As Others See US - The "War on Terror"
From: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090806C.shtml
Friday 08 September 2006
The USA's mass media constantly tell us how Americans see the "war on terror." But the same outlets rarely tell us much
about how the rest of the world sees it.
Five years after 9/11, the gap between perceptions is enormous. Countless polls confirm the overall chasm. Yet, day to
day, the media messages that surround us in the United States simply recycle American views for American viewers,
listeners and readers.
But there are exceptions. A recent one aired on "PRI's The World," a co-production of Public Radio International, WGBH
in Boston and the BBC World Service. "We decided to check in with people in different parts of the globe to get their
perspectives on the White House's war on terror," the anchor said on the September 5 broadcast.
And for the next six minutes, the American audience got an earful - from four speakers who were not just expressing
their own views. Crucially, they were summing up the dominant outlooks in huge regions of the planet.
The most sympathetic view of the US "war on terrorism" came from a senior manager with Ernst & Young Security and Integrity Services, based in the Netherlands. He said: "The Europeans are still somewhat confused
about what the focus of the war is. They see a lack of clarity from the United States as to what the goals of this
conflict are, as to what the strategy is, as to what the standards are that the US applies, and as to what the controls
are that the US has placed on itself in waging this war."
By US media standards, that's about the extent of mainstream critiques of the "war on terror." But outside the United
States, that's about the mildest criticism you're likely to find.
Consider the assessment that aired on the radio program from Rohan Gunaratna, author of the widely praised book Inside
al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror. Based in Singapore, he was principal investigator for the United Nations' Terrorism
Prevention Branch.
In Asia, said Gunaratna, "the vast majority of the Muslims believe that President Bush's campaign against terrorism has
in fact increased the threat of terrorism and extremism very significantly after 9/11. With regard to Iraq, what they're
saying is that the terrorists have recruited more people, radicalized more people, and raised funds from Muslims just by
projecting US invasion and occupation of Iraq as an attack against Islam and as an attack against the Muslims."
Then came the assessment from Frank Njenga, a psychiatrist in Nairobi, who is president of the African Association of
Psychiatrists and Allied Professionals. "The White House war on terrorism is generally viewed here in Kenya as a futile
exercise that is exacerbating the insecurity across the world," Dr. Njenga said. "It is perceived from this end that the
major perpetrators of terrorism in the world are the inequities that exist in the world - economic, social and
political. Those people who believe that they are downtrodden will continue to perpetuate acts of terrorism."
And, Dr. Njenga added, "It is generally perceived that America has a major role to play in this inequitable
distribution of resources across the world. In fact, the general perception is that the average American has no
understanding, has no intention, has no will to understand anything that happens outside of the United States - and for
that reason their war on terrorism is a total misconception without any relevance to the real world where the majority
of the people live."
What about the predominant view from the Middle East? Rami G. Khouri is director of the Issam Fares Institute at the
American University of Beirut and editor-at-large at the Daily Star newspaper, which is published throughout the region.
On the radio segment, he said: "The American war on terror is perceived in Lebanon and much of the Middle East as a sign
of the combination of arrogance and confusion that is driving American policy, not only in the Middle East but I think
in much of the world."
What Khouri had to say, few American pundits seem to want to hear: "While there's agreement that terror is a problem
that must be fought - and we have suffered from it much more than the United States has, we in this region in the Middle
East - there's also a sense that the United States has mis-diagnosed the nature of the terror problem, exaggerated its
threat, confused hopelessly a whole range of different groups - some of which are terrorists, some of which are doing
legitimate resistance to occupation - and basically tried to come up with a new formula that substitutes for the Cold
War."
Lest there be any misunderstanding, Khouri added: "The United States calls 'terrorists' anybody that it doesn't like or
that Israel doesn't like, because people like Hezbollah and Hamas who are fighting a war of resistance against Israeli
occupation are labeled as 'terrorists,' while most of the world sees them as legitimate resistance fighters when they're
fighting the Israeli army."
Such views are routinely expressed in news media almost everywhere in the world. But in the United States, our media
insulation about the "war on terror" is extreme - and dangerously self-deluding.
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The paperback edition of Norman Solomon's latest book, War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to
Death, was published this summer. For information, go to: WarMadeEasy.com.