Quote Originally Posted by SteveMetz View Post
"Here's the gist: one of the foundation assumptions of current American strategy is that most people around the world like us hence we can and should work through local partners to win 'hearts and minds.'"
I think the assumption is not that people like us, but rather that there is a universal yearning for freedom. Sorry if that sounds like administration propaganda, but that seems to be the assumption.

"Most people do have a reasonably good understanding of us. They just increasingly don't want what we want and plain don't like what we stand for."
I realize that your scope is larger than just Iraq, but for what this is worth, I would disagree that people in Iraq have a good understanding of us. Far from it. Iraqis can be very intelligent, very savvy, and have much better interpersonal skills than most Americans. However, when it comes to gathering information about the world outside of their immediate vicinity that they can see with their own eyes, they are horrible. They are so susceptible to conspiracy theories, wild exaggerations, unfounded fears, and just flat out confusion that it is ridiculous. This has been exacerbated by years of state-run propaganda used to prop up corrupt tyrants. More often than not, they cannot make sense of what is occuring in the adjacent province, let alone half a world away. I met Iraqis in 2005 who didn't realize that we re-invaded in 2003 and their first question of us was to ask if the Israelis had moved into Iraq.