It may not come as a surprise that President Bush has been hoarding the gun that Saddam Hussein was holding at the time of his capture, and that the president has been gleefully showing off his latest trophy to choice guests to the Oval Office like a child boasting about his latest toy. The president’s memento-taking is, without a doubt, one of the most innocuous news items to have emerged from coverage of the Iraq war in recent weeks, but it nevertheless made me wince.

At the same time that horrific photos of the prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib prison are being flashed across news screens, the image of Mr. Bush, happily parading Saddam’s gun around the Oval Office, only reinforces the impression that the current campaign in Iraq is characterized by brutish and jingoistic machismo. For all of the money that the current administration is channeling into its propaganda war, both here in America and abroad, Mr. Bush’s aping around the Oval Office is bland but offensive enough, and may only confirm, for skeptics, the profoundly unreflective attitude that has come to be associated with President Bush’s catastrophic venture into Iraq.

This is not to suggest that Saddam wasn’t a calculating despot who ruled through a genocidal regime, and that there may be many who are pleased that Saddam is no longer toting his gun. The issue, rather, is that Mr. Bush must realize that poor public relations, in addition to completely lacking taste and savoir-faire, may have concrete and negative consequences.

The American government is not only engaged in a heart-breaking and traditional war in Iraq, but it is also in the midst of a propaganda war. Last year, America launched Hi, a lifestyle magazine targeted at the 18- to 35-year-old age bracket for both men and women. The magazine is sponsored by the United States State Department and enjoys funding from a bill, supported by the House of Representatives in the summer of 2003, that allocated money to a variety of foreign projects in the Middle East. Buttressing this propaganda is Al-Hurra, an American-run Arabic-language television network, and Radio Sawa, an Arabic-language radio station.  

As Samir Khader — the wry and charismatic producer for Al Jazeera, as he was portrayed in Control Room — noted, “You cannot fight a war without media … Any military that doesn’t plan for that is not a good military.”

For all of the money that the American government has poured into its traditional and propaganda warfare, Mr. Bush is steadily and gaily working to undo his own propaganda machine and is reaffirming the image of an America that is acquisitive, gloating, and ultimately unreflective.  

Mimi Hanaoka