Allies are failing to win over Iraqi public, senior officer admits

The United States has failed to get across its "liberation" message to Iraqi civilians, who are convinced its true motive is to exploit the country's oil reserves, a high-ranking American officer has admitted.

While echoing his colleagues' repeated assertions that fear of Saddam Hussein's regime was preventing an uprising, he also acknowledged that other factors were involved. These included the regime's "nationalistic symbolism", which he suggested required a more "sophisticated" response than the Allies had managed to construct.

The officer, who was closely involved in war planning, declared: "Are we getting the message across to educated people? Yes, we are. But to the people who want to be moved by emotion and believe there are no good motives and that the US are here for oil and only for oil, we have got to get the message across better."

He said the first reason why the Shia in southern Iraq had not risen against President Saddam was that "we let them down in 1991", when the previous Bush administration called for an uprising but then failed to support it. "When you let someone down once you don't want to let them down twice."

The other factors were the regime's "powerful enforcement and repression system" and Baghdad's increasingly brutal responses to dissent.

The officer added: "There is the information/psychology front that we try to push but we are probably not as sophisticated about it as we want to be. There is a big cultural difference between the US and the Arab world that makes it hard.

"We Americans are not very good at judging what a totalitarian regime is like, looks like, and acts like. There are a certain amount of people exposed by the regime, enriched by the regime. The resilience of the regime requires a lot of pressure."

He said public opinion would eventually turn in the Allies' favour. "I am not going to claim victory tomorrow, but I think the majority of people are going to turn against the regime sooner or later," he said.

"I think there is real weakness in the Republican Guard. There is weakness that we see from some of the intercepts we pick up from the Republican Guard units."

But in a sober assessment of the problems ahead, he added: "The conclusion that you have got to push on the house of cards and it will immediately come down, that's simply not true. These people who have the capability to resist and whom the war will destroy will push back as hard as they can. If you have an unrealistic expectation that Baghdad is going to fall in three days then I would describe that as wrong."

He appeared to be distancing the military from expectations of a rapid victory promoted in Washington, adding: "Those of us in uniform understand that war happens that way, that things happen.

"There are Iraqis who only know Saddam and Saddam has won the lottery every time. Until we prove he is not going to be a survivor some people are not going to believe it. How can a sophisticated people like the Germans fail to take out a person like Adolf Hitler? Because the system of control, the system of oppression, the system of nationalistic symbolism prevents them from taking out the leadership."

He also distanced himself from his colleagues' increasing use of the term "terrorist" as a routine description to embrace all pro-Saddam militias. "We have to watch out about falling into the trap of using a certain type of language," he said.

Asked about the dash towards Baghdad by US Marines and the 3rd Infantry Division, at the beginning of the war, the officer said: "In every war there are windows of opportunity. Sometimes you seize them to great effect. You don't always get as far as you would have liked to have gone. You will have to let historians judge.

"It was an attempt to take advantage of a very interesting opportunity and I salute the man who took it."