From MSNBC’s ‘Lord of the Flies’ at U.S. Embassy in Kabul?; Oversight group: Workers subjected to hazing, other inappropriate behavior:

Guards hired by the State Department to protect diplomats and staff at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan live and work in a “Lord of the Flies” environment in which they are subjected to hazing and other inappropriate behavior by supervisors, a government oversight group charged Tuesday.

In a 10-page letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the independent Project on Government Oversight contended the situation has led to a breakdown in morale and leadership that compromises security at the embassy in Kabul where nearly 1,000 U.S. diplomats, staff and Afghan nationals work.

In a statement on Wednesday, the U.S. Embassy said it was aware of the POGO report. “Nothing is more important to us than the safety and security of all Embassy personnel — Americans and Afghan — and respect for the cultural and religious values of all Afghans,” the embassy said…

Morning Joe has a video up on this where the only female reporter on the set, Mika Brzezinski, objected to the behavior.

It was pretty depressing to see the “boys will be boys” defense of the unacceptable behavior by contractors on embassy grounds being put forward by the male reporters/commentators on set.

I sent in this tweet to the show in response to the segment above, which actually was read by Mika Brzezinski on air a few minutes after the segment above aired:

[More below the fold.]

@morningmika I spent 20-years in the US Navy. Job tension may explain bad behavior, but doesn’t excuse it at all. Accountability matters.

Here’s my issue here. How men treat women when they are “blowing off steam” in military and quasi-military settings impact women servicemembers and employees.

Back in the late 1990′s, when I was in the Navy stationed on the USS Coronado, my then female division officer experienced sexual harassment. Specifically, four sailors {a mix of rated Firemen (E-3 and below) and junior Petty Officers} were peeping through screw holes and open cable runs to watch her as she and other female junior officers showered. Apparently, at least one male Senior Chief Petty Officer was aware of the violations of the sexual harassment regulations, but  tried to handle it by telling the four sailors to stop. The sailors didn’t.

I was the one who ended up hearing about the peeping, and reporting it to my division officer and the Senior Chief Master-At-Arms (the “police chief” onboard our ship).

To make a long story short, and three of the four sailors were discharged from the military because of the peeping. And, my division officer was to say the least distressed over the incident. And, as a closeted and not yet out of the closet trans woman, I felt internally devastated, and experienced harassment for reporting the sexual harassment.

Bad behavior by military men and quasi-military men can and does impact servicewomen. These contract Embassy guards who engaged  in inappropriate behavior — involving sex workers on Embassy grounds — well, how do you think they look at and treat the women they work with? My hunch, based on many experience within the military, is that the contracted guards involved in this particular incident do not consider females in their workplace as completely human.

Frankly, I fully expect to later here that these contractors’ women coworkers, as well as the female Embassy staff, have been inappropriately sexualized by these men involved in this incident. I fully expect that will hear stories related to women in their workplace as part of this story; I fully suspect this story will get much uglier as it develops.

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