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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dayuhan who wrote (7623)	12/1/1998 11:15:00 AM
From: Jerry in Omaha	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

Mr. Rogers, You posted: <<What do you think of this:>> iht.com <<Wishful thinking, or a chink in the armor?>> Steve, my first thought was mentally to transfer the entire content of the article, its logic and particulars, to the incident in Waco, Texas, and David Koresh and the Davidian religious cult. Hussein also has the role of a religious zealot; which of course he is by self acclamation. He believes himself to be the prophesied "Lion of the Desert" vanquishing all enemies just as David Koresh believed himself a prophet of the Lord and an ender of a world. Who can deal with the super zealous tenacity of such people? With what techniques? Maybe we should surround Bagdad with loudspeakers and play rock and roll to "drive him crazy," or some other goofy stunt like bombing him silly with no definitive objective or clear targets. Are we just being set up again by Hussein, the asymmetrical warfarer? The parallels between the two situations are strikingly familiar in content and form; in Waco it was thought that certainly the children would be set free unharmed. The same with Iraq (after all we've got highly accurate smart bombs to limit collateral damage). Except we know for certain that Hussein will kill the children without a second thought. In fact the article mentioned him moving persons to be closer to our missile attack. The decision not to bomb may have been the smart thing to do. After all, what happened in Waco when the tanks began injecting the "aerosol irritant"? Furthermore in this instance we know that Saddam would not hesitate to turn on his own people and blame us for what he did attempting to trash us in the court of world opinion every step of the way. It is a chilling prospect to contemplate the horrible methods Saddam may attempt to use against his own people during a bombing attack to turn world opinion against the U.S. The apparent solidification of Arab will against Saddam simply moves the chess game to another level where another set of strategic maneuvers will be carried out. I should hope we never see or hear of the covert tactical maneuvers that I equally hope we are undertaking in country. After all, why would you ever train a prize fighter if you never schedule a fight? I'm sure our covert military operatives would love the chance to go get him out of power! With regards to the article itself, it is always good to remember that all propaganda, black white or gray, has the goal of the manufacture of consent through the manipulation of opinion. Perhaps, Steve, you'd care to share what opinion do you think is being shaped by the article. I've given it a shot. Jerard P