Saddled with an ally's brashness

Hasan Suroor

ON THE face of it, the idea that two of the world's most powerful countries with mindboggling communication resources should be seen to be losing the propaganda war, in their current anti- Taliban campaign, to a bunch of tribals holed up in the caves of Afghanistan sounds absurd.

But it is true, and understandably there is growing frustration in Britain's officialdom that despite acres of TV footage and newsprint which the U.S.-led coalition commands, its message is simply not getting through to the people whereas the Taliban's ``crude'' propaganda tactics appear to be paying off.

One video ``tossed out of a cave'', as one official put it in a different context, is proving more effective than all the lengthy discourses of Western leaders on the moral legitimacy of the coalition's actions in Afghanistan.

Five weeks after the bombing started, public opinion remains largely unconvinced of the coalition's two basic messages - one, addressed to the Muslim world, that it is not waging a war on Islam; and second, addressed to the liberal secular opinion, that it is indeed a ``just'' war and the only way to defeat international terrorism.

Even the British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, arguably the most articulate of the coalition's English-speaking leaders, has failed to connect with the large body of lay world opinion on these issues. But even his critics acknowledge that but for him the coalition propaganda would have been in a lot worse shape, thanks to some of the tactless rhetoric from Washington.

The utterances of some of the key figures in the U.S. administration - from the President, Mr. George W. Bush, downwards - have been far from helpful either in terms of the choice of words or the message itself.

The most damaging of these was Mr. Bush's description of the anti-terror campaign as a ``new crusade''. All of Mr. Blair's articulation has failed to undo the damage caused by that one expression, not because he has personally sounded unconvincing but because of the latent suspicion of America, particularly in Muslim countries.

Plainly, Britain is seen stuck with what is widely perceived as America's ``war'', with all that it implies in terms of widespread global distrust of the U.S. motives.

The Guardian remarked that Mr. Blair's dilemma was that he was dealing with a crisis ``whose dominant protagonist is the United States, a country which answers to a very different drum to our own''.

In one of the most clinical analyses of why Britain was seen to be floundering in getting across to the people, the newspaper said: ``Mr. Blair may say this is not a confrontation with Islam, but as long as America is led by men and women with tin ears for cultural sensibilities other than their own, it is the cowboy rhetoric and what one U.S. politician has called the high-tech bullying that will be noticed more. Mr. Blair may propose all he likes, but it is always Mr. Bush, or perhaps more accurately Mr. Dick Cheney and Mr. Don Rumsfeld, who will dispose.''

This ``cowboy rhetoric'' has seen senior U.S. figures openly contradict their British peers - whether it is in relation to the time-scale of the military action, the strategy on the ground or the response to the concerns over the continued bombing.

The latest was the snub over the demand for a pause during Ramzan. Within hours of the British Foreign Secretary, Mr. Jack Straw, saying the issue was being ``carefully'' considered, Washington bluntly ruled it out.

Frantic moves are on to avoid ``mixed messages'' but sceptics say ``cowboys will be cowboys''.

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