Next, Iraq's cultural regime change

• Both the BBG and the Pentagon will be starting additional new TV broadcasts this year - the first all-Arabic programming controlled by a Western nation. (One BBC effort lasted only a week.)

• Congress is pushing for the State Department to start spending the nearly $100 million appropriated to fund broadcasts for Iraqi opposition groups. Last week, the department released $4 million to fund TV Liberty.

• In the textbook effort, the US Agency for International Development, which is managing the effort, will consult extensively with a new Iraqi government to rework texts.

The moves mark a U-turn in America's information efforts overseas. After the end of the cold war, Washington cut deep into its budgets for public diplomacy, including broadcasting. With no "evil empire" left to conquer, there seemed little need to keep spending to get an American message out to the world.

But the terrorist attacks of 9/11 reopened debate on why the view of the US was so negative, especially in the Arab world.

"How is it that the country that invented Hollywood and Madison Avenue has allowed such a destructive and parodied image of itself to become the intellectual coin of the realm overseas," said Rep. Henry Hyde (R) of Illinois, chairman of the House International Relations Committee.

The debate over post-war cultural policy in Iraq closely tracks disagreements in the Bush administration over the war itself.

Sources close to the State Department and Voice of America emphasize the need for balance in coverage and close attention to the sensibilities of other Arab states in the region. But for many conservatives, including top advisers to the Pentagon, the need is to more aggressively tell the American story around the world. They protested the resignation of the director of Voice of America Robert Reilly, who fell out with the BBG governing board after pushing what some said was a too "ideological" line. Mr. Reilly is now directing the Pentagon's broadcast efforts in Iraq.

"We are not in the psychological operation or propaganda business," says Mr. Pattiz, referring to Pentagon initiatives. "Without the credibility of balanced, reliable, and truthful news, we would have no audience."

The Pentagon is not yet releasing objectives or details of its new broadcast ventures. But experts say it's important that it be more than government propaganda.

"The Pentagon seems to think that if we just keep saying we're about freedom and democracy, it will stick, says Nancy Snowe, propaganda expert at California State University at Fullerton. "But the No. 1 rule of persuasion is that you've got to know your audience. Our friends in the region are telling us to be careful that this message doesn't come across as fingerpointing at Islam."

"Iraq has a society of very intelligent and thinking people.... We want to be sure that the restrictions imposed in Bosnia and Kosovo are not repeated here," adds Marilyn Greene, executive director of World Press Freedom Committee in Washington.

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