Tucker Carlson, former Fox News personality and now podcast provocateur, set the MAGA world ablaze last week when he suggested that “unconditional surrender,” the benchmark for victory over Iran laid out by President Donald Trump, means the military is given permission to rape women in the war zone.
“Unconditional surrender means foreign troops get to rape your wife and daughter if they want — and everyone knows that,” he stated in an interview on another podcast.
No, everyone does not know that, nor do we even want to consider that our men — sons and brothers and fathers, the beloved U.S. military, would ever do something so horrific, so evil as to violate innocent women and girls in war.
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Former and current military are rightly outraged by his comments. Political leaders and pundits have condemned his words.
Carlson is opposed to the U.S. attack on Iran and the conflict that has ensued, calling it “absolutely disgusting and evil.” With these latest comments, his fallout with Trump will likely be complete. Trump said in an interview with ABC’s Jonathan Karl that Carlson “has lost his way… he is not MAGA… and Tucker is really not smart enough to understand that.”
What Carlson clearly understands is how to get attention. The more outrageous the comments, the more clicks and views and cash in his pocket. And, for him, more power, more influence and ability to manipulate minds.
Of course, Carlson misses the point that we do not have troops on the ground in Iran who would conduct these depraved attacks on “your wife and daughter.”
He also may not be smart enough to understand that the “atavistic instinct” of raping the conquered enemy is outlawed in the United States and by global institutions.
The War Crimes Act of 1996 specifies that rape in wartime is punishable by death or imprisonment. In fact, long before this law was passed, military leaders were taking steps to stop this heinous activity if and when it occurred. In World War II, the U.S. military executed 29 men for raping women in France during the liberation of Europe. More than 100 others were prosecuted.
The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1820 in 2008, stating that “rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or a constitutive act with respect to genocide.”
Unfortunately, these crimes against humanity, against women and girls, tragically continue to take place in war-torn parts of the world with little repercussions.
A report by U.N. Women indicates “between 250,000 and 500,000 women and girls were raped in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, more than 60,000 in the civil war in Sierra Leone, between 20,000 and 50,000 in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and at least 200,000 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1996.”
Using sexual violence as a tactic in war is meant to terrorize and humiliate the enemy. The psychological trauma from the attacks affects not just the victims but their families and communities in which they live to weaken the will of the enemy. Committing these acts following the surrender of a foe is anathema to the code of military conduct.
The United Nations Human Rights Commission found that in its war on Ukraine, Russia has committed crimes against humanity of torture and sexual violence on women as old as 80 and girls as young as 4 years old.
A report by the commission found: “Sexual violence has affected victims of all ages. Victims, including children, were sometimes forced to witness the crimes. Children have become the victims of the full spectrum of violations investigated by the Commission, including indiscriminate attacks, torture and rape, and have suffered the predictable psychological consequences.”
It’s hard to understand how a man can ever justify torturing and raping innocent children, even in war.
Then there are terrorists who have no regard for life or respect for human dignity and worth.
“Clear patterns emerged including victims found partially or fully naked with their hands tied… evidence of gang rapes followed by execution, and genital mutilation,” according to a report by the Dinah Project, a group studying conflict-related sexual violence by Iran-backed Hamas terrorists on Israeli women on Oct. 7, 2023.
Breasts were cut off, women were shot in the groin, and after brutally raping them, some in front of their children and husbands, the terrorists left them to die naked and violated, according to the report.
Are American troops capable of committing such heinous acts? We hope not. We pray our men and women in uniform act heroically and honorably on the battlefield.
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Most Americans will never serve in the military; we don’t know the horrific death and destruction that are witnessed in battle, the psychological trauma, and its impact on soldiers. But nothing can ever excuse brutality toward women during wartime.
Are those who don a uniform saints? Are all U.S. military heroes? No, but the notion that our troops will fall back on some antiquated idea that ravaging women is a part of conquering an enemy is ludicrous and will not be tolerated by anyone, especially current U.S. military leaders.
Diana L. Banister is a political and communications strategist, a former Trump administration official and an Independent Women Visiting Fellow.
