Word: rossing
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...During more than 30-years of diplomatic service, Ross had played a leading role in formulating Middle East policy in various administrations, and had also represented the U.S. in Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon and Libya. Fluent in Arabic, he'd actually taught the language at Columbia University before entering the foreign service. And it may take a spokesman with his deep appreciation of the nuances of Arab politics - and language -to help reverse the tide of Arab sentiment against the U.S. five weeks into the Afghan bombing campaign...
...Anecdotal reports from the region suggest Ross's rebuttal went over well with middle-class Arab audiences. It was helped, no doubt, by the fact that bin Laden had lashed out intemperately at moderate Arab regimes and at the United Nations. Calling Kofi Annan a "criminal," to take just one example, sounds deranged, even to anti-Western firebrands in the developing world. The terrorist, whose propaganda broadcast when the U.S. bombing began had been a home-run in the Arab world, now sounded almost incoherent, teeing himself up for Ross to calmly point out bin Laden's political isolation. Even...
...deployment of a suave and sensitive spokesman, together with the creation of rapid-response information centers in Washington, London and Islamabad, suggests Washington is digging in for a protracted propaganda war alongside the real conflict on the ground. Having Ross address Arab concerns in Arabic is a good start, and it certainly beats having Tony Blair and George Bush pronouncing on who is and who isn't being true to Islam - why, after all, would anyone in the Muslim world take their word for it? It's certainly necessary in a war in which the Taliban starts each...
...Ross's apid-fire real-time Arabic response - he was interviewed live within two hours of Bin Laden's broadcast - certainly gives bin Laden and the Taliban a run for their PR money. But Ross has his work cut out for him, because deep-seated anti-American feeling on the Arab streets nurtured by perceptions of U.S. culpability in the plight of the Iraqis and Palestinians has seeded the propaganda playing field in bin Laden's favor. It will take a Herculean spin effort to convince al-Jazeera viewers that Osama bin Laden is the reason for the suffering...
...absence of Muslim allies whose support is anything more than lukewarm. They may be prepared to offer military bases and indispensable intelligence cooperation, but most have been ambiguous in the support of the U.S. campaign, denouncing terrorism but also expressing wariness over military action in Afghanistan. Having Christopher Ross elegantly rebut bin Laden in Arabic may be an improvement, but he needs help. And just as America is depending in large part on the Northern Alliance to fight the ground war in Afghanistan, so, too, in the propaganda war the U.S. needs indigenous allies to aggressively carry the fight...