I have one story that sticks in my head, which a professor of mine once told me. He was speaking to a prominent Gulf cleric and the guy turns to him and says, in a hushed and serious tone:

“Husain, you are over in America now. Tell me, are all the women in America like the ones on Sex and the City?”

I retain this story as reminder that sometimes things are not on the “Clash of Civilizations” level. Rather, sometimes it comes down fearing that your Sisters, wife and daughters may become whores like on Sex and the City, a concern I think most men can understand.


Rockbridge, I agree, it is like comparing apples to oranges. The saturation of media from the myriad of sources that represents America, cannot properly be compared to AQ's ability to send out it's message. From my very novice look, I see AQ's media campaign growing increasingly sophisticated. There is better analysis around, but I get the inclination that they are drawing some outside help. One thought that I have kicked around playing “What would I do if I were AQ?”, is utilizing public-opinion/polling firms, behavioral and market research firms to aide in tailoring messages and attacks. Buying limited distribution research products off the shelf, are commissioning actual studies. I imagine through various cutouts, shell companies, lawyers and fiduciary agents, that customer identity can be cloaked.



Good points. It should also be no surprise that a healthy part of the dislike or distaste for the US in much of the world is due to the fact that our very incompetent media -- and particularly Television -- tend to make the entire nation come across as a bunch of tasteless, not too bright and celebrity obsessed beer swillers. IOW, they make us look even dumber than we are.
Mr. White, I think you would enjoy the film Idiocracy. The best film of last year that nobody saw. One reviewer called it "the most stirring defense of traditional values since Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France." I don't disagree.