Is Selling "Brand America" in Mideast Backfiring?

"Bin Laden's little helper", Sidney Blumenthal, Guardian Unlimited, 30 Sept 05

Is Karen Hughes' flogging of how God-fearing US citizens are helping, or hurting?

" "Many people around the world do not understand the important role that faith plays in Americans' lives," she said. When an Egyptian opposition leader inquired why Mr Bush mentions God in his speeches, Hughes asked him whether he was aware that "previous American presidents have also cited God, and that our constitution cites 'one nation under God'." "Well, never mind," he said. With these well-meaning arguments, Hughes has provided the exact proofs for Bin Laden's claims about American motives. "It is stunning to the extent Hughes is helping bin Laden," says Robert Pape, a University of Chicago political scientist who has conducted extensive research into the motives of suicide terrorists and is the author of Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism. "If you set out to help bin Laden," he says, "you could not have done it better than Hughes." " Article

Book:  \"Dying to Win:  The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism\"

\"How will the world ever learn to like America if it has to like Karen Hughes?\"

\"What on earth is she doing in the Middle East?\"

What's Out There to Help Karen (Washington Post - try logging in as "infoshop@infoshop.org" and using "infoshop" as P/W)

(updated 30 Sept 05)