Deconstruction continues apace

Spain ushered in a new government in 2004 (which it confirmed by election this March). There was never any doubt that Zapatero would shake things up.

IT'S AN image Spaniards will not soon forget: their new defence minister, reviewing trim, crisply uniformed soldiers, with her belly plump from seven months of pregnancy.

The appointment of Carme Chacon, 37, and with no military experience, is the boldest statement yet from a Socialist government that has made gender equality a priority.

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the prime minister, who won re-election in March, unveiled a cabinet this week that not only includes the first female defence minister but also has nine women to eight men.

Pictures of Ms Chacon reviewing the soldiers ran on the front page of seven national newspapers the next day, and footage of the event dominated the television news.

Now, as those Spaniards (and the rest of the world, for that matter) second-guess themselves and ask why the pictures grate so intently, will they have the framework to understand why? Does it really matter whether a man or a woman heads the armed forces, and more importantly -- does it matter whether the person has any experience?

Well, second question first: what is the point of the military? Is it a force to safeguard the safety of its citizens? or is it a showcase for social experimentation? If there is no real enemy, then the latter answer will do, and the experiment will be broadcast to the world to show that we can tinker with all sorts of elements because the army simply doesn't matter. Of course, if there were legitimate threats to a nation, it wouldn't mess around with such things -- but inane thinking in the deconstruction crowd leads them to believe that they can alter reality if they close their eyes (and click their heels) and wish really really hard for a new world.

Now, can a woman lead the armed forces? In a word, no. Not effectively -- and especially one with no experience. The men who are called to lay down their lives, to charge into enemy gunfire, to be heroic for heroic ideals cannot do so if they do not respect their leaders. This is a documented fact.

The only way that a body of soldiers can do their job effectively is if a "warrior cult" is established, in which they lose the ego for the whole, they lose rational, independent thinking for the moment for the sake of docility to the mission. That cannot be done under these circumstances because the men will always second-guess the orders and calculate how to save their skins despite the games all around them. The bond of trust is impossible with an inexperienced woman at the helm.

Carme Chacon is lovely -- she reminds me a lot of Audrey Raines in the series 24 (but of course that was a series that showed that no matter how competent folks were in their duties, emotional entanglements were a disaster for national defense). Even without the impending delivery of her child, this stands as a mockery of the armed forces. With the child, it may just enrage the citizens of Spain to see once and for all what socialist deconstruction is all about.

Addendum: It should be noted that Zapatero is essentially a communist. He adopted socialism as a more practical application of his pet principles. The Marxist ideal at the heart of his thinking supports feminism as the next phase of the dialectic, which pits the oppressed (women) against the oppressive class (men) in order to arrive a new synthesis: androgyny. The peaceful application of this principle is Deconstruction by Fiat. This is a classic example.

Comments

[Enbrethiliel]

+JMJ+

I could understand appointing an experienced woman, even if she does happen to be pregnant, but what in the world are Chacon's qualifications for the job?

I'm not certain whether Spain has any major national security threats; if not, then perhaps this won't be too much of a disaster. However, I'm pretty sure of the long term consequences. Who is willing to bet that young men will stop enlisting in record numbers, with young women taking their places in record numbers--the full effects of which the Spanish people will see, and rue terribly, when a crisis finally does come to their country?

[Karen]

Generally the American Secretary of Defense has little, if any, military experience. I believe the Defense Minister in Spain is more like our Defense Secretary than like our Joint Chiefs of Staff, which people must be active duty officers. Assuming this is a civilian position, then the important question is whether she has the appropriate parlimentary or management experience. She won't be deciding tactics; she'll be arranging funding. Unless you really think women don't belong as heads of government departments, then there is no reason to worry about her gutting the Spanish armed forces any more than a male of her same party would.