Military diversity was marketed to justify global intervention as world-citizen duty

Evidence

Just as the objectives of the civil rights movement were co-opted and diffused through government policies, the objectives of the multicultural movement were co-opted by the media, corporations, education, and government in the guise of “progressive gestures in the name of ‘diversity.’” The U.S. government, during the 1991 Gulf War, redefined its global image in representations of the military as racially diverse, ideologically united, and winning the war in Iraq. McAlister demonstrates how the U.S. government and media strategically portrayed the U.S. military as a force for multiculturalism and democracy while unresolved and heated debates over multiculturalism continued at home, providing the United States with a mandate to intervene globally. … Yet demonizing the enemy during times of war is not a thing of the past. Rather, it has assumed new forms. — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 97 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

In 2010 DHS launched the nationwide “See Something, Say Something” campaign, which took a multicultural approach to fighting terrorism. As I have argued elsewhere, counterterrorism propaganda took a decidedly anti-racist hue, with white terrorists as the bad guys in DHS YouTube videos and brown and black people as the good informants. Obama’s national security leadership team consisted of significantly more women and people of color. The process begun in the early post–Cold War era was taken to new levels in the Obama administration as multicultural imperial feminism became more prominent. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 614 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Post-Cold War US empire rebranded military force as benevolent multicultural intervention — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 403; Representing military diversity legitimized endless US intervention worldwide; US military diversity itself served as imperial branding after the Gulf War — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 416 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• The Gulf War military was rebranded as a multicultural force to justify intervention. #corroborates (0.95) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 97
• Obama-era counterterrorism propaganda used multicultural imagery to mask imperial policy #exemplifies (0.93) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 614
• Post-Soviet US empire fused military power with a multicultural benevolent brand #expands (0.92)