Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Biden Administration: Diversity and Inclusion in Action

Speaking of audacity, Andrew Stiles has had the audacity to point out that, regardless of what you think about what is happening in Afghanistan, the Biden administration’s debacle was produced by a group of people that embodied diversity, inclusion and equity.

As you know, diversity is our strength. And besides, the Biden administration foreign policy team contains numerous strong and empowered women. Aside from Biden, Anthony Blinken and Jake Sullivan, the rest of the team oozes diversity. 


Beginning with the manifestly incompetent vice president, Kamala Harris. Given how badly she has handled the immigration crisis, Biden relied on her counsel:


Vice President Kamala Harris, for example, was reportedly the "last person in the room" with President Joe Biden when he made the decision to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan. 


The last person in the room-- now that’s a great presidential campaign slogan.


Lloyd Austin is the first African-American defense secretary. His priorities were fighting against climate change, purging the ranks of counterrevolutionaries and offering transgender reassignment surgery.


And then there is Avril Haines, obviously of the female persuasion. She is in charge of national intelligence. Considering how badly the intelligence services did in Afghanistan, you would think she would resign. It will never happen:


 Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, is the first woman to oversee an epic intelligence failure after U.S. spy agencies estimated the Taliban would overrun Kabul within 90 days of the U.S. withdrawal. It happened in 72 hours. Haines used to host regular "erotica night" events at a bookstore in Baltimore.


And then there is Wendy Sherman, instrumental in helping North Korea gain nuclear weapons, also instrumental in negotiating the pathetic sellout to Iran, which would allow them to have legitimate access to nuclear weapons. For her fine work on these projects she became deputy Secretary of State.


The undersecretary for political affairs, Victoria Nuland, is also of the female persuasion.


Stiles continues:


Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, provided invaluable representation as a person of color with a vagina. 


Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of Homeland Security, was a critical voice from the Latinx community as he oversaw the administration's efforts to provide visas to military interpreters and other Afghan refugees. 


Those efforts, of course, have been severely compromised by the Taliban's rapid conquest. Their blood, however, will be on the most diverse set of hands in the history of American decision-making.


Given the gravity of the situation White House press secretary Jen Psaki decided that nothing was important enough to postpone her vacation:


White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is conveniently out of the office until August 22 but has been both a fearless defender of the administration's decision to withdraw from Afghanistan and a stern critic of the Taliban. Last week, for example, she warned that the militant group "has to make an assessment about what they want their role to be in the international community." In addition to being a female social media influencer, Psaki is also a proud member of the underrepresented Ginger-American community.


So, if the Taliban takeover is a disaster for Afghan women, they can look to America and see how many women were involved in sealing their fate. Will that be adequate consolation?


As a candidate for president in 2020, Biden made clear he would accept "zero responsibility" for a Taliban takeover in Afghanistan and the subsequent suffering of the country's female population. Afghan women should take this point into account before blaming the Biden administration for the brutal repression they are about to endure. Instead of complaining, perhaps they should celebrate the extraordinary female representation among the American officials who engineered this monumental human rights disaster.


3 comments:

David Spence said...

The Stiles article was labeled "satire."

Sam L. said...

SAY!! Aren't the mid-term elections coming up soon? I know who I WON'T be voting for...

markedup2 said...

There is a strong temptation to believe one is living in a unique moment in history. In one sense, that's always true since things do not exactly repeat. In another, it's almost always false, since people are people and the same stuff keeps happening.

However, has there ever been a time in history when a group so incompetent has had so much power? Nero is looking sober and responsible by comparison.

@David, I did notice that, but I think it's more about the tone than the content. It's definitely a good example of Poe's Law.

I haven't been following the news, so I did double check the "fall of Kabul" point. Since we've already established that I'm not a nice person, it doesn't hurt to reveal that my reaction was laughter. 90 days, indeed. Does ANYONE in government EVER get fired for being wrong or is it just the standard path to promotion?