Analysis: A very different 'Shock and Awe' - upi

WASHINGTON, May 6 (UPI) -- Just over a year ago, the Pentagon had promised a "shock and awe" campaign in Iraq, and by George, we got shock this past week -- an abundance of it. As for awe, there is little doubt that the sickening images trickling out of Abu Ghraib prison is providing a profusion of it to shocked Iraqis, as well as to the rest of the world.

What a difference a year makes.

As preparations for the invasion of Iraq were underway a little over year ago, the Pentagon adopted the doctrine of "shock and awe," which was to herald a new, rapid and highly efficient war. The term "shock and awe" was based on a book written by military strategist Harlan Ullman, a man much admired by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

As it turned out, the Iraqi resistance to the U.S.-led invasion fizzled out quickly, and Baghdad fell without too much trouble.

However, a full year later, that much-promised "shock and awe" from Iraq is beginning to emerge. Except that it is not exactly the kind of shock nor awe Rumsfeld and his Pentagon war planners had initially intended. This shock and awe is not only shocking and awing Iraqis, but the rest of the world as well, and particularly the Arab world. And it is certain to have repercussions on U.S. domestic politics, just six months shy of the November presidential elections. snip

"This policy is giving incoherence a bad name," said Ted Galen Carpenter, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute.

No doubt more shock and awe is likely follow in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned.

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