US embassy cable - 03AMMAN2132

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