Hughes Tour "Dialogue of the Absurd": US Analyst
- From: "Faris Jawad" <ana_faris_bila_jawad@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2005 14:28:22 -0400
Hughes Tour "Dialogue of the Absurd": US Analyst
Washington, September 30, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The first
foreign trip of US Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen
Hughes, that took her to the Middle East, was dubbed "absurd" by a US
analyst, casting heavy doubts on possibilities of success in her job to
improve a badly tarnished US image abroad.
Anthony Cordesman, a senior analyst at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies, sharply criticized the US public diplomacy campaign,
saying it had amounted to "a dialogue of the absurd" run by inexperienced
officials, according to Reuters.
"Quite frankly, when I look at what we've done in the field we've turned
democracy into a four-letter word," he told a congressional panel Wednesday
September 28, as Hughes was on the final leg of her trip, that took her
first to Egypt and Saudi Arabia, then Turkey.
"I think we have done in many cases more harm than good, and if nothing
else, if we simply stopped that, it would be a step forward."
On a five-day trip to the three Arab and Muslim heavyweights, Hughes learned
that a lot more than "Engage, Exchange, Educate and Empower" have been lost
in translation between Americans and Muslims, according to Reuters.
The US envoy was in the Mideast for explaining her "four E" strategy to an
audience in Cairo, Jeddah and Ankara.
"They probably don't translate very well into Arabic," she was quoted as
saying with a laugh.
Hughes is a close confidante and image-shaper of President George W. Bush
with no previous experience in foreign diplomacy other than accompanying him
abroad during trips in the first years of his presidency, according to
Reuters.
Christ Coming Back
During her visit to Cairo, Hughes tried to convey a message to Muslims that
the Americans share religious grounds with them as two divine religion
followers.
Hughes held meetings with religious leaders to show Muslims that Americans
too were guided by strong convictions.
But in Ankara, a woman complained about US preachers telling their
congregations that Bush launched the Iraq war to "facilitate Christ coming
back into the world," a flagrant contradiction with Muslim beliefs that such
claims were promoted by astray Jews and Christian neo-conservatives.
It was a point of attack against her during her Ankara visit.
"I was very cognizant that this was a challenge," she said of her mission to
find out why so many Muslims have such a hostile view of the United States
and what she can do about it.
"I expected that I would hear from a lot of people who disagree with our
policies and we did hear that," Hughes told reporters Thursday, September
29, on her way home to Washington.
But she said she did not expect the degree to which Muslims' "perceptions of
America are related to how Americans are seeing them."
Some of the criticism Hughes encountered clearly went beyond perceptions,
resting in the heart of US policy.
The Iraq invasion-turned-occupation and Bush's strategy to bring democracy
to the wider Middle East dogged her every stop.
"I am not anti-American, but I am anti-war and anti-violence," Serpil Sancar
of the Women's Studies Center at Ankara University, told Hughes.
Many were forthright and passionate in expressing their opposition to the
invasion of Iraq and the US push for democracy in the region.
"War is not necessary for peace," said Feray Salman, a human rights
activist. She said that Washington "can never ever export democracy and
freedom from one country to another."
Asked if her job was meaningless because she did not appear to have changed
many minds, Hughes exclaimed: "Should I just throw up my hands and say I
give up?"
http://islamonline.net/English/News/2005-09/30/article04.shtml
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