It was twenty-five years ago nearly to the day, following the tragic early September 1995 rape of an Okinawan school girl in Kin Village, Okinawa Prefecture, by three U.S. servicemen ¡ª two Marines and a Navy medic ¡ª that the Commander-in-Chief U.S. Pacific Command made an inexcusable remark during a trip to Washington, D.C. that cost him his career.
At the end of a not-for-attribution breakfast meeting with Pentagon reporters on Nov. 17, Adm. Richard Macke said, ¡°I think that [the rape] was absolutely stupid. For the price they paid to rent the car, they could have had a girl.¡±
In other words, the insensitive comment not only downplayed the rape ¡ª especially the impact on the victim and the depravity of the act of violence ¡ª but endorsed prostitution, which almost always involves organized crime, human trafficking, and other illegal, immoral, and anti-social activities.
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