[Austin-ghetto-list] Bush War needs Arab approval

[telebob x]

Roger's perceptions are all very well for leading us into group suicide, but 
check this one out.....Skunk Baxter?  SKUNK BAXTER FROM STEELY DAN?  Yes, 
one and the same...Skunk is now a military analyst and he has some 
suggestions on how to deal with the ongoing crisis....
BTW...calling it Bush War is

(forwarded from the Jive95 list)


excerpted from --- Unlikely Doves: Counter-terrorism Experts
David Corn, AlterNet
September 28, 2001

The need to think beyond military solutions was also raised at a
bizarre talk given by Jeff "Skunk" Baxter before a group of military
policymeisters, defense contractors, and Defense Department employees
a few days after the attack. Weeks before September 11, the Potomac
Institute for Policy Studies, a Pentagon-friendly think tank, had
asked Baxter, who was a lead guitarist for the Doobie Brothers and
Steely Dan and a music-technology wiz before fashioning himself into
a military-technology expert, to present the case for a national
missile defense. After the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks,
Baxter -- with his droopy mustache and old-guy pony tail -- was still
happy to do so. He argued that in the post-9/11 world, missile
defense remains "imperative" because China still could intimidate the
United States by threatening to launch one or more of its two dozen
or so nuclear missiles. Beijing, he claimed, would not be deterred by
a U.S. counterstrike: "If we launch a nuclear attack against China --
all we do is solve their housing crisis." He maintained that Chinese
leaders do not think about "protecting the public." So imagine, he
commanded his audience, if in the midst of another September 11-like
event, China moved against Taiwan and told Washington, back off or
we'll take out Los Angeles. How could the president appear on
television and say, I am going to prosecute a war in Taiwan, and
America must prepare for further casualties?

Here was an undiluted Star Wars fanatic. What was interesting,
however, was that even a hawk like Baxter, who is a consultant to the
Pentagon, saw the limits of a counterterrorism policy that depends
upon military action. The problem, as he put it, is the United States
faces an adversary driven by powerful forces: "You live in a
dirt-poor place, but if you blow yourself up in the name of Allah,
you'll get 73 virgins, all the dope you can smoke, a backstage passes
to Bruce Springsteen ... How do we nullify and negate that threat?"
Simple, he said: "The way to keep a kamikaze pilot out of aircraft
... is to deal with it at the source" -- that is, the motivation.

The goal of U.S. policy, he said, should be to "re-engineer the
perceptions of our enemies." Suicide bombers have to be convinced
"they get nothing for dying for Allah," and the people who support
terrorists -- leaders or commoners -- have to be persuaded such
violence is an insult to Islam and counterproductive. So Baxter
proposed a Manhattan Project of "perception engineering," which would
explore and develop a variety of means: psychological warfare,
propaganda campaigns designed by advertising executives ("these guys
were selling Chevrolets when they were crap with the 'heartbeat of
America'"); nanomachines that can invade the circulatory system and
effect the brain and thought patterns of the target; cultural
products that can engender warm feelings toward the United States.
"This World War III is a different war," Baxter commented. "It's an
information war ... a war fought with ideas ... I can give you a
valium and make you feel good. I can give you a musical score and
engineer your perceptions ... All this is doable."

The audience's positive response was intriguing. Most listeners
appeared to accept his premise that motivation and causation had to
be addressed. Baxter, of course, skipped past the possibility that
persons who harbor ill-will toward the United States might possess
legitimate grievances about, say, economic conditions, the repressive
conduct of governments backed by Washington, or the pervasive
influence of American culture. His answer was not to solve problems,
but to manipulate the responses to problems. Nevertheless, his kooky
proposal focused on ideas, not missiles.



>From: Roger Baker <rcbaker@infohiwy.net>
>Reply-To: rcbaker@eden.infohwy.com
>To: austin-ghetto-list@pairlist.net
>Subject: [Austin-ghetto-list] Bush War needs Arab approval
>Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2001 03:07:33 -0500
>
>When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor things were simple; we just went to 
>war and bombed them right back twice as hard with weapons of mass
>destruction. Whatever.
>
>But Bush's new infinite crusade against terrorism, fought wherever it lurks 
>and as long as it takes, is a bit trickier than he made it seem at first:
>
>"...The central strategic conundrum is this: the more the United States 
>presses moderate, often autocratic leaders in the Middle East to help in 
>its
>campaign, the more it jeopardizes them. If they go too far, they risk, at 
>best, being labeled American stooges, and at worst, losing power to Islamic
>militants in their own societies..."
>
>
>It seems that we forgot that we might need Arab permission to go to war or 
>else the war itself could destabilize the Arab host countries, kind of like
>the evil Mr. bin Laden was warning us. So this will necessarily have to be 
>a kinder and gentler war calculated not to create too many inflamatory
>headlines in Egyptian newspapers, etc.
>
>

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