“A TRAVESTY OF A MOCKERY OF A SHAM:” James Glassman says that the Bush Administration is blowing the war of ideas:

This job — promoting the national interest by informing, engaging and influencing — is called “public diplomacy.” We used to be the best at it. With institutions like Radio Free Europe and the USIA, public diplomacy helped win the Cold War, and it has the potential to win the war on terror, saving American lives and money.

But, after the Berlin Wall came down, the U.S. started to dismantle the apparatus of public diplomacy, or P.D. The worst blow came when we disbanded the U.S. Information Agency. Today, the State Department spends just $600 million on public diplomacy — a joke. Some in the administration even see P.D. as sissified, not for tough policymakers. . . .

“A year ago,” said Mark Helmke, key aide to Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind). “I reported that American public diplomacy was a mess. I said it lacked a strategy, a vision, and money. Today, that situation is worse. American public diplomacy is a disaster.”

Read the whole thing.