The West appears to be losing the information war in the Arab world

The Financial Times ^ | Oct 13, 2001 | Roula Khalaf and Gerard Baker

[father_elijah]

Until President Bush has an Arabic speaking Arab-American as a spokesman, the Arabs will win. Ari Fleischer giving excellent briefings is not enough.

The cause of bin Laden and Co. would be seriously challenged by an Arab-American gentlemen speaking on behalf of America in strong and confident terms. If Al Djezeera were broadcasting those statements, there would be tremors. As it is, the Arab world will always believe a fellow Arab speaking Arabic over an American official speaking English -- even with subtitles in Arabic.

[gaspar]

Finally Americans are getting the picture that the United States has no dependable ally in the Muslim World. Hell, no other Christian nation, or Bhuddist, Bahai, Hindu, Jew, Zoroastrian, Taoist, or animist nation has a dependable ally in the Muslim World.

[lavaroise]

Until President Bush has an Arabic speaking Arab-American as a spokesman, the Arabs will win.

I do not see how this would sway one bit the arabs who are slaved to violence in general. Arabs smell who is real arab and not real arab according to whom the spokespeople pledge allegiance to. They are primitive, but their instinct is not blunted like ours is.

[All-American Medic]

But will Al Djezerah (spelling??) broadcast it?? See the problem is even if we had an Arab-American speaking in arabic, there is no assurance that they will make mention of it.....They have given zero coverage to the food drops.

[RippleFire]

But there is one satellite America cannot control - the one that beams the al-Jazeera news channel across the Middle East from its studios in Qatar.

A bucket of sand and ball bearings in the right orbit would solve that problem.

[randog]

"Attacking al-Jazeera is attacking something Arab people cherish."

Oh, gosh, we wouldn't want to offend Arabs, now would we? If we take down Al-Jazeera they might start hating us and protest in the streets. Eventually they might start killing us.

[Senator_Blutarski]

How could this happen? How could their pro-Arab state-controlled press beat our anti-American free press in delivering a pro-US message?

With friends like Peter Jennings and Dan Rather who needs al-Jazeera?

[Maelstrom]

In its war against Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, the US can rely on intelligence from satellites orbiting the earth. But there is one satellite America cannot control - the one that beams the al-Jazeera news channel across the Middle East from its studios in Qatar.

Will some enterprising Freeper out there shoot this thing down? I hear satellites are vulnerable to certain things.

[father_elijah]

Yes, but they have broadcast President Bush's speeches in full and several of Rumsfield and Powell. If it were in Arabic it would give them instant product to put on.

And if they didn't then we would know to target their facilities and broadcast towers and satellites and bomb them to smithereens.

[LadyDoc]

This is not the first time that we have had to contend with a propaganda media of anti americanism and hatred. The Nazi, the Japanese, the Chinese communist etc. has done this.

I heard that there is a plan now to beam the equivalent to Radio Free Europe to these countries.

And I wouldn't be surprised if the satellite was accidentally knocked out by a "solar flare" (official explanation). I bet they're working on it right now....

[ThreeOfSeven]

Propaganda and censorship will not win over the Arabs and Muslims. We need to tackle the popular grievances that lead to hatred of America and support for Osama bin Laden's war on America.

[cake_crumb]

The US can indeed control the outflow of information to Arab countries. At least, we can start an outflow of information to Muslim citizens in those countries, at least those who are online.

How??

All good FReepers, go to planetarabia.com and join their forum. It's free. You don't need to give any personal information to join. In fact, I think I'll just take my own advice and surf on over there right now. Perhaps I can help a few Muslims see the light of wisdom.

I trust that all FReepers will use the same implacable logic that I see so often on this forum. Wish me luck. <G>

[cake_crumb]

Ok, I signed up. They DO want a first/last name, but that's no prob with an alias.

I'm HattieLaBand there.

[a_witness]

Such comments reflect the region's deep-rooted resentment towards US foreign policy and a certain readiness among ordinary Arabs to believe anyone - including the fundamentalist Taliban with which they share few values - rather than listen to Washington. "The reality today is that resentment towards the US and refusal of its policies run so deep, and are so widespread, that it is difficult for whatever it does to be acceptable," says Mohammad al-Sayed Said, deputy director of Cairo's Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies.

Any predominantly Moslem nation will be an unreliable partner. We have very few reliable partners but we must completely destroy our enemies so that no nation ever countenances an attack on the United States again. We must make the price of the attack on the Pentagon extremely high.

Until President Bush has an Arabic speaking Arab-American as a spokesman, the Arabs will win. Ari Fleischer giving excellent briefings is not enough.

No, they will not win. They will submit or be utterly vanquished. They will respect our strength. They will despise our weakness. The Moslems will hate us for the same reason they hate Israel, because we are not a predominantly Moslem nation. They can fear us though and that fear can modify their behaviour.

[cajungirl]

I agree with you. I don't think reason or information or groveliing or food packages will do anything. I think they will understand brute force along with high casualties including innocent people. I think they need to be crushed in such a way that they never think of us without trembling. Note how the Japanese trembled after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The arabs, all of them, respond to fear and might and big weapons. Now the homefront is different. The people here need nice talk, phony concern, and a big push on the idea that we are concerned about the children. The arabs see that as our main weakness. And it is. I feel very ruthless toward these people and hope our war machine is as brutal as it can be.

[cajungirl]

Popular grievances my arse. Their grievances are induced by a ruthless group of arabs who want oil, hegemony and to crush freedom. Their grievances will never end until they get a government of and by the people and they are too ignorant and primitive to build that.

[LarryLied]

Right. This is a good thing, not a negative. Who cares what they think. Or pretend to think. We've got the money, we've got the guns. The hell with them.

And we are also right.

[ignatz_q]

Until President Bush has an Arabic speaking Arab-American as a spokesman, the Arabs will win. Ari Fleischer giving excellent briefings is not enough.

No kidding. This is a fairly insightful article, although it doesn't add much new. There is a PR case to be made directly to the Islamic nations, and we are failing to make it.