Iraq Takes Propaganda Cue From ‘Tokyo Rose’

The voice of the Baghdad Radio announcer boomed onto the airwaves in fractured English, addressing U.S. soldiers: “Do you want to go back home from the Arabian desert ... psychologically broken?”

Iraq’s new English-language program, broadcast on shortwave radio, stepped up the anti-American rhetoric its Arabic media services have waged for weeks.

Taking a cue from broadcasters such as Tokyo Rose and Axis Sally during World War II and Hanoi Hannah in the Vietnam war, the programs featured an eclectic mix of news, music and mockery meant to demoralize soldiers rushed in to Saudi Arabia since the Aug. 2 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

During the hourlong program, the broadcaster asked, “Remember what the petrol emirs are doing to American girls. Do you want to defend them?”

In addition to alleging immoral gulf emirs had “enjoyed” the company of U.S. women, the broadcast mentioned faraway loved ones, desert heat, quicksand, rising taxes in the United States, war injuries and U.S. soldiers missing in action in Vietnam.

The brief messages were interspersed with music. About 30 seconds of Big Band swing tunes that Tokyo Rose herself might have used was followed by:

“To the American soldier in the Saudi Arabia desert: Would you like to be one of the cripples who are only lamented in the charity ceremonies? Do you want to go back home from the Arabian desert and you are psychologically broken?”

Then would come some taped middle-of-the-road music that seemed more appropriate in elevators.