Posted on 09/28/2006 9:23:58 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON -- It may take decades to change anti-American feelings around the world that have been aggravated by war in Iraq, U.S. policy toward Israel and America's "sex and violence" culture, the State Department official in charge of dealing with the U.S. image abroad said Thursday.
"The anti-Americanism, the concern around the world ... this ideological struggle, it's not going to change" quickly, Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It's going to be the work of years and maybe decades."
Hughes, a longtime adviser to President Bush, has worked for more than a year to retool the way America sells itself overseas, but she acknowledged that success can be next to impossible to measure.
A June poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that America's image in 15 nations dropped sharply in 2006. For example, less than one-third of the people in Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan and Turkey had a favorable view of the U.S.
According to that poll, America's continued involvement in Iraq was seen as a worse problem than Iran and its nuclear ambitions.
In the bleak National Intelligence Estimate portion declassified this week, the government's top analysts concluded that Iraq has become a "cause celebre" for jihadists, who are growing in number and geographic reach. If the trend continues, the analysts found, the risks to the U.S. interests at home and abroad will grow.
Hughes said the three-year-old Iraq war "is the most recent excuse" for anti-American grievance in the Muslim world.
"Much of the world did not agree with our decision to go into Iraq," just as there is long-standing disagreement with U.S. support for Israel, Hughes said.
Answering those complaints and defending U.S. policy is part of Hughes' job heading the broad category of U.S. outreach known as "public diplomacy." Although her job involves all regions of the world, Bush asked her to concentrate on reframing the U.S. image in the Islamic world.
"All you have to do is sit in a hotel room in the Middle East and watch the media and you see there is a lot, there is a big drumbeat out there going against our interests," Hughes said.
"I'm trying to approach this as putting in place the type of things that over the long run will make a difference for our country, because I don't expect that in the two years and ... three or four months of the president's administration that we'll see a significant shift."
Hughes has sent Arabic speakers to do four times as many interviews with Arabic media as in previous years and set up three rapid public relations response centers overseas to monitor and respond to the news.
Asked whether America's critics have any legitimate gripes, Hughes said yes.
"One of the things that I hear a lot, particularly in deeply conservative societies, is that parents feel kind of assaulted by American culture," Hughes said. "The sex and the violence that they see on television and movies ... some of the lyrics of our music."
The fact that American culture is so pervasive and accessible around the globe is "a double-edged sword," Hughes said. "Obviously, a lot of young people find our pop culture very appealing."
Hughes said the United States must be careful not to cast its fight against extremism and terrorism as a confrontation with Islam as a whole. She would not say whether she and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had advised Bush to stop using the term "Islamic fascism" to describe the ideology behind terrorism.
Bush and his spokesman used the phrase several times in August, but it has apparently disappeared from the White House lexicon since then. A check of transcripts on the State Department Web site indicates Rice, who is Hughes' boss, has apparently not used that phrase.
Hughes said that while she would not reveal private conversations with Bush, "that has been a subject of great debate within the administration."
"It's difficult to know what to call the ideology that we're up against, because it is a perversion of Islam," Hughes said.
"I use 'violent extremist,' because I think they are extremists, they are violent, they are actually mass murderers who pervert their religion."
On the Net:
State Department's public diplomacy operation and Hughes bio:
http://www.state.gov/r/
"All you have to do is sit in a hotel room in the Middle East and watch the media and you see there is a lot, there is a big drumbeat out there going against our interests," Hughes said."
I believe the same could be said about our dominate media!
I want America to be feared, not liked.
And I wouldn've have it any other way.
Better to respect/fear us than to like us.
It could take centuries to change anti-muslim feelings among Americans toward muslims.............
Heck, it will probably decades to alter the Anti-American feelings just within the Democrat Party of America.
A little more Karen and a lot less Anne, would have made this article more appealing.
It might help if the world press wasn't so intent on destroying President Bush ya think?
There was a lot of anti-American feeling in all the terrorist attacks.
The rest of the world don't like us being successful and with us both fighting a war, doing well in the economy and noticing their internal Muslim cult members are stirring up as well, they have to hate us. God forbid they grow up and deal with reality.
My recollection is that the world has always been anti american.
The term "ugly american" has been in use since wwII or as the new crowd might say "like forever".
Yankee go home has been around forever too.
There is a good song by Saving Jane called "girl next door"
The world thinks the US is the prom queen and they are the girl next door.
You can hear the whole song at savingjane.com
Or in the State Dept, the Enemedia, American Universities.....
I suggest using the term Islamofascists.
Decades my @$$. Cut off ALL trade and ALL foreign aid and the scumbags will "like" the U.S. again just as they did before 09-11-01. Personally, I don't care whether the scumbags like me or not. I doesn't mean anything. The "media" and the 'RATS say that there wasn't any terrorism until we "invaded" Iraq. I guess that means they "liked" us when they flew our airliners into the WTC and the Pentagon.
Though compare America, say, with the the Netherlands where pot and prostitution reign. That said however, a little national introspection within our own culture should not necessarily be discouraged.
Karen is stupid.
Changing anti-American feelings around the world can be quick and easy.
Here's the plan:
Elect a Democrat president who keeps a mistress, refuses to assert American influence and travels the world giving away money and apologizing for everything America has ever done.
It's a very simple formula that worked quite well during the last eight years of the 20th century,
Sorry Karen, I agree with you but Hollywood isn't going to stop making anti American movies and television shows any time soon.
(sarcasm) They have free speech.
The state department from the cabinet agencies on down needs to be laid off/fired/prosecuted/flogged until it starts serving US interests and obeying the elected official that has constitutional authority over it. It's another indictment of this administration. Tactically, Dubya's smarter than the last Bush that was in office, but otherwise he's just as mediocre.
It's not really a surprise that the majority of the people in those muslim countries don't care for America with the way we are portrayed not only in their press but in our own.
Most of their leaders realize it's to their advantage to have good relations with us but that doesen't extend to the masses.
Karen Hughes doesn't have a clue.
Most countries hated us before there were anti-American feelings.
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