The existence of a situation whereby members of the Armed Forces feel comfortable holding onto and verbalizing prejudices against a broad racial group, like the Arabs, is detrimental to the military’s mission.  As a melting pot of cultures, the U.S. military is made up of individuals from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, including Arab.  The current conflict in Iraq is a war against a political entity and an opposing ideology, not a war against an entire people.  An installation’s public information office must make sure their internal audiences
understand the conflict and know who the enemy is to avoid these types of sweeping generalizations.  Communication is the tool by which a public information office can achieve this goal and prevent unrest among the racially diverse ranks of the U.S. Armed Forces.

RQ1: To what extent are members of the Armed Forces prejudiced against Arabs and to what extent can these attitudes be changed through a communication plan?

H1: A communication plan that applies uncertainty reduction and social judgment theory can significantly change military members’ attitudes toward the Arab culture.

The goal is to make it as unacceptable to use anti-Arab terms and demonstrate anti-Arab behavior as it generally is to demonstrate this type of behavior toward other ethnic and racial groups in the United States.