Joel [1] is absolutely right when he says it's the substance that matters more than style.

Public diplomacy is important on the margins of public opinion, or on shaping discourse -- style helps -- but ultimately if a policy is antithetical to a state's interests, it probably can't be packaged in a way that conceals or compensates for that.

Many American policies are directly antithetical to many states' interests, or at least their perceptions of them. So it makes sense that the U.S. is not doing well in the popularity contest in the high school of the world.

The often heard refrain, "if only we could just explain our REAL intentions, then people would love us," is a classic example of Americans' naivete and startling optimism; but it's quaintly admirable to see how many Americans are so assured of their own virtue that they can't understand why anyone would doubt it. I wonder...

The sad and ironic truth is that it is sincere. Millions of Americans (and surely some of their leaders) really, deeply believed we could make Iraq and possibly the whole Middle East a better place by invading it. I should know. I was one of them. We were wrong.

Public perceptions of America will improve not on the basis of American intentions or communications, but on the consequences of our actions. But America's actions and their consequences need to be known.

The United States has the enormous disadvantage of being the target of a global, grassroots, multi-million dollar disinformation campaign which is spreading lies all over the world. The campaign is most intense and effective in precisely the places where public opinion matters most.

Totalitarian states -- whether they are Fascist, Marxist or Islamist -- control the press or censor it, repress free speech, block websites, and oppress journalists and dissidents, often to the detriment of the truth and the United States.

Media that is not overtly or covertly controlled, is often biased. All journalism has some bias, and America's is no exception, but newspapers, radio, satellite television in many parts of the world are slanted in ways many Americans cannot even conceive. I was particularly struck by this on a trip to China where newspapers printed blatantly false stories maligning the United States. I also had the surreal experience of watching a translated Al Jazeera segment that gave equal weight to the theory that the CIA was responsible for the destruction of the World Trade Center, as the theory that it was planned by Israel to draw the United States into attacking it's enemies.

Appallingly large numbers of people are illiterate, and are not savvy consumers of the media the way many Americans are. And those who are educated are often taught to hate Americans virtually from birth. Islamist madrasas and Marxist universities spew anti-American hatred, churning out graduates who are quite literally brainwashed. I have seen childrens' books glorifying suicide bombers.

Most damaging are the completely fabricated stories spread outside the media through social networks -- often overrun or even directly sponsored by terrorist organizations. Truly outlandish lies are told about America all the time, especially in the Middle East. I have traveled in Turkey, Egypt and Morocco -- all fairly moderate Muslim countries -- and been shocked by preposterous conspiracy theories held by otherwise educated, informed people. I remember being told by a Turkish political science student that Bill Clinton was Jewish.

I have seen interviews of people in Arab countries where they ask what percentage of Americans they believe are Jewish. Most answers ranged from 50-80%. The answer is 1 or 2%.

Friends of mine in the U.S. Army who fought in Iraq said that many people expected them to burn down the mosques. Why? Because terrorists organizations have printed flyers and even comic books for small children that say so. The reality is that the Rules of Engagement for American soldiers almost never allow soldiers to set foot in a mosque in Iraq. I know people who were ordered not to shoot at insurgents who were firing at them because they were using a mosque as cover. That is a fact I wish got as much coverage as the shootings in Haditha.

American public diplomacy efforts should focus not so much on portraying American favorably, but just on revealing the truth. We aren't going to convince anyone that the U.S. presence in Iraq, support for Israel, rejection of Kyoto, or drilling for oil are blessings. Let's just try and set the record straight. After all, the success of Voice of America and Radio Free Europe were not as American infomercials, but as credible news sources that gave Soviet subjects a glimpse of reality. The Soviets did the rest themselves.