posted about this yesterday. one of my 'other sons' wants out because he's sick of the rape culture in the marines. there's a lot of talk about the guys raping women back home, bragging it up amongst each other. lots of other crap, but it all makes him sick and he wants out. he said it all came to a head, of course, because the rumor's been that they're all gearing up for bombing Iran. I dismissed it at the time as hype, that was two weeks aog, but there was a small part of me that said, "figures."
these guys are swilling grape juice and sterno cocktails like frat buys drink beer at a Daytona Beach chug fest.
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I'd take the rumours about the bombing of Iran seriously. When I was "in" in '63-'64, the scuttlebutt was that we were going to be sent into a war in Vietnam soon. At the time, I suspected bravado, but now I think that somehow these messages get gossiped down to the grunts--a kind of trickle down theory of command before the big push. Okay, so I know that there were already some American troops there, mostly Army Special Forces back in the early 60s. But it wasn't long before the Hawk missles went to Danang and the 3rd Marine Divisiion, based on Okinawa followed them en masse. That was '65.
As for the sterno cocktails, perfectly believable in an alcohol restricted area like Iraq. I remember guys on Okinawa blowing gas tanks on trucks because they were restricted to base i.e. no liberty chits.
Prostitution will be a big anti-American factor with the locals in Iraq as well with all the incumbant s&m verbiage about "towelheads" and the physical abuse which will occur in the wake of this mindset. News of this will have reached Iran by now. Rapes, don't discount them. They won't be officially sanctioned, but neither will the self-segregated areas of prostitution around the various "permanent" bases which are now being constructed and occupied in Iraq or the ones long established in various parts of the Empire.
Best from a guy who wanted out of 'the crotch' from the get-go, Mike B)
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