> The Philadelphia Inquirer
>
> October 6, 2001, Saturday
>
> "Our public is more than satisfied (with the
> evidence)," Kaufman said. "The public we have to reach
> for is the public of the Muslim world. We have to
> convince them that what we do is not another example
> of American arrogance or American genocide."
It's probably a bit late for this. There was a point shortly after the hijackings when one was able to come across a not-inconsiderable number of Muslims worldwide - Afghans, Palestinians, and beyond - reacting with sorrow over the bin Laden action but in nearly every case citing the word "evidence" as being the key to even a modicum of support for America's inevitable effort to avenge itself, and obviously not without justification given the spotty record of the U.S. in the past.
When Bush and Co. realized their initial "shoot now, ask questions later" response wasn't going to fly with the governments they needed onboard the coalition, they obviously made strenuous efforts to present evidentiary material of some kind to said gov'ts in a flurry of regrouping, public statements and diplomacy. But in their mania for secrecy they failed to reach the "person on the street" in areas where it matters most for their cause, and went ahead and bombed, literally blowing any meager chance they might have had. That the "person on the street" in Palestine or Saudi Arabia might give little creedence to the fact that his or her government had looked at the confidential evidence presented by the U.S. and pronounced it sufficient was completely overlooked (or disregarded) by the Bushies.
The analysis forwarded earlier by Kelley re. Pashtun "honor" and various well-documented aspects of Islamic practice would seem to hint that the closing of this credibility gap would have been intrinsic to reducing a good measure of Anti-American sentiment, at least as far as the bin Laden affair goes, and was ignored at the peril of the Bush effort (and any other efforts, for that matter). And out the window with this went much hope of a secure future in the short- and medium-term for Americans here in the U.S. and abroad.
--
/ dave /