Deveselu, a link in the global network of US military bases and networks for the sexual exploitation of women, alcohol and drug trafficking

Deveselu is a small Romanian village, with about 3000 inhabitants, unknown to most Romanians until the installation here, on the place of a former Romanian military base, of a US military missile base, which US and Romanian officials claim is a missile shield.(In fact, as the equipements technical book discloses, the installations hosted there can be in few hours modified to become offensive and not defensive.) Thanks to Americans, the city has become known in Romania and even in the world.

A second reason for Deveselu is now known, probably by all Romanians and by an increased number of foreigners, are the three months ago events, still not yet elucidated, known as the „Caracal Crimes” (after the town where the alleged victims came from); namely, the disappearance — killing or kidnapping by prostitution rings and transportation to another country — of Alexandra Măceşanu (16 years) and Luiza Melencu (19 years).The introduction of Deveselu in the equation of these tragic events is, of course, due again to the American base, whose staff enjoys the services of local prostitution networks. On this occasion, the media also recalled that in 2012, a network of prostitution that provided minor to the Americans who were working in Deveselu and to some Austrians who were working on a hydropower planthad been destroyed. The victims of that network were more than 30 high school students.

Ther global network of american military bases

To avoid being accused of hypocrisy, I declare at the beginning of this text that I do not assume that prostitution around military units would have been invented by the US. On the contrary, especially for those who do not know such details of military history well enough, I must remember that women have had constant participation in and alongside military formations, whether in peace or war.I mention, first of all, with respect and admiration, the women who have dealt with military laundry, kitchens and hospitals, those who have taken the place of mothers for the too young men who have been at war, who have cared with love and dedicationthe injured, the dying man, those who were mentally affected by the horiffic reality of war.But I must also remember the prostitutes accompanying military units, as well as those from the places where the soldiers arrived and who were interacting with soldiers who did not know whether the next day would still be alive. We must also remember that, in or near all cities where military units were, there was always a higher percentage of women who are forced by trafficking networks to prostitute themselves or choose to live from prostitution.

During and after World War II, the US has been infested the world with their military bases, thus demonstrating its claims of global Imperial power.The aim: to control the modial economy and financial markets and to take over natural resources (primary and non-renewable resources). Various analyzes are talking about America’s control over nearly 200 States; in reality, as we see at this point, American control, by combining the levers of the military and financial systems, imposes on all States some of its policies – see sanctions for various but empty reasons. Including China and Russia, which have not yet completed the financial and monetary mechanisms independant of those imposed by the global financial and banking mafia through its armed arm, the US. Such a combination of the three strands of force of the American imperialist policy can be seen in combining sanctions and military intimidation against Iran; in the so-called trade war with China and military presence in the South China Sea;in combining sanctions/trade war with Russia and China and the around 500 US military bases, encircling the two; in supporting Islamist insurgents in the former Soviet republics and Uighur Islamists in China, or in internal destabilization by financing and instrumentalizing the street uprising and then by threatening with other sanctions.

If there is something to be discussed, a serious reality, on the one hand incompatible with the current times and ambitions, on the other hand showing overwhelming contempt for their fellow human beings, is premeditating, unscrupulous acceptance, involvement in and even coordination, from the highest levels of the us authorities, of prostitution around military concentrations, be they units ready to fight, or so-called R&R resorts (rest and recreation) dedicated to stress relieving of troops.There are not few cases where senior US military officers have entered directly into this business.

A huge wave of rapes and other sexual assaults in the US military itself

To better understand what is going on around American bases let’s see a little what is going on inside them.

“In recent years, allegations of widespread sex crimes have dogged the U.S. military.  A Pentagon survey estimated that 26,000 members of the armed forces were sexually assaulted in 2012, though just one in 10 of those victims reported the assaults.  In 2013, the number of personnel reporting such incidents jumped by 50% to 5,518 and last year reached nearly 6,000.  Given the gross underreporting of sexual assaults, it’s impossible to know how many of these crimes involved AFRICOM personnel, but documents examined by TomDispatch suggests a problem does indeed exist.”(popularmilitary.com/u-s-militarys-long-history-prostitution/)

„Sexual assaults across the US military increased by a rate of nearly 38% in 2018, according to a report released by the Pentagon on Thursday.”

„The report which surveyed both men and women from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines estimated that 20,500 members of those services experienced unwanted sexual contact in 2018, a significant increase from 14,900 when the military last conducted a similar survey in 2016.”

„According to the report, sexual assault rates for women in the active duty force increased significantly, with women between the ages of 17 to 24 being at the highest risk of sexual assault. The rates for men in the active duty force remained steady from the previous report in 2016.”

„The report also found the Marine Corps had the highest rate of estimated sexual assaults at nearly 11%, up from 7% in 2016, followed by the Navy, Army and Air Force respectively. Those services also had increases in their estimated rates of assaults.”

„62% of the most serious sexual assaults involved alcohol use by the victim and/or the alleged offender, and the vast majority of victims knew their assailant, the report said.”

(https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/02/politics/us-military-sexual-assault-report/index.html).

If, year after year, tens of thousands of US Army members (women, but also men) are sexually assaulted what we can expect from American soldiers, who arrived in the position of almost intangible characters, superior descent from a superior civilization, with huge revenues compared to the local residents in the states where these bases are located?

Conscious, continuous and premeditated degradation of women

The US military and civil authorities have always seen as normal and promoted prostitution alongside military bases.

„The US military authorities have tended toward the idea that prostitution provides a useful way for soldiers stationed thousands of miles from wives or girlfriends to let off steam. The welfare of the women providing these rest and recreational opportunities is rarely of concern: prostitution around bases and ports used by US navy ships in the Philippines and Thailand fuels the trafficking of women throughout south-east Asia, while living conditions and standards of health amongst sex workers are often low.”

„In the post-war period, including after the Battle of Okinawa and during the Korean War, the whole of Okinawa turned into a land without law. US soldiers raped women, threatening them at gunpoint in crop fields and on the streets, and even abducting them in front of their families.”

“Okinawa reverted to Japanese administration in 1972 but the violence continued, and even became more chronic. There were a number of rapes and attempted rapes, as well as sexual abuse in public areas and even a case where a private house was invaded.” (Sex-crimes-and-prostitution)

“Commercial sex zones have developed around U.S. bases worldwide. Many look much the same, filled with liquor stores, fast-food outlets, tattoo parlors, bars and clubs, and prostitution in one form or another. The evidence is just outside the gates in places such as Baumholder and Kaiserslautern in Germany, and Kadena and Kin Town on Okinawa. Even during the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, there have been multiple reports of brothels and sex trafficking involving U.S. troops and contractors.” (Womens-labor-sex-work-and-u-s-military-bases-abroad/)

“Military brothels on Army base camps (Sin Cities, Disneylands, or boomboom parlors) were built by decisions of a division commander, a two-star general, and were under the direct operational control of a brigade commander with the rank of colonel. Clearly, Army brothels in Vietnam existed by the grace of Army Chief of Staff William C. Westmorland, the United States Embassy in Saigon, and the Pentagon.”

“During the war in Indochina, U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright and Sunday Times of London correspondent Murray Sayle maintained, independently of one another, that U.S. forces in South Vietnam had turned Saigon into a brothel -a reference to the estimated 500,000 Vietnamese prostitutes who served an approximately equal number of GI’s.  The frequency of references to brothels in soldiers’ memoirs, as well as certain criticisms brought to bear against the war by some of its opponents, suggests the ease with which American troops could procure prostitutes during the war. On 4 April 1968 – exactly one year before he was assassinated – Martin Luther King decried a situation in Vietnam wherein children were compelled to [sell] their sisters to our soldiers. We have corrupted their [Vietnamese] women and children…, said King. What liberators! Furthermore, while the thriving sex industry that existed in (for example) Honolulu during the Second World War went into rapid decline after American troops went home, and while at least one authority in Korean history maintains that South Korea’s brothel-centered camp towns would vanish were American troops to leave the Korean peninsula, the ongoing legacy of the U.S. military’s support of prostitution in Southeast Asia appears to be very great– the Americans’ own large-scale departure from Southeast Asia in the early 1970s notwithstanding.” (The U.S. Military and the Growth of Prostitution in Southeast Asia)

“This Note addresses the disconnect between United States law, public policy, and the military’s encouragement of the prostitution of women for use by soldiers stationed abroad. Both domestic and international laws recognize prostitution as harmful and have enacted policies that attempt to eradicate, control, or limit it. The United States, however, consistently allows and encourages the development of an active sex industry for military Rest & Recreation (R&R) and in areas surrounding U.S. military bases. This behavior violates not only domestic and international law, but also fundamental notions of human dignity and infrastructures of family support.”

“The development of the sex industry surrounding U.S. military bases abroad appears to differ both in scope and institutional acceptance depending upon the permanency of the base. While brothels, massage parlors, and an array of businesses selling women for sex developed and were accepted surrounding bases in the Philippines, it appears soldiers at war did not have this portable perk in measurable scale until Vietnam. General George S. Patton is credited with the desire to experiment with military brothels. He reportedly aborted this idea after realizing the war effort could be hurt by the uproar it would create with women back in the States. But by the end of the Vietnam War, this practice was in full swing. Military brothels grew from the desire to keep the enlisted men happy, analogizing sex to movies, laundry service, and other necessary luxury items.”

“In Vietnam, the brothels erected on Army base camps, were built by decision of a division commander, a two-star general, and were under the direct operational control of a brigade commander with the rank of colonel …. Army brothels in Vietnam existed by the grace of Army Chief of Staff William C. Westmoreland, the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, and the Pentagon. While higher-ranking officials may not have explicitly authorized sexindustry establishments, without their implied consent these establishments would simply not exist.” (Emily Nyen Chang:  Engagement Abroad: Enlisted Men, U.S. MilitaryPolicy and the Sex Industry )

“In the last years of the twentieth century the growth of prostitution in Southeast Asia received considerable attention from journalists, human rights activists, feminists (including Hillary Rodham Clinton), political commentators, and Pope John Paul II. While the bulk of this attention focused on contemporary events and concerns–e.g. child prostitution and the spread of AIDS–the U.S. military’s historic role in laying the foundation for the Asian sex industry was frequently noted. The International Labor Organization, for instance, maintained that [by] far the most significant impact on prostitution in the Philippines was the establishment of United States military bases in the country.”

Source - FLUX