Top-level report calls *'s war "unmitigated disaster"

[flygal]

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http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2004/12/02/pentagon/index.html

snip

The new Pentagon Paper
A scathing top-level report, intended for internal consumption, says that Bush's "war on terrorism" is an unmitigated disaster. Of course, the administration is ignoring it.

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By Sidney Blumenthal



Dec. 2, 2004 | Who wrote this -- a pop sociologist, obscure blogger or antiwar playwright? "Finally, Muslims see Americans as strangely narcissistic -- namely, that the war is all about us. As the Muslims see it, everything about the war is -- for Americans -- really no more than an extension of American domestic politics and its great game. This perception is of course necessarily heightened by election-year atmospherics, but nonetheless sustains their impression that when Americans talk to Muslims they are really just talking to themselves."

This passage is not psychobabble, punditry or monologue. It is a conclusion of the Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Strategic Communication, the product of a Pentagon advisory panel, delivered in September, its 102 pages not released to the public during the presidential campaign, but silently slipped onto a Pentagon Web site on Thanksgiving eve, and barely noticed by the U.S. press.

The task force of leading strategists and experts within the military, diplomatic corps and academia, and executives from defense-oriented business, was assigned to develop strategy for communications in the "global war on terrorism," including the war in Iraq. It had unfettered access, denied to journalists, to the inner workings of the national security apparatus, and interviewed scores of officials. The mission was not to find fault, but to suggest constructive improvements. There was no intent to contribute to public debate, much less political controversy; the report was written only for internal consumption.

[lovuian]

1. Doh!!! No DA!!! 3 years of disaster for America

and when will it stop???

[Rumba]

2. link to pdf of the report

http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/2004-09-Strategic_Communication.pdf#search='report%20defense%20science%20board%20task%20force%20on%20strategic%20communication'

See section 1.2, starting on page 14.

[GoBlue]

8. This captures it -from the pdf file

Since the Defense Science Board’s October 2001 Task Force study, more than 15 private sector and Congressional reports have examined public diplomacy: ...

There is consensus in these reports that U.S. public diplomacy is in crisis. Missing are strong leadership, strategic direction, adequate coordination, sufficient resources, and a culture of measurement and evaluation. America’s image problem, many suggest, is linked to perceptions of the United States as arrogant, hypocritical, and self-indulgent.

BTW I had a bit of trouble locating section 1.2; it is on page 22 of the pdf file but page 14 of the actual report.

[leftchick]

9. amazing isn't it.....

finally some truth and it is kept buried. Can't let those lazy AmeriKans know that the "war on terra" is an abject failure just like * * .

[kc.ink]

3. Rally against the Election Fraud and the WAR, bring the troops home NOW!

[Straight Shooter]

4. Unmitigated disaster

Well, there goes all hope of bush promoting his "catastrophic success." :eyes:

What irks me about papers like this is that the Pentagon could call just about anybody on DU and get this same conclusion at no charge.

Wake up, America, and smell the damn coffee.

[Old and In the Way]

5. "suggest constructive improvements"

Impeach Bush and Cheney.

Really, what other option is there?

[JohnOneillsMemory]

6. "Umm, the bombing, it's about me, not you. So don't feel rejected." n/t

[Erika]

7. Bush Brags: Democracy from Tehran To Israel

In his Canadian speech. He's just getting warmed up. He's totally delusional. See our deaths at www.icasualties.org. He's got the GOP House and Senate to service his delusions.

[Moderator]

10. Opinion piece

However much we agree with it, it is clearly marked "opinion."