Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Media: The Associated Press
Byline: ANNE GEARAN
Date: 28 September 2006
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 George W. 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, continued U.S. 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 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 latest excuse" for
anti-American grievance in the Muslim world.
"A lot of the world did not agree with what we did in going 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." She
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.
Hughes said she often hears from parents in what she called conservative
societies overseas who feel "under assault" by American culture.
Byline: ANNE GEARAN
Date: 28 September 2006
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 George W. 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, continued U.S. 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 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 latest excuse" for
anti-American grievance in the Muslim world.
"A lot of the world did not agree with what we did in going 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." She
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.
Hughes said she often hears from parents in what she called conservative
societies overseas who feel "under assault" by American culture.