Once again the ladies of the Obama administration flex their power and help influence foreign policy and a changing global landscape.
The New York Times reports today that President Obama changed his position on intervention in Libya as a result of three powerful women in top positions in his administration. From the article:
“The change became possible, though, only after Mrs. Clinton joined Samantha Power, a senior aide at the National Security Council, and Susan Rice, Mr. Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations, who had been pressing the case for military action, according to senior administration officials speaking only on condition of anonymity. Ms. Power is a former journalist and human rights advocate; Ms. Rice was an Africa adviser to President Clinton when the United States failed to intervene to stop the Rwanda genocide, which Mr. Clinton has called his biggest regret.
Now, the three women were pushing for American intervention to stop a looming humanitarian catastrophe in Libya.” [my emphasis here]
You can view the full article here: http://nyti.ms/hxXs85
I don’t claim to understand all of the dynamics of the crisis in Libya, although I do know that I’ve been hearing Muammar el-Qaddafi’s name as a potential and/or real hazard in the Middle East since I was a child watching World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. I tend to want the US take more of an isolationist position on foreign policy, but it seems that we’re not the only country entering the fray on this one. And Qaddafi needs to be controlled.
However, what I appreciate about this article is that we finally have a chance to see the powerful impact that women have in a presidential administration. Yes, Madeline Albright. Yes, Condolezza Rice. I know that others have blazed a trail. But read that italicized sentence again above. Not men. No Biden. No Cheney. No Rove. No Gates. The three women. And good for President Obama for listening. Amen.
The debate about a woman leading the free world as President of the United States used to revolve around a woman’s supposed inability to remain rational and not get emotional in moments of crisis. We’ve come a long way in that debate, largely because women like Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice, and Samantha Power illustrate that they have intelligence and the guts to go along with it that allows them to contribute to the tough decision making.