The Pentagon is formally rebranding the Iraq war by changing its name from "Operation Iraqi Freedom" to the sunnier "Operation New Dawn," to reflect the reduced role the American military is supposed to have in that country over the next year. The new name is scheduled to go into effect in September, 2010.The more optimistic moniker comes after months of deadly bombings in Iraq, and after an aide to the governor of Iraq's Anbar province, Khari Abdul Hadi, expressed "resignation bordering on despair" about the latest bombings in the province, according to the New York Times. The re-naming of the war to "Operation New Dawn" happens during the same week that the U.S. military launched a major new assault in Afghanistan, and after the Obama administration unveiled a military budget of unprecedented proportions.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently released updated figures for the number of civilian contractors killed in American war zones since September 1, 2001. A minimum of 1,688 civilians have died, and there have been over 37,000 injuries reported among people working for U.S. contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan -- but the DOL acknowledges that the report is incomplete. Civilian contractors make up about half the total U.S. forces in war zones, but the Government Accountability Office quietly issued a report last week that said the Pentagon still hasn't implemented a Congressional order to track fatalities among U.S. contractors. Neither the Department of Defense, nor the State Department or the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) can give an accurate figure of how many contractors are employed, or how many have been injured or killed. A contracting officer at the State Department said there was no need to track local Iraqi hires, even though statutory language exists to the contrary. The bottom line is that nine years into the most contractor-intense war in U.S. history, no one can say for sure how many contractors are working for the U.S. in the war zones, what they are doing, or how many of them have been killed or wounded.

Northern Iraq -- touted as "the other Iraq" in an advertising and public relations campaign by the Republican-leaning PR firm Russo Marsh & Rogers -- now has more PR help. The Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq (KRG) has hired Qorvis Communications for work on "strategic communications, internet consulting, media relations support, [and] writing / editing documents," according to the foreign lobbyist disclosure form (pdf). The firm says it will "educate and inform the American media and policy makers" and "work to change travel advisories or other statements from the USG [U.S. government] when they are inaccurate." KRG officials are happy that the U.S. State Department currently describes northern Iraq as "more stable than the rest of Iraq," with "fewer terrorist attacks," reports O'Dwyer's. The officials hope such language will "further encourage U.S. business to look into many investment opportunities available in the Kurdistan Region." KRG previously retained the Cassidy & Associates and BGR Holdings LLC lobbying firms.

U.S. Army officials have barred a reporter with the military newspaper Stars and Stripes "from embedding with a unit of the 1st Cavalry Division that is attempting to secure the violent city of Mosul" in Iraq. In the refusal letter to Stars and Stripes reporter Heath Druzin, an Army public affairs officer wrote that "Mr. Druzin refused to highlight" good news about "Iraqi Army leaders, soldiers, national police and Iraqi police display[ing] commitment to partnership." The newspaper has "spent more than three weeks appealing Druzin's banishment to senior commanders in Iraq as well as public affairs officers at the Pentagon, but had been repeatedly rebuffed." In his appeal of the decision, Stars and Stripes editorial director Terry Leonard wrote, "To deny Mr. Druzin an embed under the reasons stated ... is a direct challenge to the editorial independence of this newspaper ... an attempt at censorship and it is also an illegal prior restraint under federal law. ... The military cannot tell us what stories to write or not write." The Army would only allow a different Stars and Stripes reporter to embed with a different military unit in a different Iraqi city, Kirkuk. The president of Military Reporters and Editors blasted the decision, writing to Army and Pentagon officials that barring Druzin "violates both the spirit and the letter of the embed guidelines that Military Reporters & Editors and many other journalists have worked so diligently to implement."

U.S. military psychological operations (PSYOP) campaigns continue in Iraq, though many question their effectiveness. "They have a very crude tone and content, and the narrator sounds like Saddam's own propagandist," said political science professor As'ad AbuKhalil. "The Arabic used also is awkward, clearly translated from English texts most likely drafted in some office on K Street." An Iraqi lawyer criticized the money spent on PSYOP: "If those funds had been given to the poor and the widows, Iraq would have been a pioneer in social welfare. Millions of dollars go into the pockets of war profiteers who believe victory in Iraq can be won through the media using underground movies." The head of Iraq's Journalistic Freedom Observatory dismissed the PSYOP newspaper "Baghdad Now," which the U.S. military has published and distributed since at least 2004, saying, "Nobody reads this." Yet "Richard C. Holbrooke, President Obama's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, recently told lawmakers that the administration is working on a strategic communications plan for that region that draws on the lessons of Iraq," reports the Washington Post. "Electronic media, telecom and radio" should be used "to counter the propaganda that is key to the insurgency's terror campaign," Holbrooke said.

Six years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, "violence and insecurity are no longer the main concern of most Iraqis," according to a poll conducted for the BBC and other news organizations. The poll results (pdf) show that Iraqis' top personal concerns are unemployment and rising prices. Iraqis' major concerns for their country are terrorist attacks and the U.S. occupation. "Asked whether foreign countries are playing a positive or negative role in Iraq, Britain, the U.S. and Iran get the most negative scores," reports the BBC. Fifty-six percent of Iraqis say it was wrong for the U.S. to invade, up from an even 50 percent last year. Nearly 70 percent said coalition forces in Iraq are doing a bad job, "and that includes the always more favorable views of the Kurds," notes Editor & Publisher's Greg Mitchell. "That means 90% of Sunnis are negative (remember, they are supposed to be 'awakening' towards us). ... And 57% say they aren't too concerned about what might happen after the U.S. exits. In fact, about half want us to leave faster than the current timetable" of 2011. Only seven percent of respondents said they were "very concerned" that "security may worsen after the U.S. and other coalition forces have withdrawn."

In February, the U.S. Army asked for proposals to boost its Iraq public affairs work with "three civilian PR specialists and two Arabic-speaking media monitors to work in Iraq and two staffers stateside." Then, the deadline for proposals was extended to mid-March. On March 11, the request was cancelled, as "the Government no longer has a requirement for this service." The original posting (doc) described the Iraq work, based in Tikrit with the Multinational Division-North, as including "local Iraqi and international media monitoring and local media outreach in Iraq." The U.S.-based employees would "conduct media outreach to hometown, regional and national U.S. media," launch "an interactive web site, a troop web 'blog' and upload daily materials." Another goal of the work was to boost Army media relations "beyond traditional recipients of media products in order to garner maximum exposure to publics in the U.S. on a 24 hour basis." O'Dwyer's notes that the PR firm "Lincoln Group has worked alongside military [public affairs officers] in Iraq since early in the U.S. invasion." In 2005, the Los Angeles Times reported that Lincoln Group was covertly paying Iraqi newspapers to run articles written by U.S. information operations troops.

"The economy, together with easing worries about the violence in Iraq and even President Barack Obama's election" is benefiting the U.S. Army. With the "constant reporting that we are going to downsize and leave" Iraq, it's been easier for the Army to meet recruiting goals, said Lt. Gen. Benjamin Freakley. "How long we stay there is still being worked out, but it's fairly well-understood that we are going to lower the number of troops in Iraq, regardless of how long we stay there." In 2008, the Army recruited 517 more people than its goal of 80,000. Still, recruiting isn't easy, especially with the build-up of troops in Afghanistan. The Army's attempts to deliver "a precise, tailored message to the 17- to 24-year-olds and their parents" include Nascar and NHRA race sponsorship, online ads and games, the GoArmy.com website and "a Yahoo instant-messaging product that has gotten more than 1 million hits."