Selling the Other Iraq

When you live in D.C., you get used to seeing political advertising, which is not "campaign advertising," but rather advertising paid for by interest groups that supports or opposes a particular piece of legislation. Often, the ads will reference a specific bill number. It's one of those things that you see on D.C. tv during, say, "The McLaughlin Group."

Last night, while cooking dinner, I saw this ad for The Other Iraq. The Other Iraq is Iraqi Kurdistan, which, if you follow the link, you will find is now advertising on U.S. television. I was watching some kind of cable news, and I'm in D.C., but I was wondering, have any of you guys out there in Fly Over Country seen these ads?

Follow the link and watch the ads. Does this look like more Administration P.R. to you? Something like this: "Well, sure, Baghdad is one big car-bombing killing field, and things in two-thirds of Iraq are well past 'verging on' on a civil war, but the northern third of Iraq is beautiful, peaceful, democratic, and, most important, grateful for the U.S. invasion of what was, well, not really their country, after all."

But I think that the Administration is still losing ground on the question whether the war itself was "worth it" to the American people.