Briefly: U.S. image in Mideast called a big obstacle (IHT/AP)

[Up2Late]

Briefly: U.S. image in Mideast called a big obstacle

The Boston Globe, The Associated Press

FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 2005

WASHINGTON America's poor image in the Middle East continues to stymie the Bush administration's efforts to promote democracy in the region, a bipartisan foreign policy task force said in a report that was made public on Thursday. The task force was organized by the Council on Foreign Relations and headed by Madeleine Albright, a former Democratic secretary of state, and by Vin Weber, a former Republican congressman from Minnesota.

The report said that the distrust was so strong that nongovernmental organizations were unwilling to accept State Department funds, "fearing that this would taint these organizations in the eyes of their constituencies." The task force urged the Bush administration to take the bulk of the funds out of the Middle East Partnership Initiative - the brainchild of Dick Cheney's daughter Elizabeth - and give it to a private foundation that could administer the money.

The task force, which spent 10 months on the report, also urged the administration to accept the political participation of Islamic groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, that have renounced violence in their home countries. The report said President George W. Bush's speeches touting democracy in the Middle East had had a positive effect in the region, but it criticized the administration's "silence" on Saudi Arabia's imprisonment of three reformers, Bahrain's arrest of Internet bloggers and a crackdown on dissent in Jordan.

Iraq received the main share of the more than $1 billion of the democracy and government aid distributed by the U.S. government since 2002, according to the report. Of that amount, $264,000 was distributed by the Middle East Partnership Initiative, which gave much of it to U.S. organizations to put on seminars for Middle Eastern government officials and to provide technical assistance for admission to the World Trade Organization.

Steve Cook, project director of the task force, said more of the money should go to grass-roots, pro-democracy groups in the Middle East. (Boston Globe)

(more at link above)

[travisbailey]

1. thanks for sharing article

thanks for sharing article

[Rex]

2. You can't promote Democracy by terrorizing a local populace.

Boosh suxors.

[central scrutinizer]

3. file under "D"

for "Doh". You mean these people can actually think critically and realize that Bushco doesn't respect them?

[Up2Late]

4. Oh, I thought you were going to say D was for Duuuuh.

I wonder how much the CFR spent to come up with the same conclusion they could ha gotten for almost free, from just about anyone here at DU.:evilgrin:

[burrowowl]

8. Doh or Duh!

That is the question!
Maybe it should be filed under OMG (Oh! my goodness) I just can't believe this. Comment by most Americans, if they ever saw this anywhere in the MSM.

[MisterP]

5. and by image they mean deeds!

I'll be here all week!

[Supersedeas]

13. the corporate media dares not SAY...

[Nostradamus]

6. "..the bullshit piles up so fast you need wings to stay above it.."

a quote from Apocalypse Now

by democracy, they mean a fig-leaf of respectability for their local despots and dictators...

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

7. as they say on Survivor: "it's time to go, the Tribe has spoken"

We've been voted off the "island"---->

Troops home NOW!

[BattyDem]

9. Our image is bad in the Middle East?

Gee ... I wonder why? :eyes:

[Benhurst]

10. "Our image is bad in the Middle East," which is tragic because

it is soooooooo good in other parts of the world. :sarcasm:

[Up2Late]

11. Yeah, who would have thunk it...

I thought Bush And Dick said "Freedom was on the March?"

[shadowknows69]

12. big obstacle

that's like saying the grand canyon is a pretty big hole in the ground.