Intersectional imperialism Feature
OPINION & ANALYSIS
Intersectional Imperialism: A Wholesome Menace
The empire claps back.
by Alexander Rubinstein
March 16th, 2021
By Alexander Rubinstein
WASHINGTON (Substack // Alex Rubinstein) With Trump-style nationalism out
the door, a new era of imperial ideology is upon us. This mutation of the
empires dominant dogma is manifesting throughout global institutions of
economic, political and social control and is materializing in a myriad of
conflict theatres.
In order to identify where woke imperialism exists, we have to define it
first. So what is it? Its certainly not the first iteration of hegemonic
domination buttressed by moralism.
The doctrine of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) was officialized by the
United Nations in 2005, but its roots really trace back to the NATO bombing
campaign of Yugoslavia. During the Obama years, the term humanitarian
intervention caught on as the main moniker for such actions.
Woke imperialism should be understood as a maturation of these concepts. As
corporations have increasingly embraced rainbow capitalism to keep up with
the sensibilities of an increasingly liberal US public, so too have
institutions of United States imperialism refined their pitches to reflect
the increasing popularity of identity politics.
This phenomenon has not gone unnoticed. As with everything on the internet,
it has become the subject of memes, with an image of two US B-52
Stratofortress bombers having gone particularly viral. The image shows one
B-52, labelled Republicans, dropping bombs. Another B-52, labelled
Democrats, is also dropping bombs, but this time with a giant Black Lives
Matter sticker and a rainbow flag emblazoned on its exterior.
imperialism
What both of the above memes cant express, given their limited format, is
the variety of methods of exerting imperial control, as it takes many forms
beyond bombings. And not all of this can be chalked up to the presidential
transition. We know that the State Department and three-letter agencies were
hardly on-board with President Trumps approach to foreign policy, nor his
cultural proclivities.
So while a lot of the trends identified in this article existed during the
Trump administration, they are undeniably being ramped up by Bidens. For
example, in the first 10 days of this March, Womens History Month, the
State Department tweeted 26 times about women, compared to 10 times during
the same period of the 2020.
The Noble Anti-Triggering Organization (NATO)
Earlier this month, NATO tweeted a flashy video claiming diversity is our
strength.
In light of NATOs virtue signalling, its important to remember that many
of the early leaders of NATO were Nazis who dreamed of a Germany that was
anything but diverse and inclusive. To this day, NATO has continued to
support neo-Nazis in countries like Ukraine, while NATO states that hold
permitted rallies honoring Nazi collaborators are only just now cancelling
the marches because of the coronavirus, rather than stopping the
glorification of Nazism.
https://twitter.com/NATO/status/1366355680681209859
As I reported following the launch of Joe Bidens presidential campaign, as
he railed against neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia, Biden worked with
neo-Nazi leader Oleh Tahnybok, with the man who is now White House National
Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, serving as their go-between. Leaked audio
from 2014 has Victoria Nuland, Bidens nominee for Under Secretary of State
for Political Affairs under Blinken, admitting as much.
israel's support for ukraine
A photo of the Azov Battalion a regiment of the National Guard of Ukraine
In terms of NATOs championing of inclusion for people of color, its
crowning achievement in this regard came following its bombing of Libya,
which gave cover for jihadist militias to sodomize Libyan leader Muammar
Gaddafi to death with a bayonet and paved the way for the reintroduction of
slavery on the African continent.
Outside of its halls of power in Brussels, this is what NATO-sponsored
opportunity initiatives for people of color looks like.
As the kids say, big yikes.
The State Department Becomes an HR Department
The slogan used by NATO, Diversity is our strength, reproduces, verbatim,
a major campaign theme from Kamala Harris and Joe Biden himself. The talking
point was also used last year by the Central Intelligence Agency.
Perhaps the one to make the most use out of the theme is Secretary of State
Anthony Blinken, who has said the following:
Diversity and inclusion make us stronger, smarter, more creative, and more
innovative. And our diversity gives us a significant competitive advantage
on the world stage.
Diversity makes any organization stronger and for the State Department,
its mission-critical.
Weve invested in diversity and inclusion to have a diplomatic workforce
that reflects the diversity of our country.
Recently, the State Department promoted Blinkens appearance on Hillary
Clintons podcast, advertising that the two discussed diversity and
inclusion at the Department, American engagement, Russia, China and more.
The State Department, under Blinken, is so married to the concept that he
created at the department a Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer position
which will report directly to him, State Department spokesman Ned Price
said, adding, you guessed it, Diversity and inclusion make us stronger,
smarter, more creative, and more innovative.
The DoD Seeks Force Multipliers
The Department of Defense is another leading institution in this trend.
Last week, conservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson attacked the Pentagon.
It started with Joe Biden announcing that, under his and Defense Secretary
Lloyd Austins leadership, the military would be taking steps towards making
itself more inclusive to women with policies including an overhaul of hair
style restrictions and maternity flight suits for women.
While pregnant women are generally banned from riding roller coasters, a
policy of allowing them to fly fighter jets does not seem to me to have
their best interests in mind, nor those of their children.
https://twitter.com/DeptofDefense/status/1359185522841833474
While Carlson blasted these policies, his criticism missed the crux of the
issue as he argued that they made the US military weaker. The real goal of
these policies, however, is to freshen the militarys face for a liberal
citizenry. As the Airforce put it in January, diversity is a force
multiplier.
In response to the Fox segment, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby formerly
the spokesperson for the State Department under Obama clapped back at
Carlson in a press release entitled Press Secretary Smites Fox Host That
Dissed Diversity in U.S. Military.
The United States military is the greatest the world has ever seen because
of its diversity, the press release began.
Kirby went on to note that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (a black man whom
the media celebrated for breaking a brass ceiling,) had said earlier in
the week that the lived experience of a diverse fighting force factors
into our decision making.
That same speech was featured on the Defense Departments website under the
headline Biden Showcases the Strength, Excellence of American Military
Diversity.
In other news on Secretary Austin, according to another Pentagon press
release, he welcomed the expanded role for NATO Mission Iraq last month.
That expanded role means beefing up the number of NATO troops occupying
the country from 500 to 4,000 or 5,000, according to Reuters.
The Central Idpol Agency
Not to be outdone by the State Department or Defense Department, following
the inauguration of Joe Biden, the CIA has begun conducting a digital
facelift to appeal to Generation Z in light of their politics leaning more
towards radical liberalism than previous generations.
We had to go where the talent is, Sheronda Dorsey, the CIAs deputy
associate director for talent, told the Wall Street Journal. She added that
the CIA is looking to increase racial, cultural, disability, sexual
orientation and gender diversity so that its workforce is reflective of
America.'
The Wall Street Journal goes on to write that Today, the CIAs digital
face-lift coincides with a new presidential administration. [John] Brennan,
whose directorship ended in 2017, says the Biden administration has sent out
a very strong signal on diversity with its intelligence appointees,
including the first-ever female director of national intelligence, Avril
Haines.
Brennan, who was CIA director under Obama, with Haines sitting under him at
number two at the agency, has more recently told MSNBC that he is
increasingly embarrassed to be a white male these days, when I see what
other white males are saying.
Brennans comments came in a discussion of congressional Republicans
handling of the protests at the capitol in January. Theyll continue to
gaslight the country, Brennan said.
While heading up the agency, Brennan oversaw the CIA as it illegally spied
on Congress through hacking as they were investigating torture by the agency
and lied about it. Now hes complaining about gaslighting by Congress.
The whole episode has been largely forgotten by the US public as media were
stanning the agency throughout the Trump era. Trump enemy number one,
Nancy Pelosi, recently established a diversity office in the House of
Representatives. Years ago, she helped the CIA coverup torture in addition
to heavily backing the war in Iraq.
Finance Feminism
While technically independent, globally muscular financial institutions
like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are
functionally a part of the US government, and like other institutions
referenced in this article, are adopting identity politics as a means of
whitewashing their anti-human agenda.
The DC-based World Banks president is chosen by the President of the US,
with even their own website admitting Traditionally, the World Bank
President has always been been [sic] a U.S. citizen nominated by the United
States.
The U.S. is also the largest shareholder at both the World Bank and IMF,
which is also based in DC. One leaked manual published by Wikileaks entitled
Army Special Operations Forces Unconventional Warfare cites the World Bank
and IMF as US weapons in times of conflict up to and including large-scale
general war.
Army Special Operation Forces understand that properly integrated
manipulation of economic power can and should be a component of
unconventional warfare, the document continues.
As major decisions require an 85 percent super majority, the United States
can block any major changes at the World Bank, according to the Army
document.
For International Womens Day, the IMF hosted a discussion with Bidens
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen entitled The Age of Womenomics.
We have chosen this theme the age of womenomics consciously, Kristalina
Georgieva, IMF Managing Director, said.
Never in my life I have seen so many women in key positions where core
economics and finance matter: you, as the minister of finance of the United
States; Chrystia Freeland in Canada; Christine Lagarde my predecessor at the
[European Central Bank]; Ngozi [Okonjo-Iweala] at the World Trade
Organization; the very first woman president of a multilateral development
bank, Odile [Renaud-Basso] at the [European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development]
Wokeism Goes Global
Beyond promoting themselves as bastions of tolerance, imperialist
institutions are also using wokeness to justify foreign resource extraction,
violations of sovereignty and international law, military occupation and
even coup detats.
In Syria, where the United States, European governments, Gulf state
patriarchal petromonarchies and NATO ally Turkey have waged 10 years of
proxy warfare via al-Qaeda-type sectarian insurgents, a champion of
distinctly American identity politics has arisen: the YPG. For years, youd
have been hard pressed to find a leftist in the United States that did not
give unquestioning support for the Rojava womens revolution. The
ostensible political project of Kurdish fighters in Northeastern Syria was
even dubbed by Vice News the Most Feminist Revolution the World Has Ever
Witnessed.
American anarchists, propagandized with pro-YPG literature and the ideology
of democratic confederalism popularized by the late Zionist academic
Murray Bookchin, and promoted by his daughter, Debbie Bookchin of the New
York City-based Emergency Committee For Rojava, made names for themselves
in leftist circles and on Twitter by joining up with the Kurdish fighting
force called the Peoples Protection Units (YPG).
While the Kurdish fighters in Syria were first backed by Obama, Trump
continued to support them to protect the oil. In other words, so that the
United States could profit from the extraction of assets rightfully
belonging to the sovereign government of Syria. Now that Biden is in office,
Kurdish fighters are once again becoming the subject of renewed media
attention and adoration by the Western left.
Glorification of the conquests by Kurdish forces in Syria reached a fever
pitch during the Raqqa campaign. One group was established, which now has
its own Wikipedia page despite its actual existence being dubious, by
foreign queer anarchists called the The Queer Insurrection and Liberation
Army. While the historic city of Raqqa was being destroyed to the tune of
70 percent, these feel-good headlines about a supposedly revolutionary and
inclusive alternative to statism that the Kurdish fighters and their allies
represented dominated the narrative on the left.
Before we move away from Syria, it would be irresponsible not to mention the
story of Amina Abdallah Araf al Omari, the Gay Girl in Damascus. The fake
persona was created in order to stir up anti-Assad sentiment from Western
LGBTQ communities, but it was exposed as the charade of a white American man
named Tom MacMaster by Palestinian journalist Ali Abunimah after the gay
girl was kidnapped.
Now that Biden is in office, these kinds of dirty tricks to promote the
dirty war on Syria are making a comeback. Based on an article in Jacobin, a
new movie is in the works entitled Stefan Vs. ISIS. It is billed as a
Story Of Non-Binary Millennial Who Joined The Kurdish Freedom Fighters by
Deadline in a March 5 article. While the Jacobin writer of the original
story, Connor Kilpatrick, has co-writing credits, Jacobin editor Bhaskar
Sunkara is set to co-executive produce the film.
One Middle East-based reporter complained to me that these journalists are
now poised to profit from a war they helped sell in the first place, and are
placing the identity issues of a Westerner at the center of the conversation
around the battle against ISIS rather than the scores of Syrians and Iraqis
who lost their lives fighting them. The Syrian war, they said, isnt for a
bunch of foreign leftists to turn into a romantic ballad to identity
issues. Kurds are super traditional, no way is even the YPG into this gender
fluidity stuff.
In a similar vein, Hillary and Chelsea Clintons production company was
reported in late January to be working on a TV series adapting the book The
Daughters of Kobani: A Story of Rebellion, Courage, and Justice by Gayle
Lemmon for the screen. Following an intense bidding war over the rights to
adapt the book, Deadline reported that For the Clintons, the property feels
like the perfect IP to help launch their banner given the subject matter and
strong women that helped Lemmon write it.
Last week, Lemmon joined Meghan McCain on The View to talk about her book.
McCains father, the late John McCain, was the most militaristic senator in
modern US history and a major promoter of the proxy war in Syria, the
Senator even meeting with so-called moderate rebels with the Turkey-backed
Free Syrian Army and the Syrian National Army who turned out to be
responsible for the kidnapping of 11 Shia Muslims.
My suggested cover image for Hillary and Chelsea Clintons TV series.
Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, where the United States maintains its
longest-running regime change fail, or L, I recently noted how Biden plans
to keep residual forces there to continue occupying the country despite
the agreement reached between the Taliban and the Trump administration to
have a full withdrawal.
German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle is warning that Afghan women risk
losing their rights in a new political setup. Now, the Biden administration
is looking to negotiate the deal wherein all options remain on the table.
Earlier this month, Vox News reported on internal debates within the White
House over a withdrawal from Afghanistan. Reportedly, Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley made the impassioned and at times
emotional argument that should US forces withdraw, womens rights in the
country will go back to the Stone Age.
Yet while there is no doubt that the Taliban has little respect for the
rights of women, that was hardly a concern of Joe Biden when he promised in
October 2012 that We are leaving in 2014. Period.
But speaking of the Stone Age; the US has dropped around 25,500 bombs on
Afghanistan since Bidens promise if you add up the monthly figures
published by the US Airforce.
And those bombs dont come cheap, so it should come as no surprise that
Milley went on to argue that since the US has spent so much blood and
treasure in the country in the past decades, it is not worth it to leave.
To put it in the parlance of Zoomers, General Milley wants America to
secure that bag.
Somebody should tell the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman that this aint it,
chief.
Wokeism isnt just a useful tool of empire in the ostensible fight against
terrorism, but also in the fight against socialism. In Ecuador, where the US
is backing a faux left candidate as an alternative to the socialist
frontrunner in the countrys presidential elections, identity politics have
been deployed to drum up support for a neo-liberal.
Journalist Ben Norton exposed Yaku Pérez, billed as an indigenous
eco-socialist, for his ties to the US government. After Pérez came in third
place in the first round of Ecuadors presidential election, disqualifying
him from the runoff, the US embassy called him to reassure that he would be
a part of it. Since then, Pérez has called for a military coup and for his
socialist opponent, Andrés Arauz, to be criminally prosecuted.
Norton also points out that Pérezs wife Manuela Picq, is an adviser to him
and is helping to manage his campaign. Picqs background is as an academic
focused on sexuality and gender studies.
As we proceed into the Biden years, identity politics, intersectionality
in a word, wokeness will be increasingly used to justify the exploits of a
racist empire. That is, unless the left is able to adopt a doctrine to
counter the empires dogma instead of continuing to play into its hands.
The Roman historian Tacitus said Great empires are not maintained by
timidity. This may be true, but today, the maintenance of empire is
justified by its inclusivity. The ability of the US to flex on the world
stage is contingent on its ability to reference the diversity of its ruling
class.
Theres the tea.