ROVE'S RHETORIC RULZ

"We have received reports of incidents of rape, gang rape, molestation and physical abuse of women and girls in the course of unsupervised rescue operations and while resident in temporary shelters," the Women and Media Collective group in Sri Lanka said.

Rape brings stigma and shame to the victim rather than the rapist. One report tells of the gang-rape of a 17-year-old girl in the area of Galle on the southern coast, not in a refugee center. Hours after being washed ashore and left orphaned and homeless, she was raped by six men. "In the aftermath of displacement and shock you do see an increase of abuse and violence against women and children," http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/1/2/latest/20521Childrenf&sec=latest http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=40290

This story, which is widely reported in Asia and Europe, has been hardly noticed by USA media. Actually, we do not find that strange given our media's response or rather lack of response to rapes of our service women.

Just the nearly continuous rape scandals in the Air Force Academy should be enough to stir a tsunami of mass media comment. Blogs, where are you? Certainly there have been enough reports of the rapes but where is the outrage, the punishment? http://afa.gazette.com/

There is no doubt that the so-called men of the Academy do not want women in their ranks. It seems that Rummy (Defense Sec Donald Rumsfeld) and the brass boys commanding our military do a lot of posturing and blathering but the rapes just continue. Perhaps the whole Air "Farce" investigation is just resting comfortably alongside the reports of rape of service women in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. http://www.denverpost.com/cda/article/print/0,1674,36~6439~1913069,00.html

There have been 112 reports of sexual misconduct over roughly the past 18 months in the Central Command area of operations, which includes Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, military officials said on Wednesday. The Army has reported 86. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20710FB38580C758EDDAB0894DC404482

War or peace, catastrophe or good times, rape is always on the menu. A stern lecture, a wink and a nod, and rape is still the entertainment du jour for military males. Small wonder Abu Grieb torture flourished -- lots of practice and an ally-ally-oxen-free from the ranks.

Many of the talking heads on most of the talk/news shows, who take their opinions from Karl Rove, have concluded that "The Women's Movement is over." They claim that women had just one issue -- abortion.

They further conclude, erroneously, that the majority of the country is against choice. Republicans have so framed the issue and the language that to favor choice is to be for killing babies.

Rove framed the abortion issue as he framed the Swift boat story using words and descriptions that made mute any opposition or truth. Now his minions are declaring the Woman's Movement has been aborted because now everyone is against choice.

If women are to make any kind of an argument they must choose their words better and present a united front to the media. Surely women must insist that rape is an issue important to both women and men, but they must first define the terms and carry the argument.

Rape is a crime. Abortion is legal. One is a choice; the other is coercion - forced. What part of this is hard to understand?

How much longer will women let Rove define and judge their issues and condemn their movement? How much longer will the Democratic Party kow tow to him instead of fighting back with definitions of their words and issues?

gapperserve@peoplepc.com

2005-002

Copyright 2005 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: gapperserve@peoplepc.com.