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Advisers warn Rumsfeld that public support could collapse

New York Tribune, 24 March 2003

America is starting to lose the propaganda war. That is the message which Donald Rumsfeld is getting from his advisers. They are telling the Secretary of Defense that he needs to ‘find’ some weapons of mass destruction, and he has got to be quick about it. A failure to uncover the banned weapons within the next 48 hours could result in a collapse of public support for the campaign in Iraq.

The New York Tribune has obtained a copy of a confidential memo sent to Rumsfeld last night by Frank Grinzinski, head of the Center for Strategic Democracy (CSD). The memo contains a list of events which Grinzinski says are contributing to ‘perceptional difficulties’ among the public.

Top of the list is the recent death and capture of US soldiers in an ambush near the town of Nasiriyah. The head of CSD notes that “We need to ensure that pictures of this tragedy don’t reach American TV screens”. Grinzinski also reminds Rumsfeld of what happened in Somalia, where gruesome footage of a single casualty led to US withdrawal. 

The memo goes on to say “The US must launch an immediate informational counter-offensive. Chemical or biological weapons must be found within 48 hours. The announcement of this find is far more important than the veracity of the event. We must get the materials in place; we sold them to Iraq and we should be able to ensure that they still have some" 

Other items on Grinzinski's list of events that are affecting public opinion include:

• Saddam was not assassinated in the opening hours of the war. Or was he? The confusion on this issue is damaging the credibility of US intelligence. 

• Shock and Awe, involving more cruise missiles in a single night that were used during the whole of the last Gulf War, has not resulted in the rapid collapse of the Iraqi regime or a palace coup. The claim that Saddam is losing control doesn’t look very convincing.

• Troops taking Uum Qasr and Basra have not been welcomed by hoards of cheering Shia Muslims. Instead they have faced some stiff resistance from Iraqi troops. This isn’t what the US public expects from a people who are being liberated. 

• Iraqi citizens have not attempted to cross the border and make use of the refugee camps in Jordan and Kuwait. The aid agencies said there were going to be half a million people fleeing the country. What’s the problem? Don’t they want to leave?.

• The media machine is backfiring. CNN has withdrawn from the field and now depends entirely on video feeds from Arabic channels. Among western reporters who remain in Iraq there is a noticeable skepticism about what they are being told by the US military. 

• While apparently being careful to avoid collateral damage among the Iraqi civilian population, the US forces haven't been so careful with their allies. They have crashed a helicopter killing the British soldiers on board, they have shot down a British plane with a Patriot missile, and they probably killed members of a British TV crew who were fired on by US tanks. It’s hard to sell this in London. 

• There is no sign of defeatism in the anti-war movement. Hundreds of thousands of people continue to take to the streets. World leaders continue to condemn the US invasion. 

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[Note on sources: the New York Tribune was founded by Horace Greenley in 1841. Greenley later helped to found the Republican Party and then an offshoot called the ‘Liberal Republican Party’. He ran for President in 1872, won 40% of the popular vote but died shortly after the elections. In it’s heyday The New York Tribune published articles by leading socialists and feminists, including Karl Marx and Margaret Fuller. The Tribune amalgamated with the New York Herald in 1924 and continued publication until 1966. The European edition of the New York Herald Tribune, which began in 1887 as the Paris edition of the Herald, was relaunched in 1967 as the International Herald Tribune. The Center for Strategic Democracy has yet to be established. Frank Grinzinski is a truck driver living in Washington, Iowa. Donald Rumsfeld really is the Secretary of Defense.]