Feel The Love

You want to know how Karen Hughes is doing in her position to "promote America's values and confront ideological support for terrorism around the world"? Well, you know it's bad when the U.S. military can't hire Iraqis in Germany to play-act as noncombatants in military training scenarios.

The Army has built a dozen mock villages complete with shops, gas stations, mosques, and prisons at the installation. The US army says making simulations more realistic saves both American and Iraqi lives.

It's now seeking hundreds of Arabs and Kurds to play Iraqi civilians in an elaborate three-week war game beginning March 20. Some will play imams or shopkeepers, others housewives or politicians. Most will speak only Arabic and pretend not to understand soldiers.

But there's a hitch: Unlike in the US, where hundreds of Iraqi Americans have eagerly taken part in life-like training exercises, many Arabs here are so angry at the US that the contractor charged with recruiting role players has been struggling to fill its quota.

"As soon as they hear it involves working with the US military, many people want nothing to do with it," says one recruiter, who asked that his name be withheld.

Yeah. Keep up the good work, Karen.

Comments

[leftend]

I'm among the last people you'll ever hear defend Karen Hughes. But I feel I should point out that blaming the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs for the terrible image of the U.S. amongst ethnic Arabs and Kurds in Germany is a lot like blaming the head cheerleader for a football team that just lost 55-0.

I don't care if you have a combination of Bill Clinton, Edward R. Murrow and Martin Luther King Jr running public diplomacy for the United States. NO ONE could sell U.S. policy in Iraq - because it is completely unsellable.

Even the best public diplomacy cannot be a cover for bad policy. Like a few of us like to say - it's like putting lipstick on a pig.

[J.]

Hey, I agree that it's an impossible job, but she wrote and volunteered for the job. Now she has to own up to utterly failing at it. I haven't even seen an honest effort either, so I cut her no slack.

[Shawn Powers]

I disagree with your assessment that the contractor's failure to secure the support of Arabs in Germany should be blamed on Hughes. If the goal of American public diplomacy is to procure support for its military endeavors, then it is certain to fail. Perhaps part of the reason this blog asserts that Hughes has failed to do even an honest job is due to the unwieldy and counterproductive goals that it places on public diplomacy initiatives.

[J.]

Shawn, I don't blame Karen Hughes for the contractor's failure, rather I assess the contractor's problems as indicative that Hughes has failed in her mission - which she basically created with Bush's blessing - to improve America's image in the Middle East. She didn't let her inability to understand the Arab world or her inability to do other than sing Bush's praises stop her for a moment, and now we see the fruits of her labor.