Dear Washington

[Trigger warning for state-sponsored sexual violence.]

While the geniuses in D.C. argue over the best way to dig ourselves out of the current economic climate via some combination of salary freezes, gutting social services, and trickle-down fuckonomics, I've got a suggestion I think is worth some consideration: Let's stop paying subcontractors to arrange for child rape orgies.

I really wish that were an exaggeration.

But it isn't. Per a document made available by WikiLeaks, our tax dollars paid for DynCorp, a private security contractor hired to train Afghan police, to arrange a bacha bazi ("boy-play") party, a pre-Islamic Afghan tradition described by the US State Department as a "widespread, culturally accepted form of male rape," in which young boys are dressed up, forced to dance for men, and then sold to the highest bidder.

I recommend this article for more information with the following caution: The author uses some language (e.g. "sex scandal") and some inappropriate sarcasm that isn't reflective of the sensitivity with which the subject ought really be treated. But it's informative, particularly as regards DynCorp's history with this sort of thing.

And we nonetheless continue to subcontract these mercenary rape facilitators to the tune of nearly $2 billion annually.