I recently met a writer of some repute who had been in the army during the first Gulf War. We got to talking about the film and he was moved to share some of his own prostitute experiences. He told me that the U.S. military provides prostitutes for its troops, and that the prostitutes in question are paid for with tax dollars.
I had never heard of such a thing, but then again, I don't know a lot of people in the military. Still, I was shocked to hear it. It's one thing for the U.S. government to tolerate American soldiers having sex with prostitutes, it's quite another thing for the U.S. government to actually pay for it.
I couldn't help thinking of the far right's perpetual attempts to cut arts funding in this country, and their insistence that the arts should be funded exclusively by private philanthropic organizations. In that case, perhaps the far right should set up private philanthropic organizations to provide complimentary hookers to our military personnel as well.
posted by Caveh Zahedi at
11:30 AM
