U.S. CONSIDERS ADVERTISING ON AL JAZEERA TV Would Wage Battle for Islam's Hearts and Minds excerpt: WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) -- Longtime ad executive Charlotte Beers, the State Department's chief of public diplomacy, is weighing an unconventional strategy to get the U.S. message across in Afghanistan: ads. Faced with "a battle for the mind" and the need to tell moderate Muslims that the U.S. isn't fighting Islam, Ms. Beers said the State Department is investigating new ways to reach out. Among the possibilities: advertising on Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera, Osama bin Laden's favored broadcast venue. (maybe he own's it? -rH)
I guess it's time to bust out the "big guns..." (Jeez, this picture is erratic. Sometimes it shows; sometimes it doesn't...)
Last night, Andy Rooney actually suggested that we should start an ad campaign in the middle east to help improve our image. I don't usually like Rooney, but he made a good point. He said that ad guys know how to sell unlikable products to people and that since the US isn't liked, maybe we need to tell them why they should like us. Call it propoganda or whatever, but there is a reason what the advertising industry is a multi-billion dollar a year industry. It works.
I saw a program in aljazeera channel . the brodcaster was protecting themselves in this case . he said that when we cover any news or stuff like that or make interviews with bin laden or sadam or whoever . we face a bad situations from thier enemies . he added : when the middle east uprising started 1 year ago the isralies and the palestiniains bashed this channel because everyone wants his opinion to be heard through it . the same thing happened after an interview with tariq aziz ( defense minister of iraq ) and hosting many iraqies to express thier opinions about United states and kuwait . the kuwaities said that this channel is owned by sadam and his morons and that's totally wrong . as I think . this channel is not follow anyone . they are just a nuatrlize channel . everyone can express his opinion even the isralies diplomats were hosted many and many times . they have a programs like those in cnn ( larry king live - Q&A ..etc ) . the other thing which i want to talk about is america's image in The middle east . actually it's too difficult for your goverment to repair it's image here . for a simple reason : your govermet assictance for israel . people here and I'm one of them know that isreal without the power of the west can't occupie palestine anymore . that's why people here hate USA and I mean your govermet and the people we owe respect to all of you .
I think i explained my situattion . i do not hate any american beacuse he / she is american and being here is a good proof that your statment was totally false . I said your goverment which is controlled by the zionists . besides. do you think your goverment saved my country because in case of human rights or a nation under occupation ? or just because of the oil ? . look back to see how south lebanon was occupied and you will see how The U.S goverment doesn't support the human rights . they called hizbollah militia ( terrorist ) coz they were protecting thier country and resisting againts an american ally ( israel ) . Furthermore . Sadam is giving U.S goverment a Golden chance . The U.S goverment are absorbing more and more oil in Exchange of presence of U.S army in the gulf . Sadam was an easy target after my country became free but they just gave him a chance to survive and make all the trouble which happened to the iraqies after that . and then look for the results ... the innocent iraqi people are living in the hell of sadam . that's why your goverment are keeping sadam in his place . but i shouldn't deny some advanteges of the U.S army in kuwait . they brodcast NBA Games on AFN ( American forces networ ) so that i can listen to some rockets games without being on the net !!!
I have to say I somewhat resent the notion that because you don't think the US's motives were right that it somehow reduces the fact that you would be Iraq-south without the leadership of US forces. oh, well...get in line with france. i'm sure we'll be there to bail you out again next time you need it.
Hey, Q*Rocket, Some questions about Kuwait since we no longer get news since the Gulf War. 1) Does the US have many troops in Kuwait? 2) Do many people in Kuwait accept an Israeli state if Israel gives back the West bank and other territories captured after 1967? 3) Are women in Kuwait allowed to walk around without head coverings, allowed to drive? or vote yet? There was some talk about this after the Gulf War. 4) Do many Kuwaiti students still come to study in the US? 5) Have the Kuwaitis allowed the Palestininians and all the guest workers back in to Kuwait after the Gulf War. 6) What is the average wage for a Kuwaiti? For a Pakistani etc? 7) Does everyone in Kuwait still have free schooling through university, health care and a minimum salary from the government. 8) Does anyone want a democracy instead of a royal family?
Originally posted by Q8 Rocket ...I said your goverment which is controlled by the zionists . That line is tired. We vote our politicians into office. Palestinian terrorism sways American public opinion against them. Argue if you want about media biases and its impact on the American public, but don't think the Jewish lobby could be so effective without polls showing firm support for Israel in their fight to exist. besides. do you think your goverment saved my country because in case of human rights or a nation under occupation ? or just because of the oil ? . look back to see how south lebanon was occupied and you will see how The U.S goverment doesn't support the human rights . ... We got sucked into 2 major Euorpean Wars against fascist, repressive powers. In Korea and Vietnam we thought that we were saving countries from invading forces, no oil there. The South Koreans accepted our help and are just a ilittle better off than their brethren in the North. We lost the PR battle and probably backed the wrong people in Vietnam, so they viewed us as an invading force. You probably won't find too many Vietnamese now that would support the oppressive communists again. Why the hell did we bomb Serbia and send troops into Muslim Bosnia? Give me a reason if it was other than human rights. Over the years, what is by FAR the biggest problem we have had with China? Human rights. WIthout that issue, China and the US would be best buds. Please give me an example of one other country on the planet that has lost so many lives and expended so many resources protecting OTHER people. What have you and your country done for human rights? Furthermore . Sadam is giving U.S goverment a Golden chance . The U.S goverment are absorbing more and more oil in Exchange of presence of U.S army in the gulf . Sadam was an easy target after my country became free but they just gave him a chance to survive and make all the trouble which happened to the iraqies after that . and then look for the results ... the innocent iraqi people are living in the hell of sadam . that's why your goverment are keeping sadam in his place .... Nonsense. A scary thing that comes out of the Middle East is when rumor and inuendo suddenly becomes fact. I heard some Saudis interviewed, who said they believe that 9-11 was an Israeli conspiracy. Give me a break. We want Saddam gone and Bush Sr. recently admitted it was a mistake to not take him out. We all thought that he would be overthrown after the beating his country took because of his egotistical aspirations. At the time, it was believed that MANY MANY innocent civilians and troops on both sides would have died on the attack on Baghdad; how would the Arab world have reacted to that?
Al Jazeera sounds wonderful. I think that all of our infidel corporations should advertise. How about Disneyland? Movies? All other forms of Western 'decadence'? Wonder what the Islamic extremists would think of that? Seriously though, this sounds like a good way to open-up some closed societies. I always thought that Japan's seclusion before WWII was bizarre (and look where that got us), but it appears to pale in comparison to some of the Arab nations. It's time for those country's leaders to recognize the inevitable, their countries will become either democracies or extremist states. I hope they choose wisely and start moving their countries in the right direction.
Last night, Leno joked that the Taliban welcomed Disney's Snow White and Seven Dwarfs. How could the Taliban refuse a movie about a young virgin living in a cave with seven bearded men? I thought the Dwarfs lived in a house, but anyways I was LOL Also, turns out Bin Laden has 40 plus kids, that will happen to ya when you sleep in a different cave every night Or how about, Afghanistan's number 1 crop is opium. So not only were these guys drug smugglers, but they also went to Vegas to gamble and see naked women. Now, I wonder how these guys would have behaved had they not been religious fundamentalists
the answers on DAROckets Question .... 1) Does the US have many troops in Kuwait? yes . 2) Do many people in Kuwait accept an Israeli state if Israel gives back the West bank and other territories captured after 1967? nope . i don't think so . israel should be removed . all of them are invaders . from 1917 to this date . 3) Are women in Kuwait allowed to walk around without head coverings, allowed to drive? or vote yet? There was some talk about this after the Gulf War?? yes she can walk around and drive and without head coverings and soon she will vote at the next elections . 4) Do many Kuwaiti students still come to study in the US? there are kuwaiti students now in US and i have friends there . but there will be no more students want to travel after these horrible things happened . maybe because some americans can't contrast between a student and a terrorist !! . neverthless , 300 hundred students cameback to kuwait . some of them changed his university and study here and others may back to US to resume if things got better . 5) Have the Kuwaitis allowed the Palestininians and all the guest workers back in to Kuwait after the Gulf War. yep they allowed . 6) What is the average wage for a Kuwaiti? For a Pakistani etc? high for the kuwaities . for the pakistanes and people from diffirent races it's great comparing to thier own wage in thier countries . but i don't have a specific numbers . the average of wages of kuwaities might be around 1900 dollars . 7) Does everyone in Kuwait still have free schooling through university, health care and a minimum salary from the government ? of course and the goverment is going to increase the minimum salary . moreover the goverment provides a free house to the kuwaiti citizens . we don't have just a free schoolarship for the university . the unieversity gives us a 300 dollars per month and there is suggestion to increase it to 600 dollars !! 8) Does anyone want a democracy instead of a royal family? lol . we have demcracy here . look to united kingoom and holland .. etc they have a royal families but they can't rule everything . we have 50 memebers from the puplic to establish the laws and represnt what peple ask for . that's the respond on Darockets .. i will answer cohen and the others later .
"israel should be removed" this is what I've been saying...the Arabs of the Middle East are not satisfied with a co-existant peace between Jews and Arabs. That's not their goal. The goal is to remove the Jewish people entirely from an area of the world of which Arabs control 99.6%. this is why the peace table and negotiation are worthless to these people. this is why they break accord after accord. this is why arafat can't control his own people from targeting jewish civilians.
MADMAx, 2 comments on the issue of Israel: 1. Q8 ROCKET expressed one view of a solution so let's not generalize. 2. Regardless of my opinion of what he said, I don't believe that elimination of Israel means the wiping out of the Jewish people. Muslims, Jews, and Christians were living in peace in Palestine/Israel a long time before Israel was created. This view on Israel has nothing to do with Jewish hatred as is does with the sufferage of the Palestinian people as displaced from their lands, in certain areas in 1948 as well as later in 1967. The argument that they are Arabs does not hold here. Their homes were in Israel/Palestine.. just because their neighboring countries are Arab does not mean it is OK to displace them and expect them to blend into their "new" homes. Co-existence in that land is possible, whether in the context of a Jewish state next to a Palestinian state or in the context of a unified SECULAR (i.e. not exclusively Jewish) state.. we all have to get over the ethnocentric/paranoid arguments and start at least attempting to mutually consider the other side's needs.
saroona -- i don't see anything from the Arab world that leads me to believe they would be content with a co-existence in the Holy Land. sorry. I recognize that this is the statement of one man...but this is also one man who categorizes himself as being quite moderate. If Osama says it, we say, "ok...that's just a freak extremist." But the leadership in the Arab world as a whole (other than Jordan) has made it pretty clear that among their goals is the elimination of Israel from that part of the world. i imagine it's kinda hard for either to "get over it" after thousands of years of conflict. I imagine it's particularly hard for the people of Israel who've watched their childrens' school buses turn into targets.
