“The following interview, conducted with a Turkish former translator in Iraq, offers a revealing glimpse into life with the occupying US troops… The experiences recounted by the young translator, ‘Massoud,’ proved that low morale and the kind of lurid misconduct that have plagued the army since last April’s Abu Ghraib scandal were actually endemic since the war began in March 2003… Having to cope with loneliness, malnutrition and basically captive status inside a heavily-fortified base took its toll. The lack of a bank to dispense funds, in particular, facilitated some of the most lurid events to have transpired at the base — sex and prostitution. ‘On the base, there was a big gymnasium,’ Massoud explained. ‘It could fit about 2,000 people and had many little side rooms on the second level, like for weight rooms or showers, for example. And a lot of the soldiers would use these rooms for sex, with each other or sometimes with translators, of course all against the rules. The shower room was the most popular.’ In fact, he continued, the soldiers’ steadily dwindling stock of cash led some female soldiers even to prostitute themselves. ‘There was this beautiful, 30 year-old woman soldier who I was friends with,’ Massoud recalled. ‘And she would sell herself regularly to the other soldiers — for only $20. I couldn’t believe it.’ When asked if he had ever solicited the woman, the suave, dark-eyed Turk just laughed and said, ‘come on, you think that I had to pay?’” —BalkanAnalysis.com (US)

Ever wonder about the seamy side of life in occupied Iraq? Curious how soldiers seek relief of unbearable urges there in the hot desert? “Massoud” tells us that a tour of duty is apparently different in Iraq than in certain other countries, where local prostitutes follow the troops like swarms of bugs. In Iraq, cultural and religious differences necessitate that troops are mostly confined to socializing with each other. However, that does not stop certain entrepreneurs from capitalizing on the pent-up lusts of a captive audience, and so apparently some women — and maybe some men? — have found a way to supplement their pay. It must be awkward for those soldiers to get a reputation as a hooker with other soldiers, but then again the wages of a tank mechanic probably don’t compare to those of a base whore. And even if the profit motive is lacking, sleeping around probably cuts down on the immense boredom that weirdly makes up too many hours of a life of danger.

Apparently there are some opportunities for soldiers to get their rocks off with the locals, but mostly the linguistic barriers prevent it from happening. Massoud describes how Kurdish women sometimes hang around the perimiter of the military base, looking for husbands and even lovers. When the reporter marvels at this, given the traditional nature of Kurdish society and the unpopularity of the American occupiers, Massoud describes how it’s not inconceivable to sleep with the enemy. “Well, yes, they possibly could have sex with a soldier,” he tells the reporter. Then he adds: “Afterwards they might get to kill him too, of course.”

Which means that those guys who don’t leave base for fun are smart — or maybe lucky — and those people who turn tricks on base are actually saving their comrades’ lives. Maybe they should get a medal for turning tricks.

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