WASHINGTON: When Barack Obama, the president-elect takes office next month, he plans to wage and win — or at least conclude — two wars. And he must confront unpredictable states with nuclear ambitions and seek to repair the nation’s tarnished reputation around the world.
Yesterday, Obama announced that he will keep, for at least one year, Robert Gates, the current Secretary of Defense.
Gates has spearheaded the Defense Department’s increasing belief that after seven years of war on terror it has become apparent that final victory must be won not only on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, but also in the hearts and minds of the people in the region. Now he is proposing developing “influence websites” that would support combat commanders and local populations.
Ayman Zawahiri, an Al-Qaeda deputy, observed in 2005 that “More than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media. We are in a media battle, a race for the hearts and minds of our Ummah [community].”
Many political observers here believe he was right. In an age when information can be accessed easily and instantly via satellite television, the Internet, and cell phones, perception heavily influences and can sometimes even becomes reality. Al-Qaeda and insurgent groups in Iraq have utilized these technologies to spread daily press releases, weekly and monthly magazines, video clips, full-length films, and even television programs.
James Glassman, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, recently stressed this during a briefing with foreign correspondents, saying that communication has proved effective in the past — but in “the early 1990s, the US began in bipartisan fashion to dismantle this arsenal of persuasion.
“Shortly after 9/11, the tide began to turn, but slowly. One of the biggest advocates of public diplomacy in government is the Secretary of Defense.
Glassman said the broadcasts are working. “Every week, 175 million adults around the world tune in to programming of US. international broadcasting, in a total of 60 languages — that is more than any other international broadcaster — from the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Al Hurra, Radio Sawa, Radio and TV Marti, Radio Free Asia.”
He said that indicated a 75 percent increase in audience since 2002, half of which are Arabic speakers.
He highlighted “Al-Hurra, Arabic for “The Free One,” a commercial-free Arabic language satellite television network for the Middle East devoted primarily to news and information.
