The naivete and self-delusion of these “foreign policy experts” is apparently bottomless.
“State Department voices concerns over all-male Taliban government,” by Celine Castronuovo, The Hill, September 7, 2021:
The State Department on Tuesday expressed concerns over the makeup of the new interim Afghan government announced by the Taliban, including the lack of female leaders and the past actions of some of those appointed to top posts.
A State Department spokesperson said in a statement shared with The Hill that although the Taliban “has presented this as a caretaker cabinet,” the U.S. “will judge the Taliban by its actions, not words.”
“We have made clear our expectation that the Afghan people deserve an inclusive government,” the spokesperson added.
The statement went on to note that the list of names announced by the Taliban earlier Tuesday “consists exclusively of individuals who are members of the Taliban or their close associates and no women.”
The announced leaders come after the Taliban last month specifically called on women to join government offices in an apparent attempt to portray itself as a more moderate version of the group that previously enforced extreme laws on women and girls, including preventing them from going to school and barring them from leaving their homes unless they were accompanied by a man.
The State Department also said Tuesday that it was “concerned by the affiliations and track records of some of the individuals.”
Among the leaders announced Tuesday was the pick for acting interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is currently wanted by the FBI in connection with a 2008 attack on a Kabul hotel that left six people, including a U.S. citizen, dead.
The FBI had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Haqqani’s arrest but increased the reward to $10 million later Tuesday….
Rarely says
Where do these people come from? Did they have mothers? Can they read? Can they think? Are they even breathing? These are the yahoos formulating foreign policy?
gravenimage says
+1
gravenimage says
State Department concerned that Taliban government doesn’t include any women
……………….
The fact that the Taliban is forcing women into Burqas, using grade school girls as sex slaves, and setting a woman on fire for “bad cooking” should have given them a clue…
And the EU is just as gormless:
“EU: Taliban government not ‘inclusive,’ doesn’t reflect ‘the rich ethnic and religious diversity of Afghanistan’”
https://jihadwatch.org/2021/09/eu-taliban-government-not-inclusive-doesnt-reflect-the-rich-ethnic-and-religious-diversity-of-afghanistan
This is just embarrassing–and does not bode well for the west protecting her people from Islam.
somehistory says
a blinken, winkin at the taliban, noddin off on his vacation and his staff are asleep at the wheel.
Not very poetic, and probably don’t sing very well either.
We are all now living in a world run by the bizzaro gang. Wherever one looks, whatever one reads or hears on the news, it’s all bizarro. A real donkey could do better.
And I must say, donkey’s don’t do satan’s bidding as these humans are doing.
mgoldberg says
I don’t imagine the bacha bazi boys will be appointed as cabinet members, although their members will be annointed by some Afgani’s. It’s tradition.
PRCS says
Remember, the “Leader of the Free World” once had this exchange with Ayan Hirsi Ali:
WHEN JOE MET AYAAN
Tim Blair
less than 2 min read
December 13, 2014 – 2:55PM
0 comments
Ayaan Hirsi Ali recalls a conversation with the current US vice president:
“He informed her that “ISIS had nothing to do with Islam.” When she disagreed with him, Biden actually responded: “Let me tell you one or two things about Islam.” “I politely left the conversation at that,” Hirsi Ali said, to laughter. “I wasn’t used to arguing with vice presidents.””
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/blogs/tim-blair/when-joe-met-ayaan/news-story/a53924528563e4c056bf60190e812c4a
In the 7 years since, he still doesn’t “get it”.
gravenimage says
All too true, PRCS.
GreekEmpress says
Did the State Department really expect otherwise?
I didn’t. And I’m not a rocket scientist.
Kepha says
The people staffing the State department are graduates of prestigious universities, former academics and jornos, not a few lawyers. They passed the Foreign Service Exam and lengthy vetting and background checks. That’s how they’ve been selected. Also, they are managed at the upper levels by friends of whoever becomes presidents. Hence, our current admin makes sure we make the right noises about minorities and women. Under the O, we verbally beat up a number of Sub-Saharan African countries because they still had anti-sodomy laws on the books, and were surprised when all of a sudden, China’s inroads were more welcome there than our trade and exchanges.
When Trump won, a lot of the professional Foreign Service resigned. We probably have a lot of relatively junior people, then, moving up the ranks. My guess most joined hoping to work as political or economic officers in the great capitals of Europe, and have cultivated the expertise and mentality to get along in the current Western elite. They probably have no idea how utterly ridiculous they look in Beijing or most of the Middle East.
I will, however, admit that at least in times past, many Foreign Service people had a strong ability to learn, process experience, and grow. Often, they were able to build up a fair amount of expertise on the areas where they were posted. My generation was full of people who came out of universities believing that Communism wasn’t all that bad, but after a tour in Hanoi or Beijing, they became bigger anti-Communists than Uncle Kepha ever was. Give this crop of FSO a few more years, and they will have the same view of Islam as a survivor of the Seyfo or Anatolian horrors might have had on washing up on Western shores ca. 1925. Most will probably also have a pretty cynical and jaundiced view of the preferences of their political masters as well. If not, America’s diplomatic arm will be more of a liability than an asset (if it isn’t already).
CogitoErgoSum says
Meanwhile the leaders of the Taliban have made it clear that their expectation is that the United States should have a government under which everyone submits to Islam and that all laws are in compliance with Allah’s words in the Koran.
Maine South 1970 says
The state department, just like the UK’s Neville Chamberlain, know they have no cards, but they are still making demands with no power to enforce the demands.
OLD GUY says
We should check on where these State Department employees and leaders got their education. Islam will not be inclusive for women ever, a women in a government or leadership position is there only at the will of the male handlers and because she is useful for them.