For several hours on July 15, dozens of anti-war activists lined a pedestrian walkway on a bridge over Interstate 5. The protesters were directly outside a gate to the U.S. army base at Ft. Lewis to show solidarity with army specialist Suzanne Swift’s refusal to return to Iraq.
Swift survived one tour in Iraq that left her emotionally and psychologically wounded. Upon returning to this country,
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The horrors of being part of an occupying army in a nation resisting colonial occupation are bad enough. But Swift, like many other women in the military, experienced near constant sexual harassment, brutality and command rape. Command rape is when a commanding officer or Non-Commissioned Officer orders a subordinate to have sex or punishes a subordinate for reporting an assault.
At a press conference during the afternoon, Swift’s mother, Sara Rich, described how her daughter’s struggle was developing into a movement to fight sexual violence inside the U.S. military. Rich told of the flood of e-mails they received after Swift’s story hit the media. Emails poured in from other women who experienced or were still experiencing the same brutality. “I’m not just doing this for my daughter,” Rich said, “I’m doing this for all the young women suffering this abuse.”
B.J. Terry, a vet who came from Austin, Texas to join Swift’s fight, briefly described how she was harassed and hounded out of the army. Terry encouraged people to visit the web site SuzanneSwift.org and sign the on-line petition supporting Swift.
Sexual abuse part of the military machine
While violence against women is pervasive throughout imperialist society, it is endemic within the military—the imperialist killing machine. Soldiers are conditioned to treat “the enemy” as subhuman and use extreme and brutal violence to complete their tasks in war. This intense conditioning affects both those who go to war and those in training. It has led to outbursts of both racist and sexist violence against women outside and within the military.
In addition, sexual abuse and violence against women by military officers is rampant. In 2003, women cadets at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs exposed the overwhelming culture of sexual assault and rape by commanding officers in the barracks. Academy brass refused to recognize that rape was a problem until the story went public.
More brutal is the violence and abuse of women living in an occupied country by the occupying imperialist military power. Rape is a tool of subjugation, punishment against a resisting people and a way of dehumanizing the enemy.
One brutal incident of rape committed by U.S. military personnel in Mahmoudiya, Iraq has been exposed, likely due to the extreme violence it employed. The young victim and her entire family were murdered. Rape as a weapon against occupied people, although not officially sanctioned, is certainly ignored. Even the horrific events in Mahmoudiya were hushed up by the army for as long as possible.
Suzanne Swift refuses to return to an army of occupation and the conditions it imposes. Her courageous stand is inspiring other women to come forward to tell their stories and demand justice. Swift’s mother and supporters are encouraging all women and men to fight sexual abuse, the U.S military that hones it into a weapon and to stop the war.
