Michele Flournoy may be breaking a glass ceiling as Pentagon chief, however even feminists aren’t shopping for

President-elect Joe Biden’s decide for Pentagon chief could be the primary lady within the function. However a glimpse at her previous suggests she’s not solely a sociopathic hawk however an excellent vector for a Biden reversal of Trump’s Afghan pullout.

As Trump lastly started to implement his long-delayed promise of pulling US troops out of Afghanistan, articles bemoaning the sure-to-be-horrific destiny of Afghan ladies with out US troopers round to rape – er, assist them, have mushroomed throughout the media institution.

Although Trump could be leaving roughly 2,500 troops in each Afghanistan and Iraq, his resolution to belatedly, incompletely fulfill his 2016 electoral promise to convey the troops dwelling has been depicted as a betrayal of each Afghan ladies and NATO. The Pentagon tried to assert al-Qaeda is happy concerning the transfer, whereas the media have advised Afghan ladies are quaking of their burqas on the notion of the admittedly oppressive Taliban resuming energy.

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Such conclusions ignore the truth that the Taliban already controls extra territory than it has since September 11, when the US made the snap, ill-informed resolution to go to struggle towards a rustic that had nothing to do with these assaults. Or that the US, not the Taliban, has repeatedly violated the ceasefire that was held up as a precursor to peace treaties between the Afghan authorities and the fundamentalist Islamic group. It’s the specter of ending a vastly unpopular struggle that has these ladies supposedly fearing for his or her lives.

That is the place Flournoy and the feminist angle are available in. Such techniques have labored earlier than – former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was gung-ho to bomb the stuffing out of Syria supposedly on behalf of the nation’s “ladies and youngsters” – by no means thoughts that the Islamic fundamentalist “average rebels” would have oppressed them way over Bashar Assad’s secular authorities – whereas the bogus risk of Libyan chief Muammar Gaddafi feeding his troops Viagra so as to allow raping sprees served as atrocity propaganda to justify the US’ disastrous regime change in that nation. Girls at the moment are bought as slaves, however hey, a minimum of that nasty Gaddafi (whose rule noticed ladies obtain one of many highest ranges of gender equality on the African continent) is gone!

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The appointment of Flournoy, a Robust Girl&commerce;, to the helm of a Pentagon that’s going to should make some very unpopular choices so as to redeploy US troops in Afghanistan (can’t let these poppy fields go to waste, in any case) is a intelligent transfer on the a part of the Biden marketing campaign. Even most veterans now suppose the Afghan struggle was a horrible mistake, and Trump was arguably elected in 2016 on his promise to convey US troops dwelling. Placing a girl answerable for reversing what would usually be a very talked-about transfer has the potential to succeed the place the discredited “Russian bounties on US troops” fairytale failed.

Flournoy is admirably suited to this function, because the founding father of a suppose tank (the Heart for a New American Safety) now run by Ukrainian regime-change cookie-distributor in chief Victoria Nuland. She was on the entrance traces of the Obama administration’s disastrous wars in Libya and Syria, and helped broaden the struggle in Afghanistan earlier than departing for the non-public sector in 2012. She was a pioneer of slapping a ‘woke’ gloss on US militarism, and in 2016 whereas jockeying for the nom as projected president Hillary Clinton’s Secretary of Protection co-authored a paper urging Washington to maneuver towards struggle with Iran whereas increasing the conflicts in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen and inflating the already bloated Pentagon finances.

Placing ladies on the entrance traces of propaganda has traditionally been a near-bulletproof protection for a bloodthirsty regime attempting to cross off the abuses of empire as “accountability to guard,” and Flournoy would not at all be the primary lady embraced by the struggle machine’s propaganda equipment for her means to cross off killing hundreds of innocents as “humanitarian intervention.” It’s of a chunk with the sick fiction popularized by fellow former Secretary of State and faux feminist icon Madeleine Albright when she declared 500,000 Iraqi kids who died due to US sanctions had been “value it.”

One may suppose that 26,000 lifeless Afghan kids – that’s about 5 murdered children per day – over the course of the practically two-decade quagmire in that nation is sufficient carnage, by no means thoughts that the Trump administration has elevated bombing ranges, even from his predecessor Barack Obama’s record-setting drone strikes, and civilian casualties have soared accordingly.

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However the incoming Biden administration, in addition to many in Trump’s personal get together, would have the US keep there indefinitely. The reasons they provide you with run the gamut from the aforementioned “consider the poor ladies!” to a declare that terrorism will spiral uncontrolled if the US isn’t there to fund – er, battle again towards the dangerous guys. Whereas it’s onerous to disregard that terrorism has spiraled uncontrolled exactly due to the US declaring “struggle” on it, like many different US ‘wars’ (medication, most cancers, poverty, and so on) and illicit actions like opium manufacturing have skyrocketed following the collapse of the Taliban authorities, hiding behind the skirts of Afghan ladies appeals to pure emotion, no information required.

There are encouraging indicators this faux-feminist fiction is carrying skinny, nonetheless. Even the mainstream media institution has raised tentative objections to the notion that Flournoy’s nomination could be a win for feminism. “You don’t should rejoice the primary lady Secretary of Protection,” corporate-feminist outlet Jezebel reassured its readers, explaining that Flournoy as a profession Pentagon functionary had “been get together to a number of the nation’s worst imperialist, hawkish pursuits.” In a stunning diversion from the location’s paean to VP-elect Kamala Harris earlier this month, Jezebel acknowledged that lionizing feminine “firsts” in war-criminal roles (just like the Trump administration’s CIA director and torturess-in-chief Gina Haspel) was counterproductive.

The time-honored tactic of “pinkwashing” could have reached its pinnacle within the literal pink paint job given a retired Navy fighter jet in 2016, however the cracks displaying within the female-empowerment facade adopted by the worst parts of the US empire present some hope for the long run. Bombs dropped by ladies are simply as harmful as bombs dropped by males, and the faux-feminist dream that girls ought to have the ability to commit struggle crimes on the identical stage as males is lengthy overdue for retirement.

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