WASHINGTON, 31 March 2003 — Ever since the attack on Iraq began, the Bush administration has been aggressively courting the Arab news media, dispatching senior officials to drive home the message that the war is about “liberation, not occupation.’’
But any positive feedback from the public relations blitzkrieg, which included interviews with Secretary of State Colin Powell and other top newsmakers, was largely swamped this weekend by visual images of death and destruction in Baghdad. The Arab press exploded in anger over the deaths of at least 58 Iraqi civilians in a busy Baghdad market. Iraqis have blamed a stray American bomb. “Yet another massacre by the coalition of invaders,’’ blared the front-page headline Saturday in the Al Riyadh daily of Saudi Arabia.
As the war entered its second week, with no major Iraqi city seized, the United States was fighting what a senior administration official described as “an uphill battle’’ to counter “horrible’’ images of suffering Iraqi civilians. So far, many of the pictures from the war zone have been negative: downed US helicopters, devastated Baghdad buildings, American troops knee-deep in mud.
The propaganda war is not going well for the United States, particularly abroad. In some ways, say analysts, the public relations setbacks from the first 10 days of fighting have been more serious than the military ones. Television images such as those that blanketed the Arab news media this weekend are likely to resonate around the Arab world long after the fighting is over.
“The political damage is very severe,’’ said Shibley Telhami, a University of Maryland professor who studies Arab public opinion. “I think ultimately the US will prevail militarily. But the real issue will be what are the consequences of that victory, and how people in the region perceive the United States after this is all over.’’
While insisting that it is too early to establish whether the devastation in the Baghdad marketplace was caused by a stray American missile or an Iraqi bomb, US officials acknowledge the problem. They say that it will take other, equally powerful images — of Iraqi civilians celebrating the downfall of President Saddam Hussein — to counteract the pictures that have been dominating Arab television screens.
“You don’t lose the propaganda war one week or the next,’’ said a senior US official responsible for shaping outreach efforts to the Arab world. “You win the propaganda war by doing the right thing. In the end, people will see that we have done the right thing.’’
The news for the administration on the home front of the propaganda war is considerably better than on the foreign front. Opinion polls show that domestic support for the war in Iraq has remained steady, at around 70 percent, even though the number of Americans who think that the war is going well has declined sharply from the opening days of the campaign.
“Domestically, we’re doing well,’’ said Jim Wilkinson, director of strategic communications for US Central Command, who spent nearly four months planning the war message. “But in the Arab world we have some room for improvement, and we’re taking steps to improve.’’
Wilkinson recently held a round-table for Arab reporters and agreed to their request for a prayer room at the command press briefings in Doha, Qatar.
The immediate problem facing the administration is that the images of happy Iraqi civilians greeting US troops as liberators have not so far materialized in any large number. White House talking points for the early phase of the war called for regular “liberation updates’’ and an unrelenting emphasis on the “voices of freedom.’’
At first, it seemed as if these hopes might be realized. The first day of ground fighting produced footage of a US Marine officer tearing down a Saddam portrait with the assistance of Iraqi civilians in the border town of Safwan. “Americans very good,’’ the Associated Press quoted one civilian as saying. “Iraq wants to be free.’’
“News accounts today paint a vivid picture of joy and relief inside Iraq,’’ announced the Global Messenger, an internal White House publication designed to coordinate its media message, on the third day of the war. “American and coalition troops are being welcomed by smiling Iraqis.’’
But by the seventh day, networks were carrying pictures of dozens of Iraqis surrounding the first humanitarian aid trucks to reach Safwan. Instead of greeting the US troops as liberators, they were shouting anti-American slogans.
“With our blood, we sacrifice ourselves for you, Saddam,’’ the crowd chanted, as other Iraqis swarmed over the trucks, grabbing every food parcel in sight.
It was not the story line envisaged by the commanders of the Bush administration message machine when they began planning “Operation Iraqi Freedom’’ with the same meticulous attention to detail displayed by their military counterparts. In the next days, the public relations emphasis switched from Iraq’s imminent liberation to denunciations of Saddam’s brutality, which was making it impossible for Iraqis to express their true feelings. While administration officials have been angered by Al-Jazeera’s reporting — particularly the airing of interviews with captured US soldiers — they also understand its importance. According to the University of Maryland’s Telhami, almost half the population of the Arab world now watches satellite TV broadcasts, such as Al-Jazeera, up from 8 percent just two years ago. In some countries, the audience is as high as 95 percent.
So far, said Telhami, the US media outreach campaign has had little impact on the Arab street. “On the margins, it may make some difference, but often when US officials go on Arab TV, they just confirm the already negative opinion of Arab viewers toward the US. Their message is not exactly tailored in a way that resonates in Arab minds.’’
US officials say they believe the interviews do some good, at least in providing balance and the opportunity to air Washington’s point of view. “Even though our message is scoffed at, or debated harshly in the Arab media, it’s being heard,’’ an administration official said. “People are going to remember (the message) as they start to see liberation come to life.’’
