THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 26, 1995 TAG: 9511240168
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANN G. SJOERDSMA
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
My blood has been boiling since I read about the Sept. 4 abduction, beating and rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan schoolgirl allegedly by three ``ugly American'' servicemen stationed on the Japanese island. I feel deeply for this child and am outraged by the cause of her trauma.
But my blood boiled over when the then-commander of all U.S. forces in the Pacific suggested that this despicable crime, which the accused Navy seaman and two marines admitted in a Okinawan court Nov. 7, could have been avoided had the men paid a prostitute for sex instead.
Speaking of the rape, Adm. Richard C. Macke told reporters in Washington Nov. 17, ``I think it was absolutely stupid.'' Then he added: ``I've said several times, for the price they paid to rent the car, they could have had a girl.''
What a disgrace. Despite decades in command of thousands of young men, this top-ranking military official does not understand the difference between rape and sex. Rape is committed by criminals. It is deviant behavior. Character defects that lead a man, or three men in conspiracy, to rape a woman far surpass mere stupidity.
Dispatched immediately into early retirement by the White House and Pentagon, sensitive to already strained U.S.-Japanese relations, Macke later attributed his comment to ``my frustration over the stupidity of this heinous and incomprehensible crime.''
Heinous, yes. Incomprehensible, no. The admiral's lack of insight is beyond appalling. Just how indicative it is of other military leaders' attitudes is another matter. Any criminologist could tell him that rape is a crime of anger and hostility, and an assertion of power by a sexually inadequate man. It's about psychopathological control and domination. There are no ``wild oats'' being sown here, just lifetime damage being inflicted. Why is this so difficult to understand?
Consider the facts of this case. According to Japanese prosecutors: Navy Seaman Marcus D. Gill, 22, Marine Pfc. Rodrico Harp, 21, and Marine Pfc. Kendrick M. Ledet, 20, and a fourth serviceman, who later backed out and informed authorities, premeditated a random-victim gang rape. They purchased condoms and duct tape, then went cruising for a girl, spotting the 12-year-old victim around 8 p.m. in front of a stationery shop where she had just purchased a notebook.
Harp and Ledet overpowered the sixth-grader from in front and behind - Harp hitting her in the face - and threw her in the back seat of their rented car. As Gill, the gang leader, drove, they taped the girl's mouth, eyes, wrists and ankles, thus silencing and restricting her. She became a nonperson.
The three men drove down a remote farm road and stopped in a sugar cane field, where Gill hit the girl in the face and raped her. The Navy hospital corpsman and former high school football star from Woodville, Texas, admitted guilt at the Nov. 7 hearing. Ledet, of Waycross, Ga., confessed that he attempted to rape the girl but could not. Harp, a married father of two children from Griffin, Ga., said he beat the 12-year-old, but now denies raping her, which he earlier confessed.
There is evidence to suggest that Harp and Ledet desisted once they saw how thin and young the girl was. Once she became a real person to them, in other words.
Certainly these servicemen could have paid a prostitute, but sex was not what they were after. They wanted to brutalize a vulnerable, anonymous woman. (Their victim received two weeks of medical treatment.) Look into their backgrounds and I guarantee that the seeds of their violence will be found.
Tens of thousands of Okinawans have taken to the streets, calling for punishment of the rapists and a reduction of the U.S. bases, which occupy 20 percent of the main island. They claim that U.S. soldiers possess an arrogant ``occupational mentality'' and threaten the sanctity of life on Okinawa, which the United States returned to Japan in 1972.
But it is important to remember that this case is not about Japanese-American relations or global security or sex or race - the three defendants are black. It is about rape. The hideous facts, underplayed by all but the major U.S. newspapers, tell a story of criminality. This must be kept in focus.
Unlike Macke, I am not frustrated. I'm furious. Not only has a young girl's life been shattered, but too many people still wonder, just like the admiral did, why the three servicemen didn't pay for sex.
Why? Because they're rapists. They sought to control and dehumanize a female. If there are any more like them in the U.S. military, they need to be expunged. There has been enough blood, enough protest. Rape is a lot more than just stupid. MEMO: Ann G. Sjoerdsma is a lawyer and the book editor of The
Virginian-Pilot. by CNB