Welcome to the Jungle

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article;jsessionid=99B18CE92B6F5CD1D42398B32518464D.w6?a=140740&f=19

The first thing that struck me about this article on the legal black hole for contractors in Iraq is that one of the rape victims could have been my girlfriend and the other could have been my mother.

Rape and sexual haressament are never ok. That said, when you put 1800000 people in a distant, high stress, testosterone charged foreign country with low levels of supervision, a culture of impugnity, dollar driven management, and 25 men for each woman innevitable is too weak a word.

I don't have any answers to the problem. Maybe women shouldn't be in Iraq? Maybe we need to jack up the liability for both the assailants and their bosses? Maybe more gender parity in the work force would help right some of the off kilter norms that enable this mess? Maybe there needs to be greater psychological oversight for employees in war zones?

Regardless, I hope Senator Nelson can help open peoples eyes to this mess and start to figure out some solutions.