Here’s another outcome of the war that gets little to no attention. Think about it. Tens of thousands of men are serving their second or third years in Iraq. They haven’t had sex in a very long time and are most likely experiencing major depression and anxiety, so they take it out on the women in their units. This is a report from Oregon Public Broadcasting:
Eugene Police jailed US Army service woman Specialist Suzanne Swift Sunday night at the request of the military. As Kristian Foden-Vencil reports, Swift has been absent without leave since last year when she refused to return to Iraq.
Swift, who’s 21, served her first tour in Iraq in 2004.
She was a Military Police Officer in Karbala. She drove a Humvee during combat patrols and was repeatedly shot at, according to her mother, Sarah Rich. She says her daughter was about to leave for her second tour when she broke down and said she simply couldn’t — because of the war itself and the way she was treated.
Sarah Rich: “She was belittled, she was called names daily. She was called fat. She was propositioned to have sex daily and if she refused she was treated like a dog and if she accepted she was treated like a dog.”
Military Police from Fort Lewis are scheduled to collect Swift Tuesday and return her to her unit.
The unit is expected to leave for a third tour of duty in 2007.
The unit is expected to leave for a third tour of duty in 2007.
So the military police plan to return Swift to her unit and send her back to Iraq even though they know she’s not mentally or emotionally capable? Based on what her mother said, Swift may have given in to sexual advances. The question is, was she raped? Will there be an investigation? This country is woefully unprepared for the impacts this war is having on female soldiers who not only are fighting on the front lines, but are also subject to verbal and sexual abuse.
Note: I changed “she was raped,” to a question. As a few of you pointed out, it is tough to tell based on her mother’s quote. Hopefully the Eugene press will follow-up to find out what happened.
