Telling America's story
America could be on the verge of winning a victory against terrorism even more significant than it looks. Not only do the days of Osama bin Laden seem numbered, but authoritative sources say that if he and his henchmen are caught, the United States could also buy as much as two years of peace before another mass assault like September 11. That doesn't mean the war against terrorism will be won. Far from it. The United States remains vulnerable to terrorists and must make urgent efforts to beef up defenses at home. Overseas, we have a clear interest in toppling Saddam Hussein--by military means if we have evidence of his complicity in the World Trade Center attacks, by other means if we don't. We must be aggressive, as well, in breaking up other terrorist outfits.
Al Qaeda, however, is said to be the one network that has both the capacity and will to carry off attacks as complicated as the one in September. If we can remove the threat of al Qaeda so quickly and with so little loss of civilian life--a big plus with moderate Arabs--the U.S. military and the Bush administration will deserve immense credit.
But even as we carry the fight to other terrorists, how can we begin to reverse our losses in the psychological war within the Muslim world? We may win today's war, but how do we secure tomorrow's peace? How do we build new bridges of trust so that Muslim lands do not remain a breeding ground for new waves of terrorists? Reading recent commentaries, one might suppose that the struggle for "hearts and minds" is hopeless. No matter how often Americans give interviews, the television network al Jazeera will continue to spew out poison against the United States and Israel to its 35 million Arab viewers. With public schools so backward, millions of young Muslims will continue to seek instruction in madrasahs, religious institutions that are virulently anti-American and are currently backed by billions in Saudi money. Some Muslim parents will still have large families so they can supply more fighters for a jihad.
Arab sympathies will all rest with Saddam and may soon turn Osama bin Laden into the Che Guevara of the Middle East.
So, the struggle for gaining an appreciation of America will be daunting. But we must try. In the past 20 years, America has done a lousy job of telling its story in Arab lands. Not only have we been indifferent to moderates who might be our friends, but penny pinchers in Congress have dismantled some of the few assets we had. Our embassies overseas no longer have libraries, once popular gathering places for foreign nationals. We have also wiped out the United States Information Agency, canceled Arab-language magazines, and cut back on cultural tours that helped in building bridges.
Trust. We should restore all those things and be much more imaginative in getting out some basic facts. As President Clinton told audiences last week at Harvard, most Arabs don't seem to know that Americans respect the Muslim faith so much that it is the fastest-growing religion in the country. They seem unaware that Muslims were among the victims of September 11, killed in clear violation of the Koran. And that when the FBI recently asked for 200 Arabic speakers to help them combat terrorism, there were 15,000 volunteers.
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