we're losing
Be sure to check out this post over at DailyKos. The Pentagon Defense Science Board's new report shows that we're making Arab opinion of the US worse. Nobody's buying our self-serving democratization rhetoric.
The expected reaction from hawks is that we're not trying to make friends, we're trying to win a war. Well, fine. But if you grant that the threat we face is a function of the hatred felt toward our nation, then our only remedies are elminating the threats militarily, or eliminating the hatred -- it's all a question of where you can most effectively cut the causal chain that ends with dead Americans.
Isn't it clear by now that our military isn't large enough to pacify even Iraq? If the military option isn't really an option, will we ever be able to swallow our pride and pursue a realistic strategy?
(I bet you thought the election had cured us of the preachy political posts.)
Comments
Slightly off topic, but do you think Arabs are aware of how they are portrayed in our popular culture? And how our media and government want us to hate them. For example, there’s an Army Special Forces commercial (only aired after midnight) that tries to attract potential recruits by showing existing U.S. forces ambushing gun-running Arabs in the desert. I realize that we are at war with these people, but this is distasteful. The message is more “kill Arabs” than “serve your country.” Also, a few months ago, there was controversy over the Prince video for “Cinnamon Girl” in which an Arab-looking girl expresses her frustrations of not being listened to by committing a suicide bombing in a public place. I guess this is why terrorists commit some of their acts, but in the end I only think it reinforces our country’s negative stereotype of these people. I hate sounding like a bleeding-heart liberal, but this all seems to be war propaganda.
I don't think it's a surprise that the Arab community isn't a big fan of us. As an American, I'm not too happy with ourselves, and we're not the ones getting bombed daily.
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