"This Thing"

CNN:

The women are too afraid and ashamed to show their faces or have their real names used. They have been driven to sell their bodies to put food on the table for their children -- for as little as $8 a day. "People shouldn't criticize women, or talk badly about them," says 37-year-old Suha as she adjusts the light colored scarf she wears these days to avoid extremists who insist women cover themselves. "They all say we have lost our way, but they never ask why we had to take this path." A mother of three, she wears light makeup, a gold pendant of Iraq around her neck, and an unexpected air of elegance about her. "I don't have money to take my kid to the doctor. I have to do anything that I can to preserve my child, because I am a mother," she says, explaining why she prostitutes herself. Prostitution is a choice more and more Iraqi women are making just to survive. "It's increasing," Suha says. "I found this 'thing' through my friend, and I have another friend in the same predicament as mine. Because of the circumstance, she is forced to do such things." Violence, increased cost of living, and lack of any sort of government aid leave women like these with few other options, according to humanitarian workers. Suha says as a young girl she dreamed of being a doctor, with her mom boasting about her potential in that career. Life couldn't have taken her further from that dream. "It's not like we were born into this, nor was it ever in my blood," she says. What she does for her family to survive now eats away at her. "I lay on my pillow and my brain is spinning, and it all comes back to me as if I am watching a movie."

Wondering about those on the other side of this situation? Here's something called the "International Sex Guide." It features reports from men who have visited prostitutes in various countries. Yes, there's an "Iraq" section. The most recent post, from today, links to the above report and asks "Can someone give us a trip report? thanks!" Some past posts (note: don't read further if easily offended):

• Heading over there myself in a week or two and am 50 / 50 on local action. Have been defense contracting for years (Egypt / Jordan / Yugo / Germany / Italy / Hungary) ... never had an issue finding good quality locals for dirt cheap.
  
  
• Probably the easiest way to identify is by the make up, a house that has about 4 or 5 ladies that all look different, and only one man in the house. There may even be small children in the apartment.
  
  
• Outside the IZ you can get a girl for the evening for $25 you can also be unceremoniously beheaded for free. Many Iraqi women are gorgeous, and, since there is nothing that really resembles a functional economy, some of them are up for screwing to support themselves and their five kids. I ended up getting some girls from an Iraqi security contactor. Some business people who live outside of the wire have gotten contacts from the hotel staff where they reside. That being said, Ali Babba is the word of the day and most people are simply blowing smoke when they say they can get you a girl—especially within the IZ. I was EXTREAMLY stupid, LUCKY, and DRUNK one nite when I took a taxi around downtown Baghdad looking for women. I met a pimp and he took me to a house where I banged 3 girls for 60 bucks until I heard morning prayers.
  
  
• How do the Iraqi womens' pussies smell? One imagines they are not fresh. Or is one wrong?
  
  
• I believe that Islam stresses cleanliness and dictates washing multiple times a day; however, in many parts of Iraq, including sections in Baghdad, running water is a luxury and the girls can't always wash themselves as much as someone who wears a long heavy black dress in 120+degree weather should. In my case, before we were intimate she would always wash and perfume herself.
  
  
• Its not that they don't wash or bathe, its that they have a difficult time cleaning their clothes. Imagine wearing the same pair (or two) of dirty under garments in the hot sun all day every day, washing them in dirty water with minimal soap, the wearing them again. Its not so much the women themselves are dirty, its the close. Have noticed this with poor folk everywhere. Seem it with Syrian women, chinese peasents, Bosnia girls in moutain villages. Laundry just isn't a neccessity and the stench often rubs off. Just wrap it, don't go down on it, or have them shower first. Non issue.
  
  
• There is at least one brothel in the IZ by the NEC in the tan colored apartment complexes. I paid $100 last night for a 6-7 24 yo widow. The only caveat is that you need to have a place where the girls can spend the night. The place isn't really an in-house operation, but rather is like a cat-house where girls from outside the IZ come to meet potential clients.
  
  
• Well done Dirk. If she's good-looking and speaks English, you've found a keeper. As one of many young widows in Iraq, she's doing this out of necessity and not for a lifestyle, so you know what she wants (the "R" word). Could be a good two-way thing. Also, Iraqi women are usually pretty hot when they're young. Keep us posted.
  
  
• You are a fortunate man to find ass here in the IZ so quickly. I live here and it took me 4 months to get my connections. We have a PSD team contact who brings us these Iraqi cuties but dangerous it is.
  
  
• It seems the tide is against me and they are sending some units back to Iraq together with yours truly. I just want to gauge if GZ or around the area has changed since 03. Want to know the monger scene if GI's can still get plenty of poontang since we are always on a lockdown mode.
  
  
• I don't think that one could obtain entrance to the cat-house that I found without being accompanied by an Iraqi who is close to the owner--I think the guy who owns the place is the brother of my driver. I tried to go back solo and the IP would not let me in the complex. I may have been lucky by finding some whores but I sure as hell was not three days ago when my convoy was shot up. This place is not for me--no matter how many hazard, post, and 6th day bumps I get. My first foray out into the Red Zone—or the National Zone as it’s now called —will be my last. Good luck to all you men that remain.
  
  
• Damn the IED's, anal sex with Persian girls makes it worth it.

Scenario: China invades the U.S. on a false pretense. As society collapses during the botched occupation, Chinese troops and civilian contractors post excitedly on the internet, speculating about our various religions and the implications for personal hygiene and trading tips about all the desperate, formerly middle-class American women they've bagged for a few bucks a pop. You'd react how, exactly?

Anyone want to argue that our national soul, or what's left of it, can endure another five or ten years of this?