Do the US troops in Iraq have access to prostitutes?

Answer 1

Wherever there are troops, there will always be people who will trade sex for money or other favors.

Answer 2

Before the invasion, Iraq was one of the world's most tightly controlled societies. Only a few specially licensed stores could sell alcohol, and in recent years drinking was banned outright in restaurants and hotels. A committee in the Ministry of Culture kept a strict watch against even mildly naughty movies, magazines and films. Convicted prostitutes could be beheaded. Hard-core drug abuse was virtually unknown--if you didn't count certain members of Saddam's immediate family and their close friends. Now Iraqis like Ali are making up for what they've missed--and many other Iraqis, young and old, are blaming America. "Some people say the spread of such things is designed to weaken our society," says Col. Daoud Selman, a police chief in one of Baghdad's roughest districts. "Every day we hear it from people on the street. Not just the religious people, but ordinary ones, too."

Iraqis call it "the bad side of freedom." The problems go far beyond Baghdad's tailgate liquor bazaars, where wildcat shopkeepers peddle booze from the backs of cars, or the arrays of skin magazines on full display at the teeming Bab-i-Sharji market in the heart of town. The worry isn't only the growing number of visibly intoxicated people around the market, or the pharmacopeia of pills that are readily available there without prescription. What bothers many Iraqis, apparently even some of those who make their living from the sin industry, is the question of where Iraq is headed.

Walk down the street from the market to the adult cinemas, where 70 cents buys an all-day ticket and the audience hoots in protest if a nonpornographic trailer interrupts the action. "We have to compete with the satellites," says the manager of one theater, almost apologetically. A third of the country's population is estimated to have access to pornographic TV channels via satellite dish. For those who don't, enterprising dealers record the footage on videodiscs and sell them for a pittance. "Under Saddam this would have been an automatic six months in jail," says a vendor who keeps ultra-X wares in a drawer for special customers at his video shop in Baghdad's Karada district. "Now nothing will happen to us."

Answer 3

I am sure they do, but most likely they are not locals/Iraqis. Remember there are a lot of civilian contractors over there, including women, and not just from the US. They might be prostituting on the side. Also I have seen 2 female Marines get busted for running prostitution out of their barracks room in Okinawa early 90's. It happens, like some poster's have said.... they follow armies around one way or another. And it is Illegal under military law for US soldiers, just like US civilians in our country to take part in those activities.

Answer 4

Well, I served in Bosnia and Kosovo. There were plenty of prostitutes there and i"m sure there are fewer but probably some in Iraq. WHen i was in the army all of the NCO's went to whorehouses with enlisted. So really the one female soldier said the rules are strict, but they are overlooked in reality. When your platoon sgt. is going to the whore house with you....your good to go. My guess is that there are some prostitutes but not as many for fear of being killed by the militias.

Answer 5

My guess is yes.

Few if any options for an Iraqi woman to earn money and the truly desperate may turn to such if nothing else is available.

Beside, in the first Gulf War, we were drinking alcohol like there was no tomorrow...a few bucks and a Navy Quartermaster were all we needed.

You would be truly impressed with what some of those guys could deliver.

Answer 6

Not legally or officially. However, wherever you have a large group of men stationed amongst a population of women that is living on a lower economic scale you will have prostitution.

I'm not talking morality, just reality.

Answer 7

probably, prostitution has historically followed troops wherever they went. Roman Legions even made places for them in their encampments

Answer 8

Old Turkish proverb:
Women for procreation
Boys for pleasure
Mellons for sheer ecstasy.

Answer 9

Oh yeah, the Iraqi women are more than ready for a little tango....from one thats in the know!

Answer 10

I wish. Maybe then they'd stop rubbing their boners on me in the chow line and pretending like it was an accident!