stamp out the will of the people when they simply ask for a right to have a say in their own destinies. We should find a way to not become bogged down ourselves in Libya, as unfortunately we are engaged in other wars currently, but should gain the support of allies to arm and train the resistance which has shown tremendous ability and will. To not do so would be a defeat to democracy itself and a blow to the idea our government can and will defend hope and change.

This same attitude that allows us to overlook certain atrocities while not others has found its way into our foreign policy in other respects. Military prostitution has been happening perhaps as long as there have been wars. However in this day and age when a soldier goes to purchase sex in a foreign country the scope of what is happening is not simply limited to a transaction of money in exchange for sex.

Whatever a persons’ stance on the morality of prostitution itself, and I say this as most people have known about our soldier’s involvement in military prostitution and have turned a blind eye for decades at least, slavery cannot be denied to be wrong. For years we have seen military prostitution portrayed in movies about war like Platoon and The Deer Hunter to name just a couple. The issue of prostitution itself is not what I am discussing here specifically, as there is the larger issue conjoined to tackle first.

That larger issue is that of slavery and how it is tied to foreign military prostitution. There can be no doubt about the morality of slavery in our country and as a nation we have spoken on the matter over one hundred years ago. Yet, in places overseas we turn a blind eye to it even when our tax dollars are being spent to support it. In South Korea for example there are clubs and bars surrounding our military bases catering to our soldiers. In many cases the women there are not mere adults trading sex for money, but sex slaves forced to be raped over and over for the enrichment of their slave masters.

In fact in South Korea the problem around our bases has become so prevalent that our military has instituted policies to reduce military involvement in prostitution. “There is evidence, however, that the policy has not worked in reducing demand for prostitution, evidenced by the continuing high levels of prostitution and human trafficking near U.S. military bases. […] one report indicates that only 4 out of 25 such places in the area have been listed as off-limits. The South Korean government, too, has been cracking down on sex trafficking in the past few years. However, the areas surrounding the U.S. military base have been exempted from the crackdown by the Korean government. So brothels around U.S. military bases are falling through the cracks of both U.S. government and Korean government policy.” (http://news.change.org/stories/sex-trafficking-high-around-us-military-b...)

This means more than just willing prostitution, take the example of what are known as “juicy bars” in South Korea. “Here's how the ‘juicy bar’ system works: Filipina and other foreign women are brought to South Korea by brokers as ‘entertainers.’ The brokers then rent the women out to bars, priced depending on the girl's ‘talents’ or attractiveness and the bar's needs. There, they flirt with and kiss soldiers and tourists, in an attempt to keep them buying the girls expensive juice drinks. If a girl sells her quota of juice drinks in the evening, all is usually well. But if she doesn't, she's expected to make up the difference. And her only means of doing that is prostitution.” (http://news.change.org/stories/congress-fights-prostitution-near-us-mili...)

Hence these women and children are forced into being raped if they don’t make the requisite money. That’s just one scenario, it gets much worse. Here we have been turning a blind eye to forced slavery for decades and our tax dollars have been spent to support it, but we can make it right. In places we still have not drawn down our troops presence and have problems with soldiers paying for favors from sex slaves whether they realized it or not, we have a chance to show we are truly for liberty and freedom and something like slavery is anathema to everything we stand for.

We can reduce the slavery there by really cracking down on the raping of women and children in those countries by our servicemen or contractors – not that they always realize that is what they are doing. We can change our image there.

In the same way we can disavow our ties with dictators. It will not be easy and there are many hurdles to overcome, but it is not impossible. We did so with dictators in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen and let’s help as best we can in Libya. There has never been a better time or opportunity to be an example to the world of a nation that supports and helps to spread liberty, freedom and democracy wherever we go. Let’s take up fate, if you will, on this chance being held out, let’s try hope.

To read about my inspiration for this article go to www.lawsuitagainstuconn.com.