War
and Rape, two of the most terrible acts in the history of mankind. Both can destroy a man or woman mentally,
physically, or both. Rape happens with
or without a war happening, but it seems that the amount of rapes go up in countries
that are in a war zone. Now this does
not come as a surprise to most people, especially if a country is being invaded. Apparently, to the men of the invading
country, the women of the country they are invading become theirs. Sadly, this is just something that
happens. Rape has been happening for a
long, long time. Humans are inherently evil,
and war seems to bring that part of us out the worst.
Before
we get into war/rape facts, let’s learn about rape in general. To just put things into perspective, 13
percent of women in America 18 and older have reported that they have been
raped.[1] As of December 2013, there were a total of
161 million women in America[2],
if we do the math, 13 percent of that number is 20,930,000. Those of you who were thinking that 13
percent was not that much, what do you think now? This is a problem that people do not seem to
notice. We always talk about the murder
rate of a city, but what about the amount of rapes that occur within a city’s
borders? The following quote epitomizes
the reason why rape is going more and more unnoticed.
This is exactly right, and sadly it does not look like anytime soon people will really understand what rape is. |
Now you may have been surprised at the amount of rape
that takes place in America, a country that is not in a war zone. A country that is “the place to be”, the most
powerful country in the world, and we cannot reduce these high amounts of rape.
Rape and war are two evils, but in many ways rape is
worse. War, it is a situation where
people lose their lives, and yes rape always comes with war. But there is something that sets rape apart
from war. You do not need a war for rape
to occur. This fact sets rape apart from
war because it is an always ongoing problem.
War has always been around, and with it rape. So much so that after the fall of the Roman
Empire, Saint Augustine declared that rape during wartime is an ancient, and
customary evil. The fall of the Roman
Empire took place 14 centuries ago.[4]
Now another excuse people make about rape is that it is
just done by the “bad guys” during a war. An example is the Axis Forces during
the Second World War, but this a misunderstanding. During World War Two, the Soviet Army (Red
Army) raped 100,000 to 2,000,000 people during their invasion of Germany.[5] The Soviet Army was a part of the allied
forces. If you do not know who was in
the allied forces, it was the United States, Great Britain, and the USSR. This side was considered the good side, yet
the USSR raped that many people. Sadly,
the United States Army may have also raped their fair share of people during
the war, I just could not find any specific details on them.
You
may say that there is no hope, that rape will always happen in war, but this is
not true. In fact, during El Salvador’s
civil war, rape was rather rare. If rape
did occur it actually involved state forces, not the rebels. The reason for this was that the rebels were
relying on the civilians for valuable information about the ruling
government. Why would they rape the very
people that they rely on?
Though
in some wars rape was absent, it was used as a weapon in some. In a war conflict involving Bosnia, Darfur,
and Rwanda, many women were herded into “rape-camps”. Here they were raped multiple times, mainly by
multiple men, until death. During this
war, rape was used as a genocide weapon.[6]
Sadly, rape remains prevalent with or without war, but it
always seems to flare up when war is around.
Though rape will never truly be gone, due to the sin nature of man, we
can surely do our best to make rape less prevalent in the world of today.
-Nathan Brown
-Nathan Brown
[1] Thornhill, Randy, and Craig Palmer T. The
New York Times, "A Natural History of Rape." Last modified Jan 2000.
Accessed February 28, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/t/thornhill-rape.html.
[2] United States Census , "Women by the
Numbers." Last modified Dec 2013. Accessed February 28, 2014.
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/womencensus1.html.
[3]Thornhill, Randy, and Craig Palmer T. The
New York Times, "A Natural History of Rape." Last modified Jan 2000.
Accessed February 28, 2014.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/t/thornhill-rape.html.
[4] The Economist, . "War's overlooked
victims." Last modified Feb 3, 2011. Accessed February 28, 2014.
http://www.economist.com/node/17900482.
[5] The Economist, . "War's overlooked
victims." Last modified Feb 3, 2011. Accessed February 28, 2014.
http://www.economist.com/node/17900482.
[6]The Economist, . "War's overlooked
victims." Last modified Feb 3, 2011. Accessed February 28, 2014.
http://www.economist.com/node/17900482.
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