It's the US policy, stupid

It's the US policy, stupid

"A blue-ribbon panel on United States public diplomacy is calling on President George W Bush not only to sharply increase funding to more effectively explain US policy to an increasingly hostile Islamic world, but also to narrow the gap between US values and what Washington actually does in the region," Jim Lobe reports in the Asia Times.

That is the distinct - albeit partially hidden - message of a new report on how better to communicate with Muslim populations from North Africa to Southeast Asia, released at the State Department on Wednesday by former president George H W Bush's top Middle East advisor, Edward Djerejian.

"'Spin' and manipulative public relations and propaganda are not the answer," according to Djererian's report. "Foreign policy counts. Surveys indicate that much of the resentment toward America stems from real conflicts and displeasure with policies, including those involving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and Iraq," the report said. "Sugar-coating and fast talking are no solutions ... ", the 80-page report advised.

The message appears to be a direct challenge to neo-conservative and right-wing hawks in and around the administration who have been arguing that Washington's policies are simply misunderstood and that the key to winning hearts and minds in the Islamic world is to implement more imaginative ways of expressing them.

...Publication of the report, entitled "Changing Minds, Winning Peace", comes amid growing concern among US policy elites about a rising tide of anti-US feeling in the Islamic world.

Just last week, a second task force of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in New York reported that the rise in anti-Americanism in Muslim countries and beyond was so great that it was "endangering our national security and compromising the effectiveness of our diplomacy".

For an interesting example of how the US is attempting to win hearts and minds, check out the appeal to young Arabs being projected in Hi Magazine.