Thomas Friedman wrote a heck of a column for the New York Times. His basic point is that George W. Bush – and thus America – are losing the propaganda war, at least in the Middle East. “One thing that has always baffled me,” Friedman writes, “about the Bush team’s war effort in Iraq and against Al Qaeda is this: How could an administration that was so good at Swift-boating its political opponents at home be so inept at Swift-boating its geopolitical opponents abroad?”
He goes on:
How could the Bush team Swift-boat John Kerry and Max Cleland — authentic Vietnam war heroes, whom the White House turned into surrendering pacifists in the war on terror — but never manage to Swift-boat Osama bin Laden, a genocidal monster, who today is still regarded in many quarters as the vanguard of anti-American “resistance.â€
Quite right. This is something that never ceases to amaze me either. Bush et al. have proven themselves to be great propagandists, at least domestically, but in regards to the world, and especially the Muslim world, they are a bunch of PR amateurs. One reason for this is, in my opinion, that the Bush administration does not really understand the attitude in the Mideast. They try to appeal to them based on American values. As much as Americans like to think their values are universally accepted, the opposite is true. No, if Bush wants to win the PR war in the Mideast, he needs to appeal to Mideastern values – to Islamic values – not to American values.
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