Saigon Vs. Baghdad

In spite of our efforts, it was impossible to find much about sex in the military in Iraq. While plenty of it seems to happen, it is only soldier-to-soldier and while in the safety of being on base or in camp. This is radically different from what we know about sex in the military in Viet Nam. Let's look at a few of the more obvious differences:

Cultures: There was a bit more neon in Saigon than Baghdad! The Vietnamese had a different attitude about prostitution than people in the Muslim countries. In a Muslim country like Iraq, if a girl loses her virginity to her beloved boyfriend, she risks being murdered by her father, brothers or uncle to help protect the family name. It is beyond their cultural consciousness to sell your body for sex.

The Military: During the war in Viet Nam, there was a draft. So the average soldier was single and somewhere between 18- and 22-years of age. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the make up of the troops is very different. Many have wives and children stateside. Many of the troops are National Guard or Reserves who tend to be older and married when compared to active duty Army or Marine Corps. Plus, today's military has a much higher percentage of females than was the case in Vietnam. There is more room for intra-armed forces fooling around.

Danger in Different Places: While the local communities in Vietnam were not harbors of safety for American military personnel, at least a soldier could visit the occasional prostitute if he wanted to assume the risk. Even if there were brothels in Baghdad, no Amercian soldier would risk taking off a single bit of armor to liberate a lonesome penis.

Considering the age of the troops and the Muslim culture's attitude toward sex versus that of the Vietnamese, the respective conflicts were in different centuries in more ways than just figuratively.