Posted 5:59 PM by Paul
Military Re-branding

It wasn’t an invasion after all. It was a re-branding exercise. All week, spokesmen and politicians on both sides of the Atlantic have been talking about somewhere called The New Iraq. A bit like New Persil. I can’t find this new Iraq anywhere on the map. My atlas must be out of date. All I can find is somewhere called Iraq, named some time in the 8th century as, the land between the rivers.

Then I discovered that The New Iraq had a New Flag. Sky blue and bits of yellow and therefore reminiscent of Argentina, but I doubt if they will ever win the World Cup. Clearly, the launch of the flag was not a triumph of Marketing. Most of us only became aware of its existence when Iraqis (clearly Old Iraqis) burnt it live on BBC.

The political language is also definitely straying into the lexicon of PR. Commanders are still “working on the modalities for peace”. Bush said “most of Falluja is now returning to normal” whilst simultaneously TV channels across the globe showed pictures of the place in flames. Which I suppose passes for normality in The New Iraq. Blair helped the surreal discourse by claiming in parliament - bold as brass, “I think you will find it is not the Americans who are killing civilians” That’s it. I am going to stop believing The Washington Post. This rag claimed that American soldiers had in fact shot civilians at check points. Clearly the news room is run by Baath Party regime remnants.

If this was not so serious it would be hilarious. A bit like Monty Python with helicopter guns ships.