By Moutasem Al Brezat

October Issue

Original Article (English)

—C-SPAN VIDEO: Karen Hughes Discusses Bush Administration Strategy
for Improving U.S. image, Nov. 4, 00:27:20

U.S. Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes has concluded her diplomatic voyage to repair AmericaÌs image in the region. Aside from considerations of success or failure, what is more important about this visit is its ethical dimension.

First, the entire campaign was intended to alter the way Muslims perceive the United States and its policies. An objective based on the assumption that: ÏIt is a problem inherent to Muslims that they fail to understand the heavenly foreign policies and holy wars of the United States to bring justice and peace to the Muslim World.Ó

As the United States claims that it is bringing justice and democracy and a whole package of lofty American values to Muslims, it also tries to teach them how to perceive the world and live their lives. Therefore, not only are Muslims ignorant about so-called justice and democracy, but they also lack the common sense to ÏcorrectlyÓ understand the world around them, including U.S. foreign policy. In a nutshell, the U.S. is trying to tell the world how to live, how to think and how to behave! It may sound humiliating for Muslim countries to be treated this way, but who can resist in the face of such an imprudent U.S. Administration?

Hughes With a Child in Banda Aceh Last Month

On her goodwill tour, Mrs. Hughes disrespectfully and implicitly conveyed the message to elite Saudi women that they are not happy; and that they need to act to positively shape the image of Saudi society in the United States. In other words, the world must to change in order to match the aspirations of the United States to become acceptable and right. The American Administration considers everything that doesnÌt conform with U.S. culture or perspective to be wrong and in need of change! What a democracy!

What kind of diplomacy does Hughes practice when she comes to Saudi Arabia on an official visit, meets with the countryÌs leadership, and then turns to Saudi women and incites them against a law on the books in their country?

Regardless of the correctness of that law and whether or not it is just, the point here is how rude and absurd it is to interfere in a countryÌs internal affairs with that kind of insensitivity and lack of diplomatic tact, while on an official visit. Personally speaking, this is just another in a series of blunders, just another sign of arrogance by an American Administration that has become a role model for Ïglobal dictatorshipÓ presented to the world under the guise of ÏGlobalization.Ó

Hughes faced heated and emotional complaints about U.S. foreign policy, and her only defense was the pre-packaged and boring clich» that war is necessary for peace; a distinctive feature of the U.S. Administration, which is best referred to as Ïspin.Ó

Arab Citizen to Hughes: 'U.S. Needs to Change Itself, Not Its Image.' [Ad Dustour, Jordan]

A comparison is possible with Muslims who are trying to burnish the image of Islam in the West. This is an image tarnished by hundreds of years of misleading information and propaganda by biased orientalists driven by religious and cultural enmity, and blemished with false interpretation and practices perpetuated by some Muslim individuals and groups who - to be fair - represent only themselves.

While Muslims are trying to present Islam in its pure divine form without human interpretation, Hughes, on the other hand, is trying to convince the world that invading other countries, abusing their resources and subjugating their people are in the interest of those very same countries. What a paradox!

Instead of reconsidering AmericaÌs colonial foreign policy that taking Washington from one war to another, creating foes in every corner of the globe, the U.S. Administration wants the world to change the basic, instinctive sense of justice that man has been created with. Americans want to know why there is growing hatred toward everything American. The only answers they receive, however, are those given them by their own media monopoly giants that have for so long claimed to be fair and independent.

Repairing AmericaÌs image cannot be achieved through PR missions or the art of advertising, as may have once have been the case - a ton of surplus rice here or a load of expired cornflakes there. If America wants the world to change, it has to change itself. If the intention is good, action speaks louder than words.

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