US/IRAQ: Washington's psychological warfare campaign to win Iraqi hearts and minds has little chance of succeeding for the legacy of the 1991 war weighs heavily with Iraqi civilians and soldiers alike, according to Iraqi sources. On the electronic plane, they maintain that the US propaganda effort has also failed to convince.
Late last year and early in January US cyber-warfare experts sent e-mails to high ranking Iraqi officers, officials and economic decision makers, urging them to turn against President Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi authorities responded by switching off almost all Western e-mail services, including The Irish Times' e-mail at Ireland.com.
Attempts to long-on to e-mail servers were met with a black computer screen carrying an English language message in red letters saying, Access Denied. Iraqis could, however, continue to surf the net freely and read the world press.
But the disruption of normal e-mail servers meant Iraqis who have computers at home or who frequent the dozens of government-run Internet centres throughout the capital and elsewhere could not carry on correspondence with family, friends or business contacts abroad. This made them feel more isolated than ever and angry with Washington for trying to use the Internet as an instrument of subversion.
The Iraqi government soon solved the problem by permitting members of the public (and the foreign press, also deprived of e-mail access in most cases) to send and receive messages through the e-mail addresses of its Internet centres. It took a few days for Iraqis who can afford to send and receive e-mails to catch on to the new system, but once they did centres, which had been empty for a week or so, bustled with business.
According to Iraqi informants, leaflets and radio messages in Arabic calling upon troops to desert their posts and lay down their arms are unlikely to persuade many to do so. Iraqi troops are repeatedly reminded of what happened between February 26th and 28th, 1991, when columns of unprotected Iraqi forces flying white flags were withdrawing from Kuwait along the six lane Highway 80 to the southern Iraqi port of Basra.
The Iraqis were attacked constantly for 40 hours from air, sea and land by US warplanes, naval guns and artillery. Similar assaults were conducted against retreating Iraqi troops on secondary routes from Kuwait to Iraq and main highways within Iraq itself.
Thousands died in this, the final action of the 1991 war. Because it gave retreating Iraqis no quarter then, Washington may find it difficult to convince Iraqi soldiers to surrender if there is a new war.
Furthermore, most Iraqis dismiss the propaganda claim that the US is fighting their leaders not ordinary people. They are convinced that they will be targeted by US fire-power.