Another tone-deaf fnck up by the Repubs

[Clandestino]

knew a guy who was married to a turkish woman.. her parents told him he was supposed to beat her ass on their wedding night so she would know she is to never betray him...

[Dos]

so boutons what should the adminstration do to engage the educated muslims that aren't strapping bombs to their chest.... just forget about them, consider them nill... are they not going to be the future of that region.. the scholars and intelluects of the region.. or do you think all muslims just want to destroy us and the west...?

Hughes, a longtime confidant of President Bush tasked with burnishing the U.S. image overseas, has generally met with polite audiences -- many of whom received U.S. funding or consisted of former exchange students -- during a tour of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey this week.

[boutons]

"so boutons what should the adminstration do to engage the educated muslims"

I don't know what the answer is, but sending
1) a ing woman to engage Muslim men and
2) provincial dumb hick of a woman like Karen Hughes,

is certainly not a high-percentage play.

I really don't think there is ANYTHING the US can do to influence Muslims cultures, so we had better go after a geo-political solution:

1) reduce US gasoline consumption (70+% of oil goes to US transportation)

2) import NO oil from the Middle East so we don't give what goes on over there

3) we can get the out of there, since being the invading, murderous s over there REALLY pisses the jahidi/suicdical out of the Muslims. Wouldn't being invaded piss the out of you? It would piss me off violently, and I'm not even a wannbe-macho right-wing gun nut.

Note that dubya and head have DONE ABSO ING LUTELY NOTHING in 5 years to reduce US oil consumptinon because that would reduce the windfall profits of their buddies at the oilcos.

[xrayzebra]

"so boutons what should the adminstration do to engage the educated muslims"

I don't know what the answer is, but sending

Dont know what the answer is, but know what NOT to do. hmmmmmm, very interesting.

[boutons]

The big, incompetent, inexperienced hick from Texas, standard dubya dreck, s up again.

===========================

The New York Times
October 22, 2005

Bush's Designated Hitter Strikes Out With Indonesian Students
By RAYMOND BONNER

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Oct. 21 - President Bush's designated hitter for America's image in the Muslim world, Karen P. Hughes, and 16 students from Indonesia's largest Islamic university shared a stage here on Friday morning. But that was about all they shared.

Ms. Hughes, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy, began by inviting the students to tell her what they were studying and what their hopes were.

The students wanted no such small talk. They wanted to talk about Iraq and America's role in the world, offering comments, opinions and questions marked by charges that the United States was "two-faced" and "unfair."

"Why does America always act as if they are the policeman of the world?" asked 20-year-old Barikatul Hikmah, wearing a black-and-white-striped head scarf, bright yellow pumps and blue jeans.

The question was met with applause from the 100 or so students in the audience.

"America feels an obligation to stand up for our founding values," Ms. Hughes answered. She quickly added that the United States was not trying to impose its system on any country, and that the values of human rights and freedom were not only American, but universal.

This is the second major foray into Islamic territory for Ms. Hughes. Last month, she met with groups in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey.

Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population, and by and large, Islam here is moderate and tolerant. Indonesians bristle at the oft-held view from abroad that it is a country of Islamic extremists. To be sure, there is a fundamentalist element that would like to impose Islamic law, but it is small and, Indonesians argue, not unlike evangelical Christians in the United States.

The students who shared the stage with Ms. Hughes were told they could ask any questions, "even tough questions," said 20-year old Supenih, who like many Indonesians uses only one name. She was carrying a translated copy of "Power and Terror" by Noam Chomsky, the fierce critic of American foreign policy, which she politely tucked away before taking a seat near Ms. Hughes.

"Stop the war in Iraq," Ms. Supenih said when she got a chance to speak on the stage. "Who are the terrorists?" she asked, suggesting Mr. Bush was, because of the war. There was applause in the audience.

But Ms. Hughes said there was a difference between terrorists who have vowed to kill all Americans, Jews and even moderate Muslims, and the democratically elected leader of a country who goes to war to protect his country's Cons ution.

"I want you all to come to America," Ms. Hughes said, ending the dialogue to applause that was almost too brief even to be called polite.

Meeting with foreign correspondents afterward, Ms. Hughes said she was not surprised by the students' views. In their strong opposition to the war in Iraq, they were much like university students in the United States, she said.

The students made clear that they distinguish between Americans as individuals, whom they like, and America as a country, where they want to go, as opposed to American foreign policy, which they abhor.

Ms. Supenih, the Chomsky reader, said she wanted to become an English teacher. Why English? "I care for my brothers and sisters in Indonesia," she said. Most reference books are in English, she said, and "America is the center for study."

Would she like to go to America? "Of course," she said, her eyes brightening. "That's my dream."

* Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

[Dos]

The students made clear that they distinguish between Americans as individuals, whom they like, and America as a country, where they want to go, as opposed to American foreign policy, which they abhor.

Ms. Supenih, the Chomsky reader, said she wanted to become an English teacher. Why English? "I care for my brothers and sisters in Indonesia," she said. Most reference books are in English, she said, and "America is the center for study."

Would she like to go to America? "Of course," she said, her eyes brightening. "That's my dream."

of course they want to go to america and enjoy the freedoms that US service men and women have died for .... bah....

[boutons]

US service men and women are dying for the Repubs, not for USA.

[boutons]

The competence of dubya's crony appointees continues to flabbergast the planet:


=====================

washingtonpost.com

Hughes Misreports Iraqi History

Envoy Vastly Overstates Fact in Justifying War to Indonesian Students

By Alan Sipress
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, October 22, 2005; A15

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Oct. 21 -- Bush administration envoy Karen Hughes visited Indonesia on Friday as part of her campaign to repair U.S. standing with the world's Muslims and defended the invasion of Iraq by telling skeptical students that deposed president Saddam Hussein had gassed hundreds of thousands of his own people.

Her remark was an impassioned answer to familiar criticisms of U.S. policy raised by her audience at one of Indonesia's leading Islamic universities. But it was also wrong.

State Department officials later acknowledged that Hughes, tapped by President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to set the record straight on U.S. policies in the Muslim world, had misreported history.

Although at least 300,000 Iraqis are reported to have died during Hussein's 24 years in office, his government's use of chemical weapons against Iraqi Kurds cost the lives of only a small proportion, most notoriously an estimated 5,000 people who died in a 1988 military campaign in the northern town of Halabja.

Hughes, who is undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, made her remarks at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, south of Jakarta, one of several stops during her three-day visit to the world's most populous Muslim country. The students at the prestigious ins ution confronted her with emotional objections about the U.S. rationale for war in Iraq, similar to those she faced last month in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

"The consensus of the world intelligence community was that Saddam was a very dangerous threat," she said. "After all, he used weapons of mass destruction against his own people. He had murdered hundreds of thousands of his own people using poison gas."

Hours later, Hughes was asked twice for the basis for her numbers during a meeting with journalists from foreign news organizations.

"It's something that our U.S. government has said a number of times in the past. It's information that was used very widely after his attack on the Kurds. I believe it was close to 300,000," Hughes said when questioned the first time. She added, "That's something I said every day in the course of the campaign. That's information that we talked about a great deal in America."

When asked again several minutes later, she said, "I think it was almost 300,000. It's my recollection. They were put in mass graves."

By late in the day, Hughes's aide, Gordon D. Johndroe, offered a correction.

"She was referring to Saddam Hussein having killed hundreds of thousands of people. The gassing part of that was a fraction," said Johndroe, director of strategic communications and planning in the State Department's public affairs bureau. "She was combining two numbers and two situations. She wasn't trying to rewrite the story or make a new claim."

Though a longtime political adviser and confidante of Bush, Hughes is a relative newcomer to international affairs. She was appointed this year to energize the State Department's public affairs efforts and burnish the U.S. image, which has been badly tarnished in the Muslim world by the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and support for Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians.

The students Friday repeatedly challenged her on all three fronts. But Iraq -- and, in particular, unproven U.S. claims about Iraq stockpiling weapons of mass destruction -- drew the most ire.

Hughes later told reporters she recognized that those issues resonate in Muslim countries, especially with the young.

"I'm not questioning at all that the views are deeply held. I understand they're deeply held," she said. "In the case of Iraq, I've both heard people around the world express concern. I've also been in the room and watched as our policymakers made the decision that they felt as a matter of very deep conviction was exactly the right thing that we needed to do."

Hughes was scheduled to leave Jakarta on Saturday for the Indonesian province of Aceh, devastated in the massive tsunami late last year, before visiting Malaysia, another predominantly Muslim country.

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

[ChumpDumper]

In the case of Iraq, I've both heard people around the world express concern.

[Dos]

yes boutons we shouldn't be in the business of removing dictators.. kind of like milosivic during the clinton admin.. or castro during the kennedy admin... or keep a country from getting taken over by friendly communist like vietnam during the kennedy/LBJ administrations.... no we shouldn't be in the business of liberating people.. we should just let the world screw itself... thats seems to be the new democratic mantra... typical isolationist dribble...

[ChumpDumper]

If we're going to sell the war to muslims, we should get our facts straight.

[boutons]

Dos goes off a tangent, into a ditch.

The point is yet another incompetent crony appointed by the incompetent dubya from his inner circle of incompetents.

The prioriity now is terrorism, not removing terror-free, impotent dictators with lots of oil.

[Dos]

boutons .. you know nothing on how to wins wars... you always protect your stretegic energy supplies... if not the economy goes in the tank .. you and I and everyone you know except the super rich become instantly poor... can you get that fact through your head... that without oil we go into a deep depression in this country... yes this war is about oil it's about protecting our economy and energy supplies.. .sheesh.. do you know anything about how life really operates... do you think of the distribution system in this country and what fuels it.... OIL buddy alot of people will die for it.. because without it you and I are left with nothing...