Post by SoulTrainOz on Jun 18, 2006 5:33:59 GMT -5
Rebeca Chapa, San Antonio Express-News
State Department officials may have tried hard to stuff it back in, but the public relations genie was out of the bottle Monday.
After three detainees at Guantanamo Bay committed suicide by hanging themselves early Saturday, reaction by U.S. and military officials began to kick in.
Rear Adm. Harry Harris called the suicides an act of "asymmetrical warfare," a term used to connote unconventional war tactics.
Suicide is a virulent strategy used by some terrorist groups to further their cause. Was that the case with the two Saudis and the one Yemeni who took their lives? I don't know.
But this argument obscures a larger fact: Most of the 460 or so men detained at the camp in southeastern Cuba have been there for four years or more without being charged, despite official claims of abundant evidence. The National Journal reported in February that only 8 percent of the detainees had connections to al-Qaida. And a Seton Hall Law School study found that "55 percent of the detainees are not determined to have committed any hostile acts against the United States or coalition allies."
Sounds like a pretty bad situation for some of those detainees.
Then came the statement by state department official Colleen Graffy, who told the British Broadcasting Co. that the deaths were just an attempt to cast the United States in a bad light.
"There were means and methods for protestation, and certainly taking their own lives was not necessary," she said. "But it certainly is a good PR move to draw attention."
This comes from a woman who is the deputy assistant secretary of state for public diplomacy. That department, headed by former Bush adviser Karen Hughes, is tasked with improving the image of the United States abroad, isolating terrorist ideology and fostering cultural commonalities across borders.
I don't think characterizing Muslim suicides as a public relations stunt can be considered a diplomatic statement. In fact, Graffy did considerably more damage to the U.S. reputation abroad with her callous statement than anything the prisoners could have done.
Hughes, appointed by Bush last year, drew criticism during a trip to the Middle East when she misquoted a portion of the U.S. Constitution and made assumptions about the desire of Saudi women to drive cars.
This is troubling to me, because Hughes and Graffy represent you and me out there in the world. That's a monumental task for anyone, given the times in which we live. But are these the right people for the job?
Fred Kaplan, writing in Slate last year, lays it out clearly regarding
Hughes.
Put the shoe on the other foot. Let's say some Muslim leader wanted to improve Americans' image of Islam. It's doubtful that he would send as his emissary a woman in a black chador who had spent no time in the United States, possessed no knowledge of our history or movies or pop music, and spoke no English beyond a heavily accented 'Good morning.'."
So maybe it's no wonder that fewer and fewer people have a positive impression of this country.
According to a report issued this week by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, America's image abroad is slipping, even among our closer allies. The war in Iraq and the situation in Iran are cited as the key reasons that opinion is down in most cases to 50 percent.
We're like the loud, annoying frat boy at a party who loves to hear himself talk, but rarely listens to anyone else.
So, really, why should we care about what people in Japan, Spain, Britain or Turkey think of America?
If you have to ask that question, then you probably don't care to hear the answer.
Source : San Antonio Express-News
www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/stories/MYSA061506.ed.chapa.885e33c5.htm
State Department officials may have tried hard to stuff it back in, but the public relations genie was out of the bottle Monday.
After three detainees at Guantanamo Bay committed suicide by hanging themselves early Saturday, reaction by U.S. and military officials began to kick in.
Rear Adm. Harry Harris called the suicides an act of "asymmetrical warfare," a term used to connote unconventional war tactics.
Suicide is a virulent strategy used by some terrorist groups to further their cause. Was that the case with the two Saudis and the one Yemeni who took their lives? I don't know.
But this argument obscures a larger fact: Most of the 460 or so men detained at the camp in southeastern Cuba have been there for four years or more without being charged, despite official claims of abundant evidence. The National Journal reported in February that only 8 percent of the detainees had connections to al-Qaida. And a Seton Hall Law School study found that "55 percent of the detainees are not determined to have committed any hostile acts against the United States or coalition allies."
Sounds like a pretty bad situation for some of those detainees.
Then came the statement by state department official Colleen Graffy, who told the British Broadcasting Co. that the deaths were just an attempt to cast the United States in a bad light.
"There were means and methods for protestation, and certainly taking their own lives was not necessary," she said. "But it certainly is a good PR move to draw attention."
This comes from a woman who is the deputy assistant secretary of state for public diplomacy. That department, headed by former Bush adviser Karen Hughes, is tasked with improving the image of the United States abroad, isolating terrorist ideology and fostering cultural commonalities across borders.
I don't think characterizing Muslim suicides as a public relations stunt can be considered a diplomatic statement. In fact, Graffy did considerably more damage to the U.S. reputation abroad with her callous statement than anything the prisoners could have done.
Hughes, appointed by Bush last year, drew criticism during a trip to the Middle East when she misquoted a portion of the U.S. Constitution and made assumptions about the desire of Saudi women to drive cars.
This is troubling to me, because Hughes and Graffy represent you and me out there in the world. That's a monumental task for anyone, given the times in which we live. But are these the right people for the job?
Fred Kaplan, writing in Slate last year, lays it out clearly regarding
Hughes.
Put the shoe on the other foot. Let's say some Muslim leader wanted to improve Americans' image of Islam. It's doubtful that he would send as his emissary a woman in a black chador who had spent no time in the United States, possessed no knowledge of our history or movies or pop music, and spoke no English beyond a heavily accented 'Good morning.'."
So maybe it's no wonder that fewer and fewer people have a positive impression of this country.
According to a report issued this week by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, America's image abroad is slipping, even among our closer allies. The war in Iraq and the situation in Iran are cited as the key reasons that opinion is down in most cases to 50 percent.
We're like the loud, annoying frat boy at a party who loves to hear himself talk, but rarely listens to anyone else.
So, really, why should we care about what people in Japan, Spain, Britain or Turkey think of America?
If you have to ask that question, then you probably don't care to hear the answer.
Source : San Antonio Express-News
www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/stories/MYSA061506.ed.chapa.885e33c5.htm