Karen Hughes responds

We received over 1,000 comments and questions for Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes.  Thanks to our readers for participating.

The host of Talk to Power, Judy Woodruff, presented readers' questions to Ms. Hughes. The interview took place at the State Department in Washington.

Because the majority of readers' comments focused on

Iraq, the interview was mainly devoted to that topic.  You can see Ms. Hughes' individual responses by following the links, or read the full transcript of her remarks below.

Thanks again to Ms. Hughes for participating in Talk to Power, and to readers for their questions. 

An American challenge

The first question addressed to Ms. Hughes regarded the idea of "American values" and whether they are being communicated to the world — an issue that was raised by multiple readers in various forms, including one who identified himself as a father of three on active service in

Afghanistan. In posing the question, Ms. Woodruff quoted two readers' posts that reflect very different ways of looking at the matter.

One wrote: "If one of your assigned commitments is to counter the ideology of terrorist recruiters, how do you counter the terrible news about prisoner abuse in Guantanamo, in Iraq, and in secret prisons around the world? It seems to me we are creating many more enemies than we are eliminating."

Another wrote:  "The message I'm picking up is most of the world has contempt for us despite — or maybe as a result of — our altruistic generosity.... Could it be a colossal policy mistake to be so generous?"

Ms. Hughes began her response with a note of thanks to the military service member who had offered a question, and then discussed some of the challenges involved in presenting a message of American values.

See the first part of her response.

In the second part of her response, Ms. Hughes addressed the questions more specifically, speaking first to the issue of generalized anger at the U.S. and then to the issue of anger about prison abuse in Iraq and elsewhere.

See the second part of Ms. Hughes' response.

American anger over Iraq

The next question came not from an individual reader but rather was an attempt to sum up widespread anger over the war in Iraq that dominated the message boards for Ms. Hughes. "While we recognize that your primary mission is to promote American values abroad, can you address the growing dissatisfaction within U.S. borders with America's current situation?" Ms. Woodruff asked.

See Ms. Hughes' response.

Following up on the issue of anger over the Iraq war, Ms. Woodruff compared outrage over terrorism to outrage against the war. Referring to the anger at the Bush administration, she asked, "Do you have, or do you think you need, a plan to turn that feeling around and try to harness it somehow?

See Ms. Hughes' response.

Dealing with Darfur

A number of readers expressed concern about the crisis in Darfur and asked why the U.S. isn't doing more to deal with it. One wrote: "While I understand the emphasis and the focus on the war on terror and how it relates to our present operations to that end, presently with genocide happening in Sudan, I wish to know why it is that we're not doing anything more for the Darfur conflict? If we have established a willingness to violate the sovereignty of a nation to promote our sensibilities, I can see no better place to do it than in Sudan to stop the genocide."

See Ms. Hughes' response.

The

Israel Question

The conversation then moved on to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a topic raised by many readers.  One wrote: "Given your extensive travels in the Middle East, would you say that the strong anti-American sentiment would be reduced significantly if there were a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?  It would seem that such an initiative, if moderately successful, would ultimately help Israel and relieve the Palestinians of the state they are in — probably worse than any time in their history."

See Ms. Hughes' response.

* * * * *

Transcript of interview with Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes.

MS. WOODRUFF: First of all, thank you very much for participating.  The project is "Talk to Power."  It's aimed at younger voters in America, it is a joint project between Yahoo!  News and the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Many -

MS. HUGHES:  If you're aiming at younger people, I want to make an appeal that they can help me with my mission of public diplomacy.  I really think that the key to my job, which I view as reaching out to the rest of the world in a spirit of partnership and respect, is to figure out a way to connect our young people, who know what America is all about, who know the great diversity of our country, who know the great debate in our country, and figuring out a way for our young people to reach out and connect with young people across the world.  I think it's just vitally important, so I hope that those of you who know how to use YouTube, and know how to use MySpace, and know how to use these marvelous new Internet techniques that help us communicate with each other, would consider reaching out to young people across the world to share your own American story, to share your own values, to share the - what your life is like and what's important to you with young people across the world because we have to encourage that kind of people-to-people connection.

So I didn't mean to interrupt, but I -

MS. WOODRUFF:  No, it's fine.

MS. HUGHES:  But I did want to make that appeal to young Americans because I believe the job of public diplomacy really depends on all of us.  It's not a Republican job, it's not a Democratic job; it's an American challenge that's a generational challenge that we're facing.

An American Challenge

MS. WOODRUFF:  Thank you.  And in that vein, many Yahoo readers who wrote in, Madam Secretary, asked about American values and what they are.  Some, including a father of three - three - on active duty in Afghanistan, implied that America is falling short in terms of expressing its values of tolerance, peace and stability to the Muslim world.  One Yahoo reader wrote - this is another one - "If one of your assigned commitments is to counter the ideology of terrorist recruiters, how do you counter the terrible news about prisoner abuse in Guantanamo, in Iraq, and in secret prisons around the world?  It seems to me we are creating many more enemies than we are eliminating."

And in connection with that, another reader wonders if there is any value in trying to counter prevailing perceptions of America abroad.  This reader writes, "The message I'm picking up is most of the world has contempt for us despite - or maybe as a result of - our altruistic generosity.  [We are giving foreign aid, we are inclusive in our negotiations.]  Could it be a colossal policy mistake to be so generous?"

So on the one hand, one is asking are we creating more enemies by some of these things that we've done, and the other one is basically asking are we being too altruistic?

MS. HUGHES:  Well, those are a lot of questions, but let me try to address them.  First of all, to the father of three who is serving in Afghanistan, thank you for your service to our country.  I know that all of my fellow Americans appreciate what you are doing there, and all of you in Afghanistan and Iraq.  We greatly appreciate your service and your sacrifice.

We do face a big challenge, and my background is in communications, and I think that's the reason that

President Bush asked me to take on this challenge because we do face a communications challenge in a dramatically different communications environment than we have faced before.

When many people talk about America's public diplomacy, which I define as waging peace, as reaching out to the rest of the world in a spirit of respect and partnership and friendship - when many people talk about that, the context is the Cold War.  Well, the communications environment then was dramatically different.  In the Cold War we were trying to convey information to people in largely closed societies who were hungry for that information.  They wanted to hear from us, they yearned to hear from us.

That's still the case in a very few places around the world, but by and large, we are competing instead for attention and credibility in a very crowded communications environment:  in the Middle East, for example, more than 150 satellite television networks, access to the Internet at cybercafés, if not in homes.  And so the communications environment is very complex and very, very challenging for all of us.  Sometimes government has a hard time keeping up with those kinds of dramatic changes, and so we face a challenge that is an American challenge.

Now as to the issue about creating - what was the issue about creating -

Addressing Anger at the U.S.

MS. WOODRUFF:  The second one about the world has contempt for us as - despite or maybe as a result of our altruistic generosity  -

MS. HUGHES:  Well, let me address that because I find that that's very mixed.  Even people - people will tell me all sorts of different things.  They have all sorts of different complaints.  In some cases, they complain about America because they can't complain - they're not free to complain about their own governments.

In some cases they don't like a policy or another policy.  In some cases, they don't like American television or movies.  I've been in many conservative societies where parents feel that some of the sex and violence of our movies is an assault to their culture, and I know a lot of American parents feel that way, too, but in some societies, where government controls the media, they don't have the context to understand that we are a free society where people are free to make movies as they wish, and that our government does not control what our movie makers do, or our government does not control what every American says.  And so sometimes it's difficult for people to have that context.

I do believe we have a vital national security interest as well as a human interest in reaching out across the world, in helping people around the world.  Our world is increasingly globalized, and I think it's important for our American young people to learn the languages of the world so we can better communicate with the world; for our American young people to study abroad.  I've encouraged my own son to spend a semester or a year abroad.  He probably won't do it because his mother suggested it, but I hope some of the rest of you young people out there will consider doing that because it's very important.

And likewise, we want young people from around the world - we're very proud here at the State Department that we have just reversed a decline in foreign students that began after September 11^th.  We're now on the upswing again, and that's very important because wherever I go in the world, I meet leaders who were educated 20 or 30 years ago in the United States, and so therefore they understand our country, they have an affection for America that they developed by living here and studying here, and I want the same thing to be true 20 to 30 years from now, so we need to continue to attract the leaders of the world to come to America to study in America.

Now you mentioned the problems at

Abu Ghraib, the pictures, the horror.  You know, I know my fellow Americans can understand that we're - I was sickened by those pictures, and I know my fellow Americans were sickened by those pictures, as people around the world were.  And what I say to people around the world is those pictures depicted crimes, and I don't think anyone - any country around the world would want pictures of crimes that were committed by citizens of that country to somehow represent their country around the world, and we don't want that either.  The - some of the individuals that you see in those pictures mistreating prisoners are now serving prison sentences - lengthy prison sentences in federal prison as a result of those crimes.  And so I would hope that people around the world would recognize the fact that those were crimes, not policies of the U.S. government, and that the individuals who perpetrated those crimes had been brought to justice.

Ire over Iraq

MS. WOODRUFF:  In connection with some of those points you were making - and this was a summary put together by a Yahoo editor, who writes, "A significant majority of the over 1,000 Yahoo comments that came in were sharply critical of the administration's decision to invade Iraq and its subsequent handling of the war and occupation of that country.  While we recognize that your primary mission is to promote American values abroad, can you address the growing dissatisfaction within U.S. borders with America's current situation?"

MS. HUGHES:  Well, I think understandably, no one likes war.  I don't like war, the president of the United States does not like war.

I have to admit I'm sometimes - it's concerning to me as an American to see some of the vitriol that is expressed.  No decision is harder or more profound than to commit the young men and women of America into conflict in a foreign land, and no decision is more agonizing for a commander-in-chief.  I've watched as the president had to make that decision, first in Afghanistan, then in Iraq.  I recognize many Americans disagree with that decision, but I can tell you he made it in what he thought was the best - the most important national security interests, not only of our country, but also of the values that we cherish and stand for in the world:  our belief in freedom, our belief in the dignity and worth of every single person in the world.  And that's the reason he made these very difficult decisions.

And these are difficult times.  It was horrifying over Thanksgiving weekend to see the violence and the killing - the sectarian violence and the attacks in Iraq, and so what I would encourage is - and again, I recognize there is debate, both in this country and around the world, but I would encourage that we all, whether you were for the decision to go into Iraq or opposed to the decision to go into Iraq, we all as Americans have a vested interest, and the Iraqi people especially have a vested interest in the outcome of this conflict.  And so I hope that we could all work together to try to do our best, do our part, and that our partners in the region would work with us to do their part to try to see that we are able to help the Iraq - the elected Iraqi government strengthen its security forces and strengthen its presence in Iraq and be able to try to confront successfully some of this violence there.

Where is the outrage?

MS. WOODRUFF:  It is noted - was noted that you, as undersecretary of State, have often asked where is the moral outrage against terrorism? One could argue that many could be - who could be fueling a grassroots effort - and this is something that you yourself have talked about - with their outrage are instead directing that invective against the Bush administration and against people like you who represent it.  Do you have - or do you think you need a plan to turn that feeling around and try to harness it somehow?

MS. HUGHES:  Well, that's an interesting thought.  I'm not sure how I would harness it, although what I did was write an opinion editorial and say that - it was for the anniversary - the fifth anniversary of September 11^th - and say that five years after those attacks that one of the things I thought was still lacking was the concerted moral outrage of citizens of every faith and every nation around the world against those who would indiscriminately murder innocent civilians.  And I - surely that's something that we can all agree on - at least most of us.  I understand there are some who have been radicalized and who basically represent what I call a death cult, who basically advocate killing all those who disagree with them.

But that's - you know, the strength of America is its diversity, and the word "tolerance" I've never liked because it implies that you grit your teeth and tolerate something.  I much prefer that we celebrate our diversity.  It's one of the great strengths of this country.  You know, Islam is a part of America.  As a government official, I represent 6 to 7 million - an estimated 6 to 7 million American Muslims who live and work and worship freely in our country, and I am privileged to interview exchange participants who come and meet with them - who come to our country, and one of the things they invariably say is how free people are here, how free they are to worship, and it surprises them because that's not the image they get watching the media about our country.  And so I think that it is important that we come together as people of different countries and different cultures and different faiths, and that we say that, as civilized people, that we have to learn to respect our differences, to celebrate the diversity that makes this world so rich, and that surely we can all agree that life is precious and the taking of innocent life is wrong.

And I have to say that one of the frightening things about my experience in this job has been that I've met with a few people who have told me that they would be - a few mothers, a few - I have a son, I have a daughter, and so I can't imagine that I would ever be able to say that - you know, I would consider it awful if one of my children were to think that they wanted to kill themselves in the process of killing a lot of other people, and that that were somehow a good thing, and yet I have met with some mothers in some parts of the world who - at least one who told me that she would be proud.

And I told her very honestly that I had a hard time understanding that, and that my feeling was that surely we could try to teach our children, and to teach our children respect for life.  After all, our country was founded on a belief that every person is equal and that every person is entitled to certain inalienable rights; among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  And so that is one of our core beliefs.  It's one of our declared - it's our declared value in our Declaration. 

And so it's just a - I really feel that it's important that citizens around the world join together in speaking up, and increasingly more and more of them are - in speaking out against the terror that is taking place around the world.

Dealing with the Darfur crisis

MS. WOODRUFF:  Darfur - at least one visitor wrote - and this is a quote - "While I understand the emphasis and the focus on the war on terror and how it relates to our present operations to that end, presently with genocide happening in Sudan, I wish to know why it is that we're not doing anything more for the Darfur conflict? If we have established a willingness to violate the sovereignty of a nation to promote our sensibilities, I can see no better place to do it than in Sudan to stop the genocide."

MS. HUGHES:  Well, let me say first of all that we are very engaged in trying to stop the horrible situation and the suffering of so many people in Darfur.  Our former secretary of State,

Colin Powell, was one of the first leaders to label it a genocide.  We have been very engaged.  We now have a special envoy, Andrew Natsios, who is working very hard to try to convince the government there to allow a U.N. peacekeeping force to extend the - and strengthen the capability of the African force that is currently in Darfur.

The people of America are currently supplying more than 80 percent of the food of - all the food from the entire international community that is going into Darfur, and so I think we have been very engaged.  And I hear about Darfur every day here at the State Department.  We're very engaged, we're very concerned.  We're working very hard to try to bring about a resolution, and we are very concerned about the horrible violence and the terrible suffering of the people there, and I think we have been more engaged than probably any other country in the entire world on the situation in Darfur.

The Israel question

MS. WOODRUFF:  The last subject I will bring up has to do with Israel and the Middle East again - but not again.  I mean, this is an extension of what you were speaking about earlier.

Numerous visitors, numerous readers raised the question of the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its broader effect on international relations.  One of them wrote, and I quote, "Given your extensive travels in the Middle East, would you say that the strong anti-American sentiment would be reduced significantly if there were a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?  It would seem that such an initiative, if moderately successful, would ultimately help Israel and relieve the Palestinians of the state they are in - probably worse than any time in their history."  End quote.

MS. HUGHES:  Well, I think there is no doubt, as I travel the world, that the issue that probably is brought up first and foremost, particularly in Islamic communities around the world, is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and I frequently hear people talk about our policies, and I try to remind them that America's policy is that we support a Palestinian state for the Palestinian people, living side by side in peace and security with Israel.

Sometimes in Islamic communities, they tend to hear our support for Israel and they don't hear th