Many Iraqis jeer U.S. media campaign

BAGHDAD, June 7 (UPI) -- Many Iraqis have come to ridicule a high-priced U.S. media campaign aimed at polishing the military's image and promoting democracy, observers said.

The Arabic-language newspaper Baghdad Now is one of the products dismissed in Iraq as U.S. propaganda, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

Baghdad Now portrays Iraqi soldiers as efficient civil servants and shows Iraqis of all sectarian backgrounds working in harmony, said Ziyad al-Aajeely, director of Iraq's nonprofit Journalistic Freedom Observatory.

"The millions spent on this is wasted money," al-Aajeely said. "Nobody reads this."

During the last six years, the U.S. government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on billboards, printed material, and television and radio airtime aimed at marginalizing extremists and fostering reconciliation in Iraq, the Post reported.

While U.S. officials declined to speak publicly about the effectiveness of the campaign, a U.S. Army officer in Baghdad who asked to remain anonymous said Iraqi soldiers mock Baghdad Now.

"They say it's childish," the officer said. "Baghdad Now makes a good fuel source at the Iraqi checkpoints."