Defense Science Board

Defence Science Board

The document has changed since I first quoted it. It is now not quite so blunt as it once was and uses deliberately vague, bureaucratic language to disguise the tongue lashing it gives George W. Bush. Then in 2008-09 they pulled it altogether, presumably to ensure it did not embarrass Republicans during their convention. You can read it in various incarnations with the Wayback Machine feeding it the original URL (Uniform Resource Locator) http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/2004-09-Strategic_Communication.pdf

Some of the things it says, quoted verbatim from the new version, are:

• Thus the critical problem in American public diplomacy directed toward the Muslim World is not one of dissemination of information, or even one of crafting and delivering the right message. Rather, it is a fundamental problem of credibility. Simply, there is none.
  ~ Pentagon Defense Science Board Report 2004-12-13

• There is no yearning-to-be-liberated-by-the-U.S. groundswell among Muslim societies — except to be liberated perhaps from what they see as apostate tyrannies that the U.S. so determinedly promotes and defends.
  ~ Pentagon Defense Science Board Report 2004-12-13

• Muslims do not hate our freedom, but rather, they hate our policies. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights and the longstanding, even increasing support for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan and the Gulf states.
  ~ Pentagon Defense Science Board Report 2004-12-13

• U.S. policies on Israeli-Palestinian issues and Iraq in 2003-2004 have damaged America’s credibility and power to persuade.
  ~ Pentagon Defense Science Board Report 2004-12-13

  .

• What was a marginal network is now an Ummah-wide movement of fighting groups. Not only has there been a proliferation of terrorist groups: the unifying context of a shared cause creates a sense of affiliation across the many cultural and sectarian boundaries that divide Islam.
  ~ Pentagon Defense Science Board Report 2004-12-13

• Muslims believe we are self-serving hypocrites. They believe we have ulterior motives that serve American interests at the expense of truly Muslim self-determination.
  ~ Pentagon Defense Science Board Report 2004-12-13 deleted from current version.

• The war has increased mistrust of America in Europe, weakened support for the war on terrorism and undermined U.S. credibility worldwide.
  ~ Pentagon Defense Science Board Report 2004-12-13

• Negative opinion of the U.S. has not yet bottomed-out, but is in fact continuing to move dynamically.
  ~ Pentagon Defense Science Board Report 2004-12-13

• The creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the passage of the Patriot Act were two such representative organizational and legislative responses. There will surely be many more the longer the struggle goes on — because deeper expectations within the Washington policy and defense cultures still seek out Cold War models.
  ~ Pentagon Defense Science Board Report 2004-12-13

  translation: The creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the passage of the Patriot Act was an obsolete, Cold War-style response to the new terrorist threat.

• There is consensus in these reports that U.S. public diplomacy is in crisis. Missing are strong leadership, strategic direction, adequate coordination, sufficient resources and a culture of measurement and evaluation. … Presidential leadership and the bipartisan political will of Congress are essential.
  ~ Pentagon Defense Science Board Report 2004-12-13

• A unifying vision of strategic communication starts with Presidential direction. Only White House leadership, with support from cabinet secretaries and Congress, can bring about the sweeping reforms that are required.
  ~ Pentagon Defense Science Board Report 2004-12-13

The report diplomatically says that George Bush totally screwed up the Iraq war. Citizens of every country but America, especially Muslims, saw how the Bush Administration lied about having proof of WMDs (Weapon of Mass Destructions) and the Ba’athist-connection with al Qaeda to justify the invasion of Iraq, which resulted in hideous deaths of over a hundred thousand civilian Iraqis, mostly children and the maiming of an order of magnitude more.

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