US army ropes in Hollywood director for propaganda war

GONE are the easel and chart, the dusty schoolroom blackboard, the solitary television and the bungalow-sized video player with which General 'Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf showed fuzzy images of smart-bomb raids during the 1991 Gulf War.

This time round, in scenes reminiscent of the political satire Wag The Dog, the media armoury of the US generals will include five 50-inch plasma screens and two 70-inch projectors.

By contrast, President Saddam Hussein's generals are likely to present their updates at a very low-tech table in front of their national flag.