Disinformation on Iraq

The Iranian Student Movement Up to the Minute Reports ^ | September 29, 2003 | The Washington Times

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Disinformation on Iraq

By Jeff Kojac Washington Times 9.29.2003

When the electricity went out during Hurricane Isabel, Americans wanted to know when their lights would go on. The same goes for Iraq's citizens — who have been through far worse than Isabel. There is no doubt that the residents of Iraq have a hunger for information. Yet, the Coalition Provisional Authority is still struggling to get its message to the Iraqi people. Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera, Iranian state-sponsored broadcasting and others are filling the information vacuum with a bias that is harmful to our mission in Iraq.

The reconstruction of Iraq and the war against terrorism are ultimately battles of ideas, just as the Cold War was a struggle of ideologies. Victories in such confrontations are fundamentally about demonstrating the validity of either side's views. Such a revelation only comes with the communication of information that builds an audience's comprehension, both of specifics and the larger context. If the United States has any hope of convincing the Middle East of the validity of our involvement in the region, it is dependent upon our boosting Middle Eastern access to news and entertainment that is not hostile to us.

The power of information was a critical ingredient in the tearing down of the Berlin Wall by the German people. The Voice of America and Radio Free Europe gave Eastern Europeans a window to something other than the oppressiveness found behind the Iron Curtain, and that vision helped undermine the Communist Bloc's hold on the minds of its people. The question is whether or not America will use this tool to convey the merit of liberty, the rule of law, political pluralism and religious tolerance once again.

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