The United States has a problem. Despite overwhelming technological and military power, the US is rapidly losing the war of public perception. Matt Armstrong (aka MountainRunner) succinctly summarizes the situation in a 2007 Good Magazine article:
“Iraq has become a stage on which terrorists, insurgents, and Coalition forces compete for a global audience. YouTube, blogs, and all other forms of citizen media ensure that every GI Joe and Jihadi has at least a part in the theater of public opinion. The result is a new public diplomacy that insurgents understand, and the U.S. State Department doesn’t.”
Matt argues that the US is crippling its war for hearts and minds by building high security “Crusader castle” embassies in Baghdad and elsewhere. But just how can the United States fight an image war?
One idea is to copy Al-Qaeda’s PR strategy: use social networking sites, YouTube, and blogs. The problem with this strategy is that it plays to America’s weakness. Al-Qaeda’s decentralized, nimble network of members, supporters, followers, and fans is well suited to waging an information war on an online battlefield. The United States’ centralized structure, on the other hand,seems too slow and rigid to offer an effective PR battle. And, despite continuous cries for improvement, this situation does not appear to be changing any time soon. But what if there was a way to fight the war of public perception by exploiting US strengths.
Nobody can rival the United States in technological prowess and power projection capabilities. The ability of the United States to place military power anywhere in the globe separates it from all other states and certainly from Al-Qaeda. By applying these strengths, America moves the war of public perception to a new battlefield where it holds the high ground. The SkyFreighter (albeit theoretically) might be one way to do this.
The Sky Freighter, if the developer’s promises are to be believed (which is not that easy considering they misspell “freighter” on their homepage), offers a semi-rigid, amphibious, VTOL hybrid heavy lift aircraft capable of carrying 500 tons of cargo 6000 miles. In other words, it is a cross between a cargo ship and the Hindenburg.
Put into the right hands, these behemoth airship could fly American hospitals to the world’s medically underserved and through that mission, be American ambassadors. The US Navy already has a number of hospital ships used in humanitarian missions, however the ships are limited to working along coastlines or large port cites. SkyFreighter, however, has the ability to target specific communities regardless of their location. These craft allow the US to conduct public diplomacy campaigns almost anywhere, whether in the Somali bush or the Saudi desert. Poor, rural villagers will never be fully sheltered from Al-Qaeda’s PR. But, with a fleet of US hospital airships those same villagers would never forget that their free cleft-pallet surgery was conducted by an American Navy airship doctor. Al-Qaeda has little chance of competing against that.