President George. W. Bush paid a very confidential visit to Iraq on Thanksgiving and dined with about 600 soldiers. The visit was kept a secret till his return from a brief stay at the occupied territory of Iraq. Apparently, the objective of the visit was to boost the morale of the US invading forces, and to convey a message to the world that situation in Iraq is under control. However, the president's visit proved otherwise. There is a growing criticism inside and outside United States about Pentagon's claims of success in Iraq.

Prior to Iraq's invasion, President Bush and his hawks in administration had tried to convince the public, especially in Europe that Saddam Hussein had large stocks of weapons of mass destruction, therefore, it was necessary to punish him for the security of the peaceful nations. When the American and British invaders failed to find any evidence of banned weapons in Iraq after their occupation of the oil rich territory they changed their strategy. Now they talk about democracy and constitutionalism and rule of law.

If the invading forces had been welcomed in Iraq as was claimed by the US strategists to justify their invasion, they would have fully publicised the president's visit to convince the public at home and abroad that Iraqi people were waiting impatiently with flowers and American flags in their hands to welcome their liberator. But the visit was a closely guarded secret. Why was it planned at all?

It is a well-known fact that unpublicised actions and activities cannot result in favourable public relations gains. Even the chief minister of Punjab in a backward country like Pakistan is aware of this basic essential of public relations practice. The image builders were successful in getting the cooperation from the American corporate media.

"Iraqis celebrate in Baghdad," the Washington Post had reported when the invading forces had entered Baghdad without significant resistance. "Jubilant Iraqis swarm the streets of capital," said the headline in New York Times, while Boston Globe had claimed, "It was liberation day in Baghdad." The television networks repeatedly telecast the demolition of Saddam's statue. At this planned activity US Marines were also present with an armored vehicle and a chain. The soldiers had brought along an American flag, which they passed upto Private Ed Chin, the soldier trying to fix the chain around Saddam's neck. Chin draped the flag over Saddam's face, but the gesture stirred a wave of indignation from the Iraqis. An Iraqi flag was found to replace US flag. USA Today ran a photo of the event on the front page, with an interview with Private Ed Chin's sister, who said, "It's just amazing, we are just so proud of him."

However, the impact of such images was very short-lived. It reminded of the demolition of 'Shaheed Minar' at Dhaka University by the Pakistani generals who were incharge of military operation in former East Pakistan. The Minar had been built in the memory of those killed in the language movement from 1948 to 1954. After the demolition of Shaheed Minar, the short-sighted military rulers had believed that they had defeated the Bengali nationalists. However, they soon had to surrender in humiliation at Paltan Maidaan. There is huge gap in propaganda and reality.

The US occupation forces in Iraq continue to claim that they are winning -- what they have finally been forced to admit is a guerrilla war being waged against them. The claims of success in their "search and destroy" operations cannot be fully evaluated in view of the fact that complete information is not being disseminated to the people in United States -- for fear of adverse reaction by the general public.

Americans had learnt a lesson, the hard way, in Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, the resistance of the Vietnamese, combined with a growing international antiwar movement and revolt of US soldiers against having to risk their lives for Washington's empire led to a crushing defeat for US imperialism. A member of the 'Bring them home now' campaign, a coalition of military families and Anti-war Veterans' Organisation, said, "Our troops are being used as occupiers, in a nation that has shown itself to be stubbornly hostile to occupation. We have been here before. I was here before. Vietnam. Bring them home now. Leave Iraq to Iraqis."

In Vietnam the central problem was not that the military consistently and deliberately falsified information. Rather, it more often withheld information detrimental to continued belief in the eventual success of US policies. The Geneva agreement of 1954 ending hostilities provided for partitioning of Vietnam and reunification through elections in 1956. The South Vietnamese regime of Bao Dai did not sign the agreement. The United States created the SEATO and included South Vietnam in the protected areas. The US military assistance advisory group had started training South Vietnamese army in 1955. The opposition in South Vietnam formed the National Liberation Front and its guerrilla force, the Viet Cong.

The American press corps started criticising the policies of the South Vietnamese administration in 1960. The correspondents in South Vietnam had fought off a State Department 'press guidance' issued in 1962 saying, "newsmen should be advised that trifling or thoughtless criticism of the Diem government would make it difficult to maintain proper cooperation between the United States and Diem," only to find that Diem's police would beat them over their heads and smash their cameras. The United States had instituted the twin "search and destroy" and "bomb the North policies" in 1964.

The same "search and destroy" and "bomb the suspected areas policies" have now been adopted in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Their policies had failed in Vietnam and their policies have so far not been successful in Iraq. The popularity graph of President Bush is fast sliding down since the invasion of Iraq began. It is alarming for the Bush strategists in view of the coming presidential elections next year. Bush's visit to troops in Iraq was an effort to gain their goodwill and their families who have been visibly demoralised.

The Vietnam war had established once and for all that armed forces alone cannot win a war. People's support and cooperation in the war efforts is must for success. Ill-equipped militarily but with a firm belief in their ideology and cause of their resistance, Vietnamese freedom fighters defeated a military superpower as its own public was not convinced of its troops' presence in a foreign land.

The White House strategists are once again faced with a similar situation. The American public was made to believe that Saddam Hussein as an oppressor was hated not only by his own people but by the whole Muslim world, and when US victorious troops would enter Baghdad they would be received as heroes by the Iraqi public. However, every passing day in Iraq is telling a different tale. Even after dislodging an unpopular dictator, the United States is visibly isolated in the international political arena. In these circumstances public relations gimmicks alone are not enough to solve the problems of Bush administration.