From Wikipedia:
Shock and awe, technically known as rapid dominance, is a military doctrine based on the use of overwhelming power, dominant battlefield awareness, dominant maneuvers, and spectacular displays of force to paralyze an adversary's perception of the battlefield and destroy its will to fight.
Can you believe the Iraq War began combat in March 2003? Doesn't that seem like forever ago? I remember watching CNN from Tokyo, Japan when "Shock and Awe" was in shocking display. I was on spring break of my junior year of college, shocked myself that we were actually bombing Baghdad.
Tonight President Obama declared the combat missions in Iraq over - without really declaring victory or "mission accomplished."
4 comments:
I don't remember exactly, but probably on campus. I remember seeing a battle of protesters on the campus lawn around that time... I do remember that. Me smoking cigarettes, walking between the two sides, looking at them as if they were there only to be looked at.
There's something about this war and the words, "war," "win," "accomplish," etc that just don't really resonate with me.
To help express my point, please listen to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUyV9QCnwKM
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWbNdczXdig
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtVyl402W5s
I remember the "shock and awe" campaigns the news organizations had. They were competing to make a spectacle out of the slaughter of people and the destruction of homes. I remember specifically a "countdown" clock in the bottom right-hand corner of the CNN channel. I remember watching it reach zero and expecting to see the whole town of Baghdad explode. The whole thing became very surreal, and the media outlets covered it like it was some kind of sporting event.
Very creepy indeed.
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