IRAQ: MOTHER OF ALL PUBLIC DIPLOMACY BATTLES

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 002132

SIPDIS

NEA/ARN, NEA/PPD, NSC

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/07/2013
TAGS: PREL KPAO OPRC OIIP KWWW IZ
SUBJECT: IRAQ: MOTHER OF ALL PUBLIC DIPLOMACY BATTLES

REF: A. A) AMMAN 01949

B. B) AMMAN 02032

C. C) SECSTATE 81949

Classified By: HMAHONEY for Reasons 1.5 B and D


1. (SBU) Summary. Post has continuously taken stock of
where we are in the public diplomacy struggle, what we are
doing about public opinion, and what more we can do to
counter the deep anger and resume a productive dialogue in
support of U.S. goals towards the region. In Jordan a
profound distrust of the U.S. characterizes the reactions of
people at all levels of society. We are using a number of
tools to deal with this challenge, but we believe there are
steps that the USG and others can and must take both in the
final stages of the war and in its immediate aftermath, to
heal the wounds and to restore America,s political
credibilty. Most essential and convincing is for Jordanians
to hear the truth from the Iraqis themselves. End Summary


The Ugliest of Moods


2. (SBU) During the past week two themes have dominated the
Jordanian media: graphic pictures of civilian casualties,
especially children, plus stories about &heroic Iraqi
resistance,8 usually accepting the Iraqi regime,s version
of events. Editorialists take a similar line, repeating the
mantra about U.S. desire for hegemony and oil, with Syria and
Iran as the next targets of American military aggression.
The Secretary,s statement that there is no list of countries
against whom the U.S. contemplates military action was
extremely helpful, and more such previews of U.S. long-term
intentions for the region would help chip away at Jordanian
skepticism. The media are playing to the prevailing mood
among Jordanians of every stripe, who attach little
credibility to the U.S. case that we are waging the war to
eliminate WMD and liberate the Iraqi people. &You are
making Saddam into a hero,8 is the common cry from even
those educated Jordanians who are fully aware of his record
of atrocities. People believe, because they want to
believe, that the U.S. is deliberately targeting residential
areas and destroying Iraq,s infrastructure out of
frustration that, as Jordanians see it, the Iraqi people have
not greeted coalition troops as liberators. They dismiss
statements to the contrary, especially those carried by CNN
and other Western media, which have lost credibility
precisely because they fail to confirm the popular myths
about U.S. brutality and Iraqi resistance. &For the first
time in 50 years of Middle East conflict I have stopped
listening to Western news,8 said an affluent,
Western-educated doctor.

Mission,s Response: Tough Sledding But Essential


3. (SBU) The Mission has taken on this challenge in a number
of ways. Just before the war the Ambassador gave an
interview to Petra, the national news agency, underlining the
U.S. determination to enforce U.N. Resolutions vis a vis
Iraq. Following the outbreak of hostilities at a stake-out
at the April 3 meeting with the Prime Minister, the
Ambassador stressed U.S. compassion for the Iraqi people, our
deep sorrow over civilian casualties and our efforts to
avoid them despite the Saddam regime,s strategy of putting
civilians in harm,s way. He also stressed the role that
Jordan and the U.S. will play together in rebuilding Iraq
after its liberation. At the same time, he made it clear
that the U.S. is determined to achieve our goals in removing
the Iraqi regime and the threat it poses. Similarly, Public
Affairs has sponsored numerous DVDs and Global Exchange
dialogues between USG officials such as Andrew Natsios and
Ambassador Chris Ross with Jordanian journalists; we have
arranged briefings by the DART team on humanitarian
assistance and trips to warehouses full of aid for Iraq for
the Arab and Western media; we have targeted faxes and
e-mails countering disinformation plus special IIP photos and
reports to the local news media, in addition to redesigning
our webpage to focus on Iraq; and we are calling on editors
to insist on some objectivity into the war coverage. For the
longer term, Embassy officers from all sections continue to
carry on the vital work of helping Jordan to weather the war
economically, and finding ways to make sure Jordanians know
what we are doing in our shared interests.

What We Need: Iraqi Voices Above All and Assurances about the
post-war U.S. Role


4. (SBU) In the end, we believe, the most effective means
of turning around Jordanian opinion will be the voices of
liberated Iraqis themselves reminding that a) Saddam,s
degree of suppression and cruelty was in a class by itself b)
Saddam,s henchmen were responsible for many if not most of
the civilian casualties and c) how good it feels to be rid of
the Regime. The other message is that the peace with the
coalition forces was an honorable one for the ordinary
soldiers as opposed to Saddam's suicide or death squads. We
should be prepared to accept that many Iraqis chose to fight
despite their detestation of the regime and we should
acknowledge their courage in doing so. Now, however, Iraqis
are determined to rebuild and to work constructively with the
U.S. and other countries to recover from the decades of
misrule. We will need stories which objectively emphasize
that a) a massive humanitarian and reconstruction effort is
being undertaken and b) Iraqis are looking forward to a
future of dignity and growth. We will also need Iraqi
administrators to stress that the coalition is giving them
maximum authority and leeway to run their own affairs and
that the U.S. military government is there to maintain order
not one second longer than it is needed.


5. (C) Finally, here in Jordan, and throughout the Arab
world, we believe, it will be essential to restore U.S.
credibility by moving forward towards an equitable solution
to the ISRAELi-Palestinian conflict. Although many
Jordanians dismissed the President,s announcement of the
imminent presentation of the Road Map, they will be
scrutinizing our actions to see our next steps in this area.
The media has implicitly and overtly compared U.S. actions in
Iraqi cities to those of ISRAELi forces in the occupied
territories. It will be critical for the U.S. to put our
full weight behind the Roadmap -- particularly in the form of
U.S. statements seen as pressing ISRAEL to take concrete
steps -- and to act on our opposition to settlement activity,
home demolitions and humiliation of Palestinian civilians, if
Jordanians are to see us as a force for peace rather than a
new imperium.



GNEHM