Stumbled across this during my inter-tube travels. Had to wash my hands afterward. Apparently there’s a “prostitution culture” in the military, or so declares this fellow: The account of the Secret Service and members of the military using the services of prostitutes in Colombia reminded me of the work of the late Chalmers Johnson. In his book Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, he describes the network of bars, strip clubs, whorehouses, and VD clinics that surround U.S. bases overseas. The former U.S. naval base at Subic Bay in the Philippines "had no industry nearby except for the ‘entertainment' business, which supported approximately 55,000 prostitutes and a total of 2,182 registered establishments offering ‘rest and recreation' to American servicemen." At the annual Cobra Gold joint military exercise in Thailand: "Some three thousand prostitutes wait for sailors and marines at the South Pattaya waterfront, close to Utapao air base." And who can forget the "three-minute men" in Hawaii during WWII. Ah, the greatest generation. Because, you know, civilian sex tourism in Thailand and the Philippines is apparently unknown to the author. He then is “inundated” with email “verification”: After my previous post, I was inundated with notes from veterans going back to Vietnam who described the prostitution culture of the military. Christians and those with a shred of moral values—perhaps you should steer your sons into another vocation. Ah, because the military if full of those with no shreds of moral values, right? And we who have served? Obviously challenged in the moral values department as well, or so he implies. Yeah, no mention of the fact that for decades hookers have traveled to towns in which political conventions (or business conventions for that matter) are held, but whatever. I assume, given those truths, this boob would recommend “Christians and those with a shred of moral values” avoid politics and business – right? Love the fact that he’s now making vocational recommendations based on his perception of a “prostitution culture” within the military. Because I’m sure he knows so much about the military. Finally, he then doubles down on this nonsense by printing one of the emails he received as, one supposes, proof (yeah, I’ve never heard anyone embellish the hell out of such tales, have you?): Earlier I saw a link with a story about how folks living near a west coast Navy base were upset by a story about how sailors were using the services of Australian prostitutes who were apparently being overworked by all the traffic they had when US ships were in port. The hypocrisy is overwhelming. Virtually everyone in and around the Navy, to include family members, knows exactly what happens when sailors go to other ports. They just don't want to publicly acknowledge it. The spouses are no better … And from there on this yahoo uses this unknown person’s rant to disparage spouses in a way that, well, is pretty awful. The military is no different than any other sector of society. It has its good, bad and ugly. But to broad brush everyone in this sort of tar is both disrespectful and disingenuous. To attack spouses is heinous, especially as it was done. The Lew Rockwell blog lives up to its anti-military stance with this series of blog posts. And it gives good reason not to bother reading it or taking anything it says seriously. If this is any indication of the level of its discourse, you’re better off reading North Korean press releases. ~McQ Twitter: @McQandO
Read the complete post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blackfive/~3/wa4pf8KW6O4/now-emails-are-truth-military-has-a-prostitution-culture-declares-lew-rockwell-blog.html
Posted
May 02 2012, 11:54 PM
by
BLACKFIVE