WASHINGTON, 2 November 2007 — This is not a good week for the State Department.
Their star players are jumping ship and their diplomats are refusing to go to Iraq.
Karen Hughes, longtime adviser to President Bush, announced her resignation as undersecretary of state Wednesday, after two years of trying to overhaul the US approach to public diplomacy. She is best known for her attempt to sway the hearts and minds of the Muslim world, of which officials say, she had little success.
Hughes, 50, is one of the last of Bush’s Texas inner circle to leave the administration. She was a key White House aide early in Bush’s presidency. She returned in mid-2005, she has worked to sell the idea that the US could “win the hearts and minds” of the Muslim world.
Hughes told reporters Wednesday that was leaving to return to Texas, to rejoin her family, but said she would remain a consultant to the State Department.
Public opinion polls show that the image of the United States has declined dramatically in the Muslim world, and elsewhere overseas. These numbers did not improve during Hughes’ time at State Department, and in many cases, have worsened.
A recent global survey by the Pew Research Center concluded that the American image “remains abysmal in most Muslims countries in the Middle East and Asia.”
Many say Hughes started off on the wrong foot. The Arab and Western media ridiculed her for statements she made during her maiden voyage to the Middle East in September 2005, which some experts said lacked a depth. In recollecting her maiden trip, The Washington Post yesterday quoted Arab News, which wrote in 2005: “[Hughes] was painfully clueless.”
Hughes told reporters Wednesday that she felt she had accomplished what she had set out to do. She said she had increased financing for public diplomacy, to $845 million in fiscal 2008 from $616 million in fiscal 2004, and that she had reversed a decline in the number of visas given to foreigners to study in the US.
Diplomats Oppose Forced Iraq Postings
Also on Wednesday, State Department diplomats criticized new rules that will force some to work in Iraq against their will or risk dismissal.
In a contentious hour-long meeting, they peppered officials with often hostile comments about the move announced last week that will require some diplomats — under threat of dismissal — to serve at the embassy in Baghdad and in reconstruction teams in outlying provinces.
Many expressed serious concern about the ethics of sending diplomats against their will to work in a war zone — where the embassy staff is largely confined to Baghdad’s protected Green Zone — as the department reviews use of private security guards to protect its staff.
