I am the history of rape
I am the history of the rejection of who I am
I am the history of the terrorized incarceration of
my self
I am the history of battery assault and limitless
armies against whatever I want to do with my mind
and my body and my soul and
whether it's about walking out at night
or whether it's about the love that I feel or
whether it's about the sanctity of my vagina or
the sanctity of my national boundaries
or the sanctity of my leaders or the sanctity
of each and every desire
that I know from my personal and indiosyncratic
and indisputably single and singular heart
I have been raped
-- Poem About My Rights by June Jordan (excerpt)
I went to see "Casualties of War" in the theater, when it first came out. I didn't know that much about it. I liked Michael J. Fox. He was so adorable in "Family Ties." And I was fascinated by Vietnam history. I probably should have read some reviews, but I hate spoilers. So I was totally unprepared.
I try to avoid movies with sexual violence because I am a survivor of sexual assault; multiple sexual assaults actually. So I was unprepared. Images of rape... sometimes I go numb... sometimes I just curl up in a fetal ball and shake...
This morning I read that Sgt. Paul E. Cortez was sentenced to 100 years in prison. It's not enough. I wrote about this here; about how Paul Cortez and his buddies raped a 14 year old Iraqi girl. A sociopath named Steven Green, who raped and killed the girl and set her on fire -- and killed her entire family -- was conveniently discharged by the Army a short time later and is now a problem for a civilian court. Whatever sentence he gets it won't be enough. Both Cortez and Spc. James Barker plead out and got their sentences of 100 years and 90 years respectively, with a possibility of parole. Me? I wanted to see them all sentenced to the maximum penalty under the UCMJ; death.
Some years ago I was staying with some friends in a beach house. It was a summer rental packed with people I barely knew. Flipping through channels one night one of those guys I barely knew stumbled on "Casualties of War." Can we watch something else? I asked. I like this movie, he replied. My voice felt so small all of a sudden. Can we please change the channel? I squeaked. So quiet. So invisible. He didn't hear me. Or maybe he didn't care.
So I bolted. I ran to the beach. My boyfriend found me there, curled up in the sand like a fetal ball...
Rape as metaphor. War as rape. Sean Penn grabbing his crotch, proclaiming "This is a weapon." It seems almost poetic somehow. For a moment it all makes sense. But the truth is not so clean.
In the movie, like in this most recent case of life imitating art, the girl was murdered. And I feel a sense of relief that she is dead. It seems almost merciful. Rape is worse than death. Soul murder.
3 comments:
Mr. Byron,
That you are an apologist for rape and ignorant of all things martial does not surprise me.
Your entire post is based on a fallacious premise. In no branch of the US military are they "trained to kill innocent people." Quite the opposite. They are trained to kill other combatants. Period. Of course what makes Iraq especially difficult, much like in Vietnam, is that it is not so clear who the combatants are.
There is no excuse for what Green and his cohorts did and the line they crossed is far from imaginary. It's clearly spelled out in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. And so they have been prosecuted. I agree that others who have crossed clear lines have skated and the fault for that goes all the way up the chain of command to CINC Bush. Worst Commander in Chief ever, who has done more to degrade the armed services than any President in American history. But I risk repeating myself.
You, Mr. Byron, should learn that it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
Mr. Byron,
Isn't there a class you can take in reading comprehension? Or do you understand perfectly well what you read and actively choose to distort it beyond all recognition. In all seriousness, is this a cognitive problem or do you just get off on saying reckless, inflammatory things to see how far you can push people? I tend to think it's a bit from column a and bit from column b.
At any rate, that last screed is not worth the time or energy it would take to set it straight. You are even more tedious and predictable than I remembered.
There is no substance in your comments to respond to.
As I said before:
If you leave your comments here, I may rebut them, but if memory serves, you are fairly impervious to new information, so I may just ignore them and trust that my readers can parse for themselves.
But as per my recollection of your previous online escapades, you are fact resistant and logic averse. You just make shit up. It is fruitless to engage you. I do not have the time, energy, or inclination to sate your rapacious need for attention.
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