Global Policy Forum

As the ground and air war plays out in Iraq, another battle, just as crucial, is taking place -- the propaganda struggle between the British-US coalition and Baghdad. The most high-profile pawns in this psychological campaign have been the prisoners of war -- the hundreds of Iraqis said to have surrendered in the south and, more dramatically, five US soldiers captured on the weekend and shown alongside Arab broadcasts of dead comrades.

The apparent downing of at least one US Apache helicopter on Monday added to the shock being felt in the United States and Britain. But other developments either reported in the news or asserted by officials on both sides sought to exploit the situation and turn it to their advantage.

Thus US authorities claimed to have located a suspected chemical weapons plant as their forces drove on towards Baghdad, and raised doubts over the health and command of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. In return, Iraqi officials have accused the Anglo-American coalition ranged against them of "war crimes" and of suffering losses against fierce resistance mounted by their troops, militias and even ordinary peasants.

Washington and London have insisted that their advance is going well and they are on track to start the siege of Baghdad from Tuesday. They have already dropped millions of leaflets urging Iraqi soldiers to capitulate, sent e-mails to Iraqi officers encouraging them to become turncoats or to launch a coup, and alleged they were in contact with senior members of Saddam's elite Republican Guard.

Above all, they have repeatedly called the invasion a campaign to "liberate" Iraq. Baghdad, in contrast, has branded its enemies "gangsters" and "mercenaries" and vowed to kill the US-British "boa". On Sunday, Iraqi state television showed pictures of soldiers and civilians searching the banks of the Tigris river for two British pilots said to have bailed out over the city. It has also claimed to have found an Israeli missile fired against it.

Perhaps because of the sensitivity of psychological operations, or "psyops", coalition officers in Kuwait refused to provide general information about the role of propaganda in a war. In Kuwait, British RAF Group Captain Jon Fynes told CNN that, despite the unexpected setbacks suffered by the coalition forces, "morale is good."

But a psychology professor at the University of California, Anthony Pratkanis, told the Washington Post that, while the US propaganda campaign has been effective, "the bigger issue is, America is losing the communication war -- if you look at how Americans are viewed in other countries, it has never been lower." Public opinion in the countries waging war against Iraq has risen in favour of the conflict, but elsewhere massive rallies have been taking place almost daily decrying the war and expressing outrage against the United States.

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