In October 2003, reflecting on progress after two years of waging the global
war on terrorism, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asked his advisers:
"Are we capturing, killing or deterring and dissuading more terrorists
every day than the madrassas and the radical clerics are recruiting, training
and deploying against us? Does the US need to fashion a broad, integrated plan
to stop the next generation of terrorists? The US is putting relatively little
effort into a long-range plan, but we are putting a great deal of effort into
trying to stop terrorists. The cost-benefit ratio is against us! Our cost is
billions against the terrorists' costs of millions."22
These are the right questions. Our answer is that we need short-term action
on a long-range strategy, one that invigorates our foreign policy with the
attention that the President and Congress have given to the military and
intelligence parts of the conflict against Islamist terrorism.
Engage the Struggle of Ideas
The United States is heavily engaged in the Muslim world and will be for many
years to come. This American engagement is resented. Polls in 2002 found that
among America's friends, like Egypt-the recipient of more U.S. aid for the past
20 years than any other Muslim country-only 15 percent of the population had a
favorable opinion of the United States. In Saudi Arabia the number was 12
percent. And two-thirds of those surveyed in 2003 in countries from Indonesia to
Turkey (a NATO ally) were very or somewhat fearful that the United States may
attack them.23
Support for the United States has plummeted. Polls taken in Islamic countries
after 9/11 suggested that many or most people thought the United States was
doing the right thing in its fight against terrorism; few people saw popular
support for al Qaeda; half of those surveyed said that ordinary people had a
favorable view of the United States. By 2003, polls showed that "the bottom
has fallen out of support for America in most of the Muslim world. Negative
views of the U.S. among Muslims, which had been largely limited to countries in
the Middle East, have spread.. . . Since last summer, favorable ratings for the
U.S. have fallen from 61% to 15% in Indonesia and from 71% to 38% among Muslims
in Nigeria."24
Many of these views are at best uninformed about the United States and, at
worst, informed by cartoonish stereotypes, the coarse expression of a
fashionable "Occidentalism" among intellectuals who caricature U.S.
values and policies. Local newspapers and the few influential satellite
broadcasters-like al Jazeera-often reinforce the jihadist theme that portrays
the United States as anti-Muslim.25
The small percentage of Muslims who are fully committed to Usama Bin Ladin's
version of Islam are impervious to persuasion. It is among the large majority of
Arabs and Muslims that we must encourage reform, freedom, democracy, and
opportunity, even though our own promotion of these messages is limited in its
effectiveness simply because we are its carriers. Muslims themselves will have
to reflect upon such basic issues as the concept of jihad, the position of
women, and the place of non-Muslim minorities. The United States can promote
moderation, but cannot ensure its ascendancy. Only Muslims can do this.
The setting is difficult. The combined gross domestic product of the 22
countries in the Arab League is less than the GDP of Spain. Forty percent of
adult Arabs are illiterate, two-thirds of them women. One-third of the broader
Middle East lives on less than two dollars a day. Less than 2 percent of the
population has access to the Internet. The majority of older Arab youths have
expressed a desire to emigrate to other countries, particularly those in Europe.26
In short, the United States has to help defeat an ideology, not just a group
of people, and we must do so under difficult circumstances. How can the United
States and its friends help moderate Muslims combat the extremist ideas?
Recommendation: The U.S. government must define what the message is,
what it stands for. We should offer an example of moral leadership in the world,
committed to treat people humanely, abide by the rule of law, and be generous
and caring to our neighbors. America and Muslim friends can agree on respect for
human dignity and opportunity. To Muslim parents, terrorists like Bin Ladin have
nothing to offer their children but visions of violence and death. America and
its friends have a crucial advantage-we can offer these parents a vision that
might give their children a better future. If we heed the views of thoughtful
leaders in the Arab and Muslim world, a moderate consensus can be found.
That vision of the future should stress life over death: individual
educational and economic opportunity. This vision includes widespread political
participation and contempt for indiscriminate violence. It includes respect for
the rule of law, openness in discussing differences, and tolerance for opposing
points of view.
Recommendation: Where Muslim governments, even those who are friends,
do not respect these principles, the United States must stand for a better
future. One of the lessons of the long Cold War was that short-term gains in
cooperating with the most repressive and brutal governments were too often
outweighed by long-term setbacks for America's stature and interests.
American foreign policy is part of the message. America's policy choices have
consequences. Right or wrong, it is simply a fact that American policy regarding
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and American actions in Iraq are dominant
staples of popular commentary across the Arab and Muslim world. That does not
mean U.S. choices have been wrong. It means those choices must be integrated
with America's message of opportunity to the Arab and Muslim world. Neither
Israel nor the new Iraq will be safer if worldwide Islamist terrorism grows
stronger.
The United States must do more to communicate its message. Reflecting on Bin
Ladin's success in reaching Muslim audiences, Richard Holbrooke wondered,
"How can a man in a cave outcommunicate the world's leading communications
society?" Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage worried to us that
Americans have been "exporting our fears and our anger," not our
vision of opportunity and hope.27
Recommendation: Just as we did in the Cold War, we need to defend our
ideals abroad vigorously. America does stand up for its values. The United
States defended, and still defends, Muslims against tyrants and criminals in
Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. If the United States does not
act aggressively to define itself in the Islamic world, the extremists will
gladly do the job for us.
- Recognizing that Arab and Muslim audiences rely on satellite
television and radio, the government has begun some promising initiatives in
television and radio broadcasting to the Arab world, Iran, and Afghanistan.
These efforts are beginning to reach large audiences. The Broadcasting Board
of Governors has asked for much larger resources. It should get them.
- The United States should rebuild the scholarship, exchange, and
library programs that reach out to young people and offer them knowledge and
hope. Where such assistance is provided, it should be identified as coming
from the citizens of the United States.
