Adm. Mullen Discovers Elephant in Paper Bag
There's an interesting piece in the New York Times on the criticisms of the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, Admiral Mullen, of the entire concept of strategic communication.
Strategic Communication is the latest attempt by the US to reach out to the Muslim world, an attempt to combat the multi-level propaganda campaign put together by Islamic extremists, the narrative in which the US is a global empire, seeking to put the entire world under its sway. And, unfortunately, it hasn't been working very well. Mullen thinks he knows why, and points out the bear hiding in the telephone booth.
"That’s the essence of good communication: having the right intent up front and letting our actions speak for themselves,” Admiral Mullen wrote. “We shouldn’t care if people don’t like us. That isn’t the goal. The goal is credibility. And we earn that over time."
America may be a powerful nation, and an international brand, but at heart it is about an alarmingly simple idea, one that we have borrowed from and shared with the rest of the world. That we the people hold forth as self-evident the truth that all men are created equal, and that they must not be judged by their sex, their beliefs, or the color of the skin, but by the content of their character, and that protecting the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness should be the goal of a government by the people, of the people, and for the people. To the billions of people who live under the hand of incompetent, corrupt, cruel and totalitarian governments around the world, it stands as a shining promise of liberation.
But America has not often lived up to her promise. The nation that supports freedom and equality at home supports those nations abroad which shun those very values; she turns her back on movements aligned with her own ideals while propping up dictators that serve her current interests, and is then surprised when those same dictators later prove intractable.
In the short term, nations, peoples, and the world will follow us when our interests coincide, but that does not often lead to long-term results. If we want the rest of the world to look upon us favorably for the next century, to stand by us when we need allies, and to ensure basic human rights, we will need the support and admiration of their people, a task beyond the scope of diplomatic agreements. This level of trust has to be earned, and it can only be earned by treating the world not as clay to be shaped, but as a garden to be cultivated. Sometimes a promising plant will bear no fruit, sometimes what we thought was an apple will turn out to be a pear, but we must not use that as an excuse to supplant, to tear down, but only see it as a minor check on our way to the harvest.
If we want a world full of friendly and trustworthy democracies, then we should start encouraging those movements and those people now, even if it hurts our short term interests. Otherwise we'll still be trying to reach out to our enemies in a hundred years.
Strategic Communication is the latest attempt by the US to reach out to the Muslim world, an attempt to combat the multi-level propaganda campaign put together by Islamic extremists, the narrative in which the US is a global empire, seeking to put the entire world under its sway. And, unfortunately, it hasn't been working very well. Mullen thinks he knows why, and points out the bear hiding in the telephone booth.
"That’s the essence of good communication: having the right intent up front and letting our actions speak for themselves,” Admiral Mullen wrote. “We shouldn’t care if people don’t like us. That isn’t the goal. The goal is credibility. And we earn that over time."
America may be a powerful nation, and an international brand, but at heart it is about an alarmingly simple idea, one that we have borrowed from and shared with the rest of the world. That we the people hold forth as self-evident the truth that all men are created equal, and that they must not be judged by their sex, their beliefs, or the color of the skin, but by the content of their character, and that protecting the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness should be the goal of a government by the people, of the people, and for the people. To the billions of people who live under the hand of incompetent, corrupt, cruel and totalitarian governments around the world, it stands as a shining promise of liberation.
But America has not often lived up to her promise. The nation that supports freedom and equality at home supports those nations abroad which shun those very values; she turns her back on movements aligned with her own ideals while propping up dictators that serve her current interests, and is then surprised when those same dictators later prove intractable.
In the short term, nations, peoples, and the world will follow us when our interests coincide, but that does not often lead to long-term results. If we want the rest of the world to look upon us favorably for the next century, to stand by us when we need allies, and to ensure basic human rights, we will need the support and admiration of their people, a task beyond the scope of diplomatic agreements. This level of trust has to be earned, and it can only be earned by treating the world not as clay to be shaped, but as a garden to be cultivated. Sometimes a promising plant will bear no fruit, sometimes what we thought was an apple will turn out to be a pear, but we must not use that as an excuse to supplant, to tear down, but only see it as a minor check on our way to the harvest.
If we want a world full of friendly and trustworthy democracies, then we should start encouraging those movements and those people now, even if it hurts our short term interests. Otherwise we'll still be trying to reach out to our enemies in a hundred years.