Pentagon report challenges U.S. policies

[lovuian]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=148c5f9b9331c82f

Pentagon report challenges U.S. policies
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Big News Network.com Friday 24th December, 2004

A largely unnoticed, recently released report drafted by an important and mostly invisible Pentagon advisory group -- the Defense Science Board, or DSB -- contained surprisingly strong criticism of the Bush administration's approach to the global war on terror.

The report was titled "strategic communication." In plain English, that means waging and winning the war of ideas between the United States and Islamic extremism. The blunt conclusion of this group of outside experts was that "U.S. strategic communication must be transformed" because it "is in crisis." In plainer English, in the global war on terror, the United States is simply not communicating its message at home or abroad and is losing this contest of ideas.

The report also challenged key administration foreign policy assertions. Americans have been repeatedly told by the Bush administration that terrorists are out to kill us because they hate America and its democracy. But the report observed that "Muslims do not 'hate our freedom;' they hate our policies" and in particular, "what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestin(e)." And the optimistic assessments offered by the administration of post-war nation building in Afghanistan and Iraq, were countered by: "in the eyes of Muslims, American occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq have not led to democracy there but only more chaos and suffering."

The DSB report further observed that the United States "is engaged in a generational and global struggle about ideas, not a war between the West and Islam" and the fight is "more than a war against the tactic of terrorism." Hence, DSB Chairman William Schneider advised: "To win ... (this) ... global battle of ideas, a global strategy for communicating those ideas is essential," a requirement senior government officials clearly understand.

more...

Wow they called Bush administration DYSFUNCTIONAL!!!

[Moderator]

1. not Late Breaking News, locking

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1020158