After 9/11 it was apparent that we had a problem with our public relations in the Muslim world. One of the main jobs of our government was to figure out how widespread the problem was, and to counter it in any way possible. Obviously we wanted to track down radicals that were plotting follow-on attacks. That was vital. But, in the longer term, we needed to do an appraisal of what caused the radicalism in the first place, and see where we could make moves to tamp it down. I think this says it all in terms of how our government performed its task.
Helene Cooper writes in the New York Times: “A recent global survey by the Pew Research Center concluded that the American image ‘remains abysmal in most Muslim countries in the Middle East and Asia.’
“The poll found that in five predominantly Muslim countries, fewer than 33 percent of the population had a favorable image of the United States. Even in Turkey, one of America’s closest allies in the Muslim world, only 9 percent of the public had favorable views of the United States, down from 52 percent in 2000.”
That, my friends, is an epic failure. And, I have to say, torture is right at the heart of the problem.
Media here in the Gulf is presenting the AG confirmation process as “Will Congress Confirm Bush’s Torture Policy”
I’d like to see the poll questions, because at the end of the day, most Arabs really do like Americans. As individuals we are perceived as having values and customs that align more closely with Muslim society than do Europeans and others.
In the words of several clients- ‘you people steal a lot less than the English and work hard too’
But they really really hate Bush. Arabs will give us a mulligan, but if we don’t effectively renounce Bush and his policies I think we might be tarred with his malfeasance as a nation. Mostly because they view Bush as being a president like a standard issue Mid-East president, I mean who blames Syrians for Assad’s policies, we all know what happens when you disagree with al-presidente.
I’d be interested in knowing what kinds of ‘values and customs’ the approving Arabs you’re spoken to have in mind. If ‘your Arabs’ think that Bush, in relation to his subjects, is somehow comparable to a run-of-the-mill Middle Eastern despot, then we have a good idea of what they think of the U.S. I’d also say that the Syrian people are a lot less responsible for the acts of their leaders than the U.S. voters are for theirs. Your contacts could be foremost interested in doing business, sprinkled with sweet compliments. Funny that, the slur on the British.
Cicero lives in Dubai.
I got that, well that he was somewhere in the Gulf, which is not Egypt. I am very interested in knowing what ‘values and customs’ he’s referring to so we can a better idea of ourselves.
I’m not so sure that the US voters can take all of the credit for Bush’s ascendancy to the throne and his actions…Diebold, Katherine Harris, and the US Supreme Court certainly played a huge role in that.
Yes, I forgot all about that. I suppose you’re closer to the truth. I still have the bizarre idea that U.S. voters vote politicians into office based on their needs and wishes.
And whatever you do, you must not forget the mainstream media. They are the leading player who made it even remotely possible for George Bush to be considered a “real candidate”. They have been the primary co-conspirators for years with the ensconced right wing sound machine and have generously greased the skids for what we have gone through these last seven years. Without their help Diebold, Katherine Harris and the Supreme Court would not have been even remotely relevant in the end.
A tendency owards outdoorsyness, a proclivity to hang around with one’s family- make small talk by bragging on one’s kid’s football prowess. Vastly smaller regard for economic class when socializing. A tendency to act like overgrown kids (only two places in the world do you find portly middle aged men driving Camaros.) At least lip service to entrepreneurialism and individualism as ideals. Those kinds of values…
In the area of ‘values’- as the term is often used in US political discourse- abortion, the imperative of redistributive government policies, whether or not video games rot the mind, whether titties are dangerous, that kind of stuff, you have a political spectrum here just like in the US.
And you are right as to what people here think of the US, to them it is self evident that a country would be under the thumb of a corrupt military industrial complex. For those Americans who think the US is not just another despotism they have either bemusement or compassion at such naivety.
And while my associates are probably not all that representative in that they live in Dubai (mostly Egyptians, Syrians, Lebanese and Emiratis.) But they generally aren’t plumbing me for business advantage- I’m an in-house counsel and the boss likes to lock me in the supply closet when clients are around. The Arabs I hang around with range from pork eating beer swilling Deadheads to guys who get flustered when they realize that because the fishing boat is drifting they might not be perfectly lined up with Mecca during their prayers.
And everyone here hates the British, including the British- except maybe the Americans who thing those accents are sexy.
“‘This is the conundrum that I faced every day,’ Price Floyd, a former State Department public affairs official, wrote in an op-ed article in The Fort Worth Star-Telegram in May, after he left the department. ‘I tried through the traditional domestic media, and, for the first time, through the pan-Arab TV and print media — Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, Al Hayat — to reach people in the U.S. and abroad and to convince them that we should not be judged by our actions, only by our words.’ “
That is the GOP/right-wing worldview in a nutshell: “Do as I say, not as I do.”
While confirming Mukasey will certain not help the American image in the Arab world, it is certainly not helpful to see our problems there as being Public Relations issues. The Bushies see everything as a PR or marketing issue – they want to sell us another Middle East war that we don’t need for example.
Our problem in the Middle East is our foreign policy, not just the Bush foreign policy, but the foreign policy of every U.S. president since World War I. When we stop trying to run other peoples countries and stop supporting brutal occupations, tyrannical governments, and stop ripping off natural resources from other nations we may find our image improves.
So I guess that billion freaken dollars that Karen Hughes spent this last year on pr didn’t work? No wonder she’s leaving and probably taking about a half a billion with her give or take a few million. Has she gotten her Freedom medal yet?