PR Campaign to Promote War with Iraq

"The United States, faced with a survey by diplomats showing widespread foreign skepticism about their motives, is planning a public relations offensive to build international support among foreign opinion leaders for a war against Iraq," reports UPI correspondent Eli Lake. The Iraq Public Diplomacy Group, "which includes representatives from the CIA, National Security Council, Pentagon, State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development," plans to publish a brochure and hold interactive teleconferences targeting "opinion leaders" in Europe and the Middle East. Good luck, guys. You'll need it, according to USA Today, which reports that "anti-American sentiment has turned into a contagion that is spreading across the globe and infecting even the United States' most important allies." The Bush administration has "squandered" the wave of sympathy and goodwill that America encountered after September 11 with a series of unilateral moves that have enraged the rest of the world on issues ranging from global warming to support for Israel, steel tariffs, farm subsidies, and refusal to participate in the UN's international court.