One War, Two Fronts
November 2, 2001
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
A month into the war in Afghanistan, the hand-wringing has
already begun over how long this might last. Let's all take
a deep breath and repeat after me: Give war a chance. This
is Afghanistan we're talking about. Check the map. It's far
away.
I have no doubt, for now, that the Bush team has a military
strategy for winning a long war. I do worry, though,
whether it has a public relations strategy for sustaining a
long war. Over time, Arab and Muslim public opinion will
matter. The silent majority in Pakistan, which for now is
supporting President Pervez Musharraf's new-found alliance
with the U.S. - something that is strategically critical
for us - will be influenced by the broad trends in
Arab-Muslim public opinion. So too will the next generation
in the region. It is critical that generation see bin Laden
as a rogue, not a role model. So how do we fight this P.R.
war?
The most important way we win the public relations war is
by first winning the real war - by uprooting the Taliban
regime and the bin Laden network, and sending the message
that this is the fate of anyone who kills 5,000 innocent
Americans. Quite simply, if we win the war and are seen to
be winning, we will have friends and allies in the
Arab-Muslim world. If we are seen as losing the war or
wavering, our allies will disappear in a flash.
Indeed, to read some of the commentaries in the Arab press
is to understand that bin Laden and Saddam Hussein still
have a great deal of popular support. It is no easy trick
to lose a P.R. war to two mass murderers - but we've been
doing just that lately. It is not enough for the White
House just to label them "evildoers." We have to take the
P.R. war right to them, just like the real one.
When the president or his spokesmen are asked about
civilian casualties from our bombing in Afghanistan, they
should answer: "Yes, for the 30th straight day Osama bin
Laden, a mass murderer, has cloaked himself in a human
blanket of Afghan civilians. Unfortunately, this has led to
some civilian deaths." Or "Yes, for the fourth straight
week Osama bin Laden, the man who sends other Muslims to
their death but never risks his own life, is now sending
Afghans to die for him."
Ditto with Saddam. Whenever U.S. officials speak about
Saddam they should always say: "Saddam Hussein, the man who
has killed more Muslims in the 20th century than any other
human being . . ." (He's killed a million Iranians, Iraqi
Kurds and Kuwaitis.) Or they should point out that Saddam
and bin Laden are "the world's two biggest hijackers - they
have each hijacked a country and are holding its civilians
hostage, and we're trying to liberate them."
Besides playing better defense, we also need to play
offense. Yes, it's time for the Bush administration to do
more to get the poisonous Palestinian-Israeli conflict off
TV. It doesn't have to solve it, but it should send a
serious, high-level U.S. envoy to work on a real cease-fire
or interim deal. Israelis and Palestinians on their own are
not going to find a way out of this dead end. Negotiations
won't end all the violence, but they might at least create
a competing story line and dynamic.
But we can't play offense by ourselves. It is not enough
for our allies Egypt, Saudi Arabia or Kuwait to issue one
formal statement in support of the U.S. and then duck for
cover. Not a single Arab-Muslim leader has yet answered bin
Laden's taped message, which was heard all over the world.
Our Arab-Muslim allies have to give their people a vision
of why they are with us - not just secretly let us use
their bases while their newspapers fuel anti-American rage.
Bin Laden told the Arabs that the Arab modernizing strategy
had failed and all that was left was Islam - particularly
his angry, retrograde version. Egypt, the leading Arab
country, needs to take on that bin Laden message and insist
that there is an Arab vision that can blend modernism with
respect for Arab culture and tradition. And Saudi Arabia,
the leading Muslim state, has to take on that bin Laden
message and insist that there is a Muslim ideal that can
blend faith, tolerance and modernity.
But to sell that vision they first have to have that
vision.
Bottom line: We can't win the P.R. war with polite
arguments, passive diplomacy or allies that are afraid to
claim the future from a man who wants to bury it with the
past.
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