https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtIdtXZ6Ks8
Invasions can be carried out by many noxious forces: bombs, soldiers with weapons, armed police, poisonous smog, polluted waters, bacteria, viruses, etc. We know these things.
But how about sexual traffickers and their customers? Men (almost exclusively) for whom trafficked girls and boys may be little more than dehumanized receptacles for their sexual satisfaction—are they not invaders too?
Human trafficking victims, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services, “often come from countries or communities with high rates of crime, poverty, and corruption; lack opportunities for education; lack family support (e.g., orphaned, runaway/thrown-away, homeless, family members collaborating with traffickers); and/or have a history of physical and/or sexual abuse.” In other words, some of the most vulnerable people in this country and elsewhere, instead of receiving services, are forced into sexual slavery.
Human trafficking, particularly sexual trafficking, began receiving increased media attention following World War II, when Japan’s forcing women and girls to become “Comfort Women”—a practice that has been labeled a war crime—became known. On July 30, 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution calling for Japan to “acknowledge, apologize and accept historical responsibility…for its military’s coercion of women into sexual slavery during the war.”
In the United States today, sexual trafficking flourishes—including in our nation’s capital. Thousands of girls, boys, and women—at least as many as the women forced into sexual slavery in Japan—are raped daily.Do we see a little hypocrisy here?
Billions of our tax dollars are spent on the invasion of other countries in order to benefit the military—industrial complex, but programs and agencies committed to reducing sexual slavery and its aftereffects are woefully underfunded. Are priorities a bit skewed?
Sexual trafficking in the United States is not state-sponsored as it was in Japan, but it is largely tolerated. The powers-that-be seem unable to find ways to make a profit from ending trafficking and are unable to find other reasons to do so. Time to speak up?
