America146;s war for hearts and minds

It seems unfair to single out the hapless Colleen Graffy. America8217;s deputy assistant secretary for public diplomacy is far from being the only official in George Bush8217;s administration who has a tin ear when it comes to 8212; well, to public diplomacy. When three of the Muslim inmates held for years without trial at Guantanamo in Cuba hanged themselves last weekend, she called this 8220;a good PR move8221;. But she was hardly alone in sounding callous. The commander of Guantanamo, a sensitive soul, grumbled that by hanging themselves his three charges had committed an act of 8220;asymmetrical warfare8221; against the United States. Plenty more tin ears and sharp tongues belong to bigger heads higher up in the administration. Inside the clever head of Donald 8220;stuff happens8221; Rumsfeld, America8217;s defence secretary, for example, wags a tongue that may on its own be responsible for having needlessly alienated more former friends of the United States than any other instrument since the invention of the B-52 bomber. As for John Bolton, America8217;s ambassador to the United Nations, he appears to take particular pride in ignoring the advice of the Founding Fathers for America to pay a decent respect to the opinions of mankind8230;

To his credit, Mr Bush himself has been learning. Under the civilising influence of Condoleezza Rice, a secretary of state who took up her job intent on putting the diplomacy back into American foreign relations, Mr Bush has lately been politer about other countries, and readier to admit some of his own mistakes. He now says he wants Guantanamo closed 8212; just as soon as America figures out what to do with all the people it has scooped up and dumped in legal limbo there. But in some ways the president still doesn8217;t get it. Take something that went down well in America 8212; Mr Bush8217;s surprise call this week on the new prime minister of Iraq. Nuri al-Maliki had been building up the elected government8217;s credibility by putting a careful distance between himself and the Americans. The last thing he needs is to look like the superpower8217;s stooge. But he seems to have been given no advance notice of the visit8230;

Manners and tone of voice matter in international relations. Go back to those suicides. Though Ms Graffy ought not to have called them a good PR stunt, she may have been right to imply that they were a political act, rather than individual expressions of despair. The point, though, is that if much of the war against terrorism is a contest between values 8212; in short, a PR war 8212; America should be winning hands down. A brand that stands for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is an easier sell than a brand that stands for beheading unbelievers and reviving the Middle Ages. And yet America is not doing half as well as it should be8230;

Excerpted from 8216;Mind your language8217;, The Economist, June 15