Raised Stakes of Terror: U.S. must sway people, not just their leaders

Dallas Morning News | Editorials:

"In the midst of this political and religious ferment, America faces the difficult but urgent task of communicating to the people themselves, not just the rulers, that our nation and our democratic ideals offer them a path to a better life. That is a message they seldom hear today. Instead, they are bombarded, often with their governments' implicit or explicit approval, with rhetoric that paints America as a militaristic bully, a greedy exploiter and would-be destroyer of their culture and faith. Winning hearts and minds is a notoriously dicey proposition. Yet leaders in Washington, Amman, Cairo and Riyadh alike ultimately will discover that, in a battle of ideologies, nothing less will suffice."

Maybe there's some truth on both sides. America's democratic ideals do offer a path to a better life. But America also can be a bully, an exploiter, and a destroyer of culture. America needs to promote the former and temper the latter to have a chance at "winning hearts and minds." So long as the "War on Terror" is viewed primarily as a military operation, America may be doomed to fight a long twilight struggle. Worse, if we fight using the Cold War strategy of propping up whichever local military strongman whose loyalty we can buy, our ultimate defeat is assured. "Winning hearts and minds" is no longer just a tactic in a larger battle against an Evil Empire. "Winning hearts and minds" over to the American ideals of liberty and democracy is now the goal itself.