US admits the war for `hearts and minds’ in Iraq is now lost – [Sunday Herald]
THE Pentagon has admitted that the war on terror and the invasion and occupation of Iraq have increased support for al-Qaeda, made ordinary Muslims hate the US and caused a global backlash against America because of the “self-serving hypocrisy� of George W Bush’s administration over the Middle East.
The mea culpa is contained in a shockingly frank “strategic communications� report, written this autumn by the Defence Science Board for Pentagon supremo Donald Rumsfeld.
On “the war of ideas or the struggle for hearts and minds�, the report says, “American efforts have not only failed, they may also have achieved the opposite of what they intended�.
“American direct intervention in the Muslim world has paradoxically elevated the stature of, and support for, radical Islamists, while diminishing support for the United States to single digits in some Arab societies.�
Referring to the repeated mantra from the White House that those who oppose the US in the Middle East “hate our freedomsâ€?, the report says: “Muslims do not ‘hate our freedoms’, but rather, they hate our policies. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favour of Israel and against Palestinian rights, and the long-standing, even increasing support, for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan and the Gulf states.
It’s kind of comforting that they realize this, I guess.
