Al Qaeda in the media battle space

CNN:

The man nominated to head public diplomacy at the State Department said Wednesday that al Qaeda is doing a better job than the Bush administration in winning friends over the Internet.

"Our enemies are eating our lunch in terms of getting the word out in digital technology," said James Glassman.

He was answering questions at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

If approved by the committee and then by the Senate, Glassman would succeed President Bush's longtime friend and adviser Karen Hughes as assistant secretary of state for public diplomacy.

Glassman is now the chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors -- responsible for the radio, television and Internet networks paid for by U.S. taxpayers -- such as the Voice of America, available in dozens of languages, and Arabic language Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa.

Hughes stepped down from her State Department post in December.

Glassman's comments Wednesday echoed a November speech by Defense Secretary Robert Gates in which he said the United States needs more speed, agility and cultural relevance in its communications.

"Public relations was invented in the United States, yet we are miserable at communicating to the rest of the world what we are about as a society and a culture, about freedom and democracy, about our policies and our goals," Gates said.

"It is just plain embarrassing that al Qaeda is better at communicating its message on the Internet than America."

Glassman said he agrees "with the spirit" of Gates' criticism and said he would continue the work begun by Hughes and others to use person-to-person contacts, student and cultural exchanges and new technologies to push the United States' message.

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Our enemy is not competing with us on the issue of freedom and democracy. He sees both as flaws in our culture and not a virtue. The enemy is part of an Islamic supremacy movement that hates freedom and democracy and wants to install a theocracy where rules devised by men are not permitted. For some reason much of our media and many people in the US do not comprehend this reality about the enemy and his objectives. They do not want to have a dialog with us, they want to destroy us.

There are areas where the US is winning the war of ideas. Anbar province is one. Here is what one police chief said:

"In 2002 and 2003, we thought Al Qaeda was just another Muslim group. Now, you can go far out into the desert and talk to even a shepherd, and he will tell you that he hates Al Qaeda. One hundred years from now, you will be able to go into the desert and talk to a shepherd and he will still tell you that he hates Al Qaeda."

This fundamental change in attitudes happened despite al Qaeda's propaganda effort, because the reality of al Qaeda rule was so horrible. It is too bad that change in attitude has not slipped into the halls of Congress where some want to abandon these people who have joined our side in this war.

Two years ago the media operation of al Qaeda was more effective. You have to remember that most of their operations are more of a PR event than a military event. None of their attacks are militarily significant even when they are attacking military targets instead of non combatants. But, their game was to engage in mass murder of non combatants through the use of men not wearing an identifying uniform in violation of the Geneva Conventions. They were perpetrating two war crimes in these operations and the media never discussed either, focusing instead on criticism of the US and Iraqi forces for not stopping the attack.

The effect of the surge has been to greatly reduce the enemy's capacity to conduct these operations and has therefore reduced their PR campaign. It would be a egregious mistake to withdraw from this effort and hand another PR victory to the enemy that he has not earned. Al Qaeda is already mocking the Aussies for their withdrawal. You can guess what they will be saying if the Democrats get their way.