This is the type of public relations campaign that needs to be happening accross Iraq. Perhaps it is, but this is the first I’ve ever heard of it.

One caller wants to know why she can’t attend the trials of her family members. The next claims his house was robbed of 3 million dinars after a raid, and he wants it back. A third asks about Western medical attention for a critically ill child.

On the live call-in radio show, the main guest is the head of the U.S.-led occupation in Tikrit, the callers are local residents, and the questions they ask tell the story of the occupation in Iraq.

“There’s just so many ways that we can defeat the insurgency,” says Lt. Col. Todd Wood of the 3rd Infantry Division after the show last week. “One of the ways is to change perception. If we can do that, the people will change.”

Wood, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 70th Infantry Regiment, deals daily with infantry patrols, bankrolls local improvement projects and directs raids on suspected insurgents.

But he thinks one of the most powerful tools at his disposal is the live radio show on FM 96.5, on which he stars each Thursday afternoon.

He arrives early in a heavily armored convoy. Soldiers enter the radio station on the edge of Tikrit ahead of him. When he walks in, he is armored and helmeted but also cheerful. The unscripted hour that follows can be congratulatory or combative.

Wood loves it either way.

I hope this type of call-in show appears more often as the results from this single show should be dramatic. While terrorists spray paint, pass out leaflets, release videos and communiques that are quite often outright lies, brutalize Iraqis to turn fear into admiration and even participate in religious scare tactics, the U.S. military has stayed on the sidelines for much of the war in terms of public relations.

I’ve argued before and will continue to argue that it matters not what type of government is in place in Iraq long after the United States leaves or how many decisive battles have been won against terrorists, it only matters if the people living in Iraq grow up loving or hating the United States. Iraqis must have a better concept of what we symbolize and what values we have from us and not the terrorists.