The AFN (Armed Forces Network) is spreading through Iraq. For over fifty years, the U.S. Department of Defense has had its own radio and television programming, that it made available to troops stationed overseas. AFN TV has already arrived for the majority of American troops in Iraq, as over a thousand satellite decoders have been distributed. Iraqis will not be able to watch this, unless they get a TV that can handle American (NTSC) TV signals. Iraq has always used a European (PAL) type signal. But AFN radio will be available to Iraqis, and this will have quite an impact. It has in every other foreign country where AFN Radio is available. AFN Radio is aimed at the average U.S. troop, and that means young males. AFN Radio thus finds an eager audience among local teenagers and students. They may still go to anti-American demonstrations, but they yell their slogans in rather more hip English.
