Qana: Shock and Awe vs. Hearts and Minds

Monday, July 31, 2006

By Jane Skinner, FOXNews

July 31, 2006

Transcript

Jane Skinner: And welcome back everybody. We are covering the latest from the mid-east now. Heart-wrenching images that you saw this weekend: the bodies of children being pulled from the rubble of that apartment building in Qana, Lebanon, after that Israeli air strike. Hezbollah, as you may know is pretty good at using those images in a war of propaganda against Israel. But there is ample evidence that Hezbollah uses civilian areas for military operations and also uses the Lebanese people as human shields. And you can see Hezbollah fighters taking up positions in residential areas and placing anti-aircraft guns right in the midst of high-density suburban areas. Joining us now is former Indiana congressman, Tim Roemer, and he sat on the Intelligence Committee, he’s also a former 9/11 commissioner. Congressman, thanks for being here.

Tim Roemer: Absolutely, Jane.

Jane Skinner: Talk if you will about the difficultly in fighting that kind of enemy. I mean, it’s a concept that isn’t necessarily familiar to us: what we think of as traditional warfare, it’s very nontraditional. Do we need to adjust our expectations of this kind of warfare?

Tim Roemer: We absolutely do. Three points Jane. One is that the United States has to make sure that we understand and act in a post-9/11 world; not act like it’s a pre-9/11 world. We have to make sure that we understand that if you use shock-and-awe, it doesn’t mean you forfeit the ability to win the hearts and minds. Aljazeera and other T.V. stations can use a mistake with a smart bomb to try to recruit and train, not only Hezbollah fighters, but jihadists, and then as Zawahiri did, try to inspire them to attack America in Iraq. Many of these things are connected and I think the United States needs a tougher and smarter strategy; not only using an effective military strategy which is essential, but working more on the hearts and minds side of this and we have not done that very effectively.

Jane Skinner: You know the ambassador, the Israeli ambassador to the U.N. over the weekend, Dan Gillerman, had said, don’t do this; we’re playing right into their hands. They use these people as shields, they use their own people as shields and Hezbollah now has the high moral ground. I mean, how do you go about establishing a more effective plan, as you say?

Tim Roemer: Well, I think the more effective plan here is that the United States as a superpower should not have been sitting on the sidelines trying to establish, as President Bush said, we’ll wait and lay the groundwork for a lasting peace. But they should have been there, I think much sooner, trying to put together the Arab umbrella to sustain that and get the Arab street on our side. Remember back when Hezbollah started this, and it’s important to remember, they started this by going into Israeli territory and taking two soldiers. We had Egypt, Jordan and Saudi, condemning Hezbollah while Israel was fighting them. That now is turning and we’re starting to get Christians in Lebanon say that they want to side with Hezbollah. That is not the kind of momentum that we want to see developing and we need the kind of tough and smart strategy that Truman used, utilizing military but also working with countries economically and educationally. Ronald Reagan realized that you didn’t just win the Cold War by producing missiles but it was also communication with other countries and convincing people that democracy and our values of justice, liberty and freedom were better than the terrorists’ and I don’t think we’re being as effective on those fronts Jane.

Jane Skinner: You know, but Congressman, just real quickly, the President might answer you and say what was happening during the Clinton administration etcetera, over the last ten to twelve years, etcetera, it wasn’t really working; that we needed some sort of new strategy. We’ve got to broaden it out and do something different.

Tim Roemer: Well there’s no doubt that we need to do some things differently, and I think the Clinton administration did understand that you have to be able to use both: both the military, they certainly try in some ways to go after people like Osama bin Laden with cruise missiles but also try to understand that there was a wider message on the economic and educational side. You have to win the hearts and minds in the long-term. You have to be able to convince people in the Arab world that the United States' values of freedom, liberty and democracy are the more compelling. And then, when Zawahiri gets out a tape last week and tries to unite the Muslim world against the United States; they’re trying to appeal in new ways with videotapes done in studios—

Jane Skinner: Congressman I’m going to have to inter—

Tim Roemer: … to try to take over public opinion, we can’t let that happen—

Jane Skinner: … interrupt you there. I’m sorry we’re going to be cut off by the computer there. One of those heartbreaks. Congressman Roemer, thank you very much.

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