Shock and Aw Shucks

[Carl Remick]

>From: Michael Pollak <mpollak at panix.com>
>
> > Among the scenes, beamed across the Arab the world by the Qatar-based
> > satellite channel, were a child with the back of its head blown off --
> > it was unclear if it was a boy or a girl -- and bloodied people being
> > treated on the floor of a hospital.
> >
> > "It's a huge mass of civilians," one angry woman told al-Jazeera,
> > standing among the wounded. "It was a massacre." ...
> >
> > <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11200-2003Mar22.html>
>
>Horrible.  But just to be clear, this isn't shock and awe.  This is old
>fashioned horrible war, the taking of a city.
>
>Which, as I said, is likely to be what most of this war will look like
>since Shock and Awe has the look of a pipe dream.  My comments on it were
>strictly conditional: IF it works.

The only thing that induces real shock and awe is deadly force; otherwise 
you're just giving a fireworks show.  Deadly force is by definition deadly.  
I think there no way to avoid "old-fashioned horrible war" once you decide 
to take control of a society by violence, no matter how nifty your 
technology.  The notion that shock and awe can make violence bloodless is 
indeed a pipe dream.

Carl

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