Linda Maio for SecDef in '09

April 21, 2008 | | Comments (5)

The ruling Socialist government of Spain just rolled-out its new cabinet. Amongst its list of 17 ministers, this curious choice of Minister of Defense came up: Carme Chacón. Yup, that’s her standing on the right, holding her new “official” briefcase during her swearing-in ceremony last week. She is a 37-year old lawyer whose only experience has been a one-year stint as Housing Minister last year. Of note, during her post graduate studies at Université Laval in Québec she published a STUDY agitating for the secession of Québec from Canada. She then moved on as a low-level Socialist policy wonk and local official in her native Cataluña.

BTW - Her “Official” Briefcase is smartly hiding her Seven-Month Baby-Bump. HERE’s a better snap of her, during a troop review. Now, before you start labeling me as a Hyster-hating, Misogynist, Latin Troglodyte (well, maybe Speecky Cro-Magnon), my beef with this choice for MOD is not that she is female, nor that she is expecting a baby, nor I would completely disfavor her youth, but the fact that she is a complete neophyte with open distaste for anything military, to this VERY important charge. It speaks volumes on the value that The Socialist Government puts on its military, and by extension to its NATO commitments in Afghanistan, Kosovo, etc.

To put it in perspective, when Obama becomes our next President, I would propose to have Linda Maio nominated for SecDef. She’d be just as adroit a choice for SecDef as Carme Chacón is for MOD in Spain. - BOQ

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5 Comments

By John of Argghhh! on April 21, 2008 9:42 AM
Boq - you missed her putative pacifism... Prime Minister Zapatero trumped all those other Euros with his selection of the first majority-female Cabinet in Euro-History, as well. Well, you don't have to be a military person to be the SecDef, and there are good arguments against putting former military personnel in those positions, for it can be hard to look outside the cultural constraints. It will be interesting to see how this one works out for them. If it weren't for the pain and suffering involved, I'd love to see her truly challenged with a military crisis and see how she handled it. Not because I expect her to fail because she's a woman - but because it would be instructive to see how someone with so little experience in the issues at hand handles the job. But, I don't wish that on the Spaniards. No one needs to suffer a war just so I can satisfy my curiousity.
 
By John of Argghhh! on April 21, 2008 9:43 AM
Boq - got an english version of that paper on Quebec anywhere?
 
By Boquisucio on April 21, 2008 11:09 AM
Yes’m, Boss. Many a business articles have been written about bringing a fresh new perspective into an organization, in order to reorganize it or fix-up a broken institution. For example, nominating someone from a different industry to restructure your state-run Motor Vehicles Administration. Someone vested in a career inside the Transportation/Public Works Department will be too bureaucratically ossified be an effective agent of change. But the MOD is a different animal. Specially when its institutions (Army, Navy, Air Force) are one of the soundest in the country. It is nothing but a slap in the face to the Spanish Military. A clear signal to its members and the general citizenry, that The Spanish Military is not worth a bucket-full of warm spittle. Bringing-in an avowed pacifist to that post is like putting Mamma Hen to guard the Foxes’ Warren. God forbid, if ever there is another March 11th atrocity committed again in Spain. Then we’ll see what happens. My apologies to those linguistically challenged, as Spanish is the only language that I know that exists on that White Paper.
 
By John of Argghhh! on April 21, 2008 11:53 AM
Dangit! If they'd just done it in German I'd be fine. Heh. After all, they wore German helmets and flew German airplanes, and sheltered German gun designers for a long time - izzit to much to ask?
 
By darkriders on April 23, 2008 6:34 AM
Judging from the news here on the German and French channels about the pirates on the Somali coast taking a Spanish trawler, it seems that the new Minister of Defense is not involved or has been pushed to a back seat (away from the cameras). The various news shows here seem to be showing a much older Lady in charge of the affair, who seems to be one of the Vice Premiers working for Zapatero. In related news the same news folks were all agaga about a German Frigate rushing to the aid of a Japanese Tanker. Though they emphasized the Minister of Defense' comments that the ships were not there to police those waters.