For almost a year, US officials beginning with President Bush have said one of the key pieces of the international war on terrorism is the battle for the "hearts and minds" of the Muslim world.

Now with the US on a course toward war with Iraq, that battle is about to begin in earnest.

The public relations offensive kicks off today as British Prime Minister Tony Blair releases a white paper detailing the offenses of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The dossier, which Mr. Blair's office says will "nail the lie" that Iraq is not an imminent danger to the world, mirrors a British PR campaign against the Taliban that was launched last year prior to the war in Afghanistan.

The United States will follow Blair's actions with a stepped-up campaign to convince Arab and Muslim populations that the Iraqi leader is the bad guy in the fight.

The message to the Arab street will detail everything from Mr. Hussein's weapons programs to his fondness for erecting statues of himself. It will also emphasize that the US goal is really a more prosperous and democratic future for the region.

Perhaps the biggest problem facing this hurry-up campaign is not so much its own composition as its starting point. The US has arguably neglected public diplomacy in this part of the world for years – and many Arab populations have developed negative views of the US due, among other things, to its stance in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – and suspicions that America is simply an oil-thirsty giant looking to secure its supplies.

"No doubt we'll see a significant public-diplomacy effort to tell our side of the story of this conflict with Iraq," says Dan Kuehl, a specialist in information warfare at the National Defense University in Washington. But, he warns, "This isn't something you'll be able to pull off in two months."

Some observers also worry that attacking Iraq will set back the broader public opinion battle. "If we end up going to war with Iraq we will do so at a grave disadvantage in terms of our image and perception in the region, primarily because we have done so little to explain ourselves and build any trust," says Charles Freeman, US ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War.

But there are signs the US realizes it needs to do more. It has dramatically stepped up so-called "public diplomacy" – efforts to explain policies to foreign populations and to win adherents to the values behind them – since last year's terrorist attacks.

Congress has approved hundreds of millions of additional public diplomacy dollars.

And the White House is about to announce a new office to raise the effort's profile and coordinate the US message and operations among offices spread from the State Department to the Pentagon.

Page: 1 | 2