The First Casualty of War!
Expect to see this repackaged in 3 months.
Why don't they call it the TRUTH SQUAD?
Rumsfeld: Is He Really The Last To Know?
Pentagon Chief Claims He's In Dark On Reported Public Opinion Campaign
POSTED: 5:49 p.m. EST December 19, 2002
UPDATED: 6:02 p.m. EST December 19, 2002
WASHINGTON -- Some Pentagon planners have come up with a secret directive for the military to undertake covert operations to steer public opinion in allied and neutral countries toward the United States.
Among the propaganda techniques they suggested were discrediting anti-U.S. mosques and religious schools, secretly financing moderate Islamic schools with teachers sympathetic to the West, and paying journalists to write articles favorable to the United States in foreign publications.
The plan, understandably, has triggered a huge debate in the Pentagon, where many feel the military has no business carrying out secret propaganda missions that could use so-called "disinformation" in friendly countries.
When the plan, which was leaked to The New York Times, encountered heavy criticism, the White House on Monday tried to distance itself. Spokesman Ari Fleischer promised that President George W. Bush would not approve anything that involved lying.
Then on Tuesday afternoon, when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was asked about the proposed directive at a news conference, he claimed to have learned about it only a few minutes earlier.
This is a man who has almost total control of everything that goes on in the Pentagon and who certainly knows what's happening -- especially in the strategic planning offices. But to hear him tell it, he was the last to know.
In the past he has voiced frustration that the government has no coherent plan to mold world opinion so that it will favor the U.S.-led global campaign against terrorism.
And on Tuesday he complained that the United States and its allies are organized militarily to fight wars against the armies of nations and that now "we have a whole series of threats with the very lethal weapons in the hands of individuals and networks."
That is why, he said, he has asked the Pentagon planners to "put your thinking caps on. How in the world are we going to change this institution so that we can help defend the American people?"
He said a lot of the ideas the thinkers come up with never get to the top level, where he presides. However, the secretary added, some Pentagon tipster probably handed some classified papers on the propaganda proposal to a reporter and said, "Why don't you write an article about this?"
All I can say is that the anonymous tipster who passed on this example of loony thinking at the Pentagon performed a real service. Obviously, the American people should have been alerted.
I've thought about Rumsfeld's dilemma, and he is right: There are new problems facing the country since the horrific Sept. 11 attacks and our declaration of war against terrorism.
But I'm wondering if, when he asked the Pentagon policy makers to think creatively about ways to combat U.S. public relations problems in other countries, he urged them to stay within the bounds of credibility.
He did say that "we don't intend to do things that are in any way inconsistent with the laws, or our Constitution, or the principles and values of our country."
But earlier this year a new Pentagon bureau, the Office of Strategic Influence, was set up to find ways to plant false information with supposedly unwitting foreign journalists. When the story broke and Bush found out about it, he forced Rumsfeld to close the office.
So far the world has been with us in the struggle against terrorism, but not all nations are on board for another Persian Gulf War against Iraq. And Americans going abroad over the last year have encountered great hostility in the Middle East, Europe and Asia in places where we once enjoyed immense good will.
There is nothing wrong with trying to promote our point of view and persuade our allies that our policies are right and just. But to win back their hearts and minds, we first have to understand what has alienated them.
I doubt that we can woo them with phony propaganda. The world is too small and communications are too great for deception to succeed.
Often, what people around the world hear from their broadcast outlets and read in their newspapers are belligerent statements from our leaders.
,B>The nonpartisan Pew Research Center, in association with the International Herald Tribune, reported on Dec. 5 that "the global image of the United States has suffered a dramatic bruising in the two years, most seriously in Muslim countries but also to a surprising extent among many traditional allies."
The survey of 38,000 people in 44 countries found that "while majorities in nearly every country supported the U.S.-led war on terrorism, U.S. threats of war against Iraq appear to have heightened concerns ... about an American foreign policy seen as overly aggressive and insufficiently concerned with the interests of friends and allies."
So Rumsfeld should realize if he wants to play the propaganda war game he should use truth as his weapon. If what we are doing is right, no other explanation is needed. If we are not, none is possible. thebostonchannel.com |
