WASHINGTON, March 28: US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld gives the United States a barely passing grade for its performance in the ‘battle of ideas’ with Muslim ‘extremists’. Mr Rumsfeld, speaking at the US Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on Monday, said the poor US image in the world was ‘unfortunate’, and made it more difficult for Washington to prevail.

“If I were grading I would say we probably deserve a ‘D’ or a ‘D+’ as a country as to how well we’re doing in the battle of ideas that is taking place in the world today,” he said.

“I am not going to suggest it is easy. But we have not found the formula as a country,” he added.

Mr Rumsfeld made the remarks in response to questions from mid-career officers and faculty at the War College after a speech on ‘the nature of the enemy’.

Earlier, the secretary flew by helicopter to the field in rural Pennsylvania where one of the four airliners hijacked on Sept 11, 2001, crashed after passengers staged a revolt.

Mr Rumsfeld’s first visit to the crash site came amid deepening public disenchantment with the situation in Iraq and growing calls for a withdrawal of US forces.

He linked the Sept 11 attacks to the US struggle to pacify Iraq.

“Today there are some who want America to go back on the defensive — to the strategy that failed before Sept 11,” Mr Rumsfeld said.

“They say a retreat from Iraq would provide an American escape from the violence. However, we know that any reprieve would be short-lived,” he said.

Recounting beheadings and atrocities involving children, Mr Rumsfeld warned the violence would not end until extremist ideology is confronted ‘by the values that millions on every continent take for granted’.

But Mr Rumsfeld, who has himself been a lightning rod for international criticism, admitted that the United States has fallen short in the ideological contest.

“We’re far from perfect. But the image the United States has in the world as a result of the characterisation by others frequently is unfortunate,” he said.

“And when people are leaning toward you, as you know, things are easy. And when people are leaning away from you things are much more difficult,” he said.

He suggested that in part it was because the main struggle has been within the Muslim faith.

“We are going to have to find a way to support and encourage those moderate voices because they are the ones who are in the struggle,” he said.

However, he said the United States lacks institutions like the Cold War-era Information Agency.

“I don’t know what the 21st century version of that is, but we needed it badly, and we haven’t got it,” he said.

Other efforts to put out information that puts the United States in a positive light draw criticism from the press and Congress, he said.

Mr Rumsfeld pointed to ‘the fuss and the concern’ over the US military’s use of a contractor to plant paid stories in Iraqi newspapers.

“We are going to have to find better ways to do it, and thus far we haven’t. The government isn’t well organised to do it,” he said. —AFP