Four U.S. soldiers charged with rape

December 27th, 2005 at 16:48 Björn Hallberg

And guess where they are based? Rape central, with the US Marines in Okinawa of course.

CNN - Philippine prosecutors charged four U.S. Marines on Tuesday with raping a 22-year-old Filipino woman in early November but cleared two other soldiers who had also been accused.

Washington has not responded publicly to an earlier request by the Philippine foreign affairs department to transfer custody of the Marines to local authorities.

Of course, the US never signs agreements that would require them to hand over criminals. And the misogynism as we know is well entrenched in US military culture. Like Adm. Richard C. Macke unwittingly revealed at the time of the infamous 1995 gang-rape of a 12 year old girl in an equally infamous quote: “For the price they [the rape suspects] paid to rent the car, they could have had a girl.” This is the undeniable and the largely untold way of the US military. A way that I would argue is endemic and encouraged by senior commanders in every place that the US base vermin are present.

Oh, and whatever happened to the two marines and the one sailor in the 1995 case? Well, their sentences are up. One is using his time to complain about the conditions in Japanese prison. Apparently “hard labour” was more than he could stomach. Fellow troops think he should shut up. Considering the long standing rumour that a local gangster organization had marked him and his two fellow assailants, he should consider himself lucky. Besides, what could he have expected in the US for the same crime and in terms of prison quality? Would it have been less than a clean and uncrowded prison for 7 years? Like the infamous US prison system is such walk in the park.
The logical course of action would be for the US to disband its cohorts on foreign ground. But specifically, as far as criminal activity is concerned, the US should not demand one-sided security treaties and spirit suspected criminals from local authorities. The defendant should have a choice where to serve his time, but the sentencing should be done according to local customs.

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