The Battle for Heats and Minds

What Rove misses is that Democrats, in addition to be willing to use military force where it makes sense (such as in Afghanistan as opposed to Iraq), also understand that there are limits to what can be accomplished with military force.

In addition to the use of military force, and use of intelligence, it is necessary to win the battle for hearts and minds if we are ever going to end the threat of terrorism.

As the Republicans don't even realize this is a major part of the war, we are losing badly. Here's another example (hat tip to DemBloggers):

Poll: China Image Scores Better Than U.S.

The United States' popularity in many countries - including longtime allies in Europe - is lagging behind even communist China.

The image of the U.S. slipped sharply in 2003, after its invasion of Iraq, and two years later has shown few signs of rebounding either in Western Europe or the Muslim world, an international poll found.

"The U.S. image has improved slightly, but is still broadly negative," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. "It's amazing when you see the European public rating the United States so poorly, especially in comparison with China."

MORE