THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

And this is not about a new method of troop identification to replace dog tags, just another burst of Madison Ave malarkey to get the Iraqis to like us. The WaPo gave front page coverage to this brain dead $400,000 idea that should have been killed when it was first uttered.

In the advertising world, brand identity is everything. Volvo means safety. Colgate means clean. IPod means cool. But since the U.S. military invaded Iraq in 2003, its "show of force" brand has proved to have limited appeal to Iraqi consumers, according to a recent study commissioned by the U.S. military.

The key to boosting the image and effectiveness of U.S. military operations around the world involves "shaping" both the product and the marketplace, and then establishing a brand identity that places what you are selling in a positive light, said clinical psychologist Todd C. Helmus, the author of "Enlisting Madison Avenue: The Marketing Approach to Earning Popular Support in Theaters of Operation." The 211-page study, for which the U.S. Joint Forces Command paid the Rand Corp. $400,000, was released this week.

Helmus and his co-authors concluded that the "force" brand, which the United States peddled for the first few years of the occupation, was doomed from the start and lost ground to enemies' competing brands. While not abandoning the more aggressive elements of warfare, the report suggested, a more attractive brand for the Iraqi people might have been "We will help you." That is what President Bush's new Iraq strategy is striving for as it focuses on establishing a protective U.S. troop presence in Baghdad neighborhoods, training Iraq's security forces, and encouraging the central and local governments to take the lead in making things better.

That should work real good. Take the "image" and reality of an organization that, for 5 years, has been kicking down doors, shooting up anybody who has been in the way and dropping bombs at will, into a warm and fuzzy aid society. This is definitely an idea whose time has never existed, but we paid for it. Actually it makes perfect sense with an administration that substitutes image for reality in all things.