U.S. Military Chief Blames Western Behaviour for Muslim Hatred

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, has criticised Obama's attempts to reconcile with the Muslim world through dialogue - because he doesn't think such efforts go far enough whilst "American behaviour is perceived as arrogant, uncaring or insulting."

Of course, he offers no solutions, because there aren't any - whatever America and the West do will always be perceived as uncaring, arrogant or insulting by many - particularly whilst we're busy telling them that it is, we are, and we're so very sorry.

In fact, the greater lengths we go to be completely inoffensive, the worse things will get, as the Muslim world expects us to bow and scrape over the smallest things, or even live like Muslims to avoid ultimate offences such as eating pork, drinking alcohol or not showing respect to Mohammed.

Admiral Mullen also fails to recognise that some things deserve to be insulted or simply disregarded - I'm worried and disappointed that such a thing does not occur to a man in his position.

From MSNBC:

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has written a searing critique of government efforts at “strategic communication” with the Muslim world, saying that no amount of public relations will establish credibility if American behavior overseas is perceived as arrogant, uncaring or insulting.

The critique by the chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, comes as the United States is widely believed to be losing ground in the war of ideas against extremist Islamist ideology. The issue is particularly relevant as the Obama administration orders fresh efforts to counter militant propaganda, part of its broader strategy to defeat the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“To put it simply, we need to worry a lot less about how to communicate our actions and much more about what our actions communicate,” Admiral Mullen wrote in the critique, an essay to be published Friday by Joint Force Quarterly, an official military journal.

“I would argue that most strategic communication problems are not communication problems at all,” he wrote. “They are policy and execution problems. Each time we fail to live up to our values or don’t follow up on a promise, we look more and more like the arrogant Americans the enemy claims we are.”