By PLS
I was preparing to lampoon the latest public diplomacy quick fix to emanate from the office of Bush lackey Karen Hughes when, at breakfast in Dubai last Sunday, I came upon an editorial in the Gulf News that says it all.
The title was: “Another Waste of Taxpayers Money.”
The summary sentence was: “The plan to ‘shape the views of Muslim youths’ about America is bound to fail.”
And here’s the full text:
Karen Hughes is back—with another project. A confidante of President George W. Bush who has become the most powerful United States public diplomacy czar in decades, Hughes has come up with a new idea to “shape the views of Muslim youths’ toward America," following many months of impotent projects that failed to change the perceptions of Arabs and Muslims. The new scheme, which the State Department says will be the first comprehensive public diplomacy effort targeting Muslim children, is also designed to “counter negative images” of the United States.
She had US embassies in 14 Islamic countries this summer come up with pilot programmes for that age bracket, and spent nearly $1 million on projects that involved about 6,000 youths and hundreds of local partnering organizations. For example, in Baghdad, 41 Iraqi students “learned about baseball” and the English language over three days this summer. A photo of the group meeting with US Ambassador Ryan Crocker hangs on the door of Hughes’s office at the State Department. She got that picture, but Hughes certainly didn’t get the message last time around. She, and other simple-minded officials in Washington, refuse to admit that their so-called outreach programme will not work unless accompanied by a change in US policies [my itals].
Millions of dollars spent on projects aimed to tell us how wonderful the US is will not erase memories of victims around the region who have lost families to US attacks or Israeli bombs made and delivered by mighty America. How can our children forget the now infamous images of Israeli children writing death messages on US-made Israeli bombs that were dropped on Lebanese villages? Hughes would be better off saving taxpayers’ money by asking her boss to be the honest broker he promised to be over the Middle East. She could try that—it may work.