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Overview
shock and awe
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Term for a military strategy based on achieving rapid dominance over an adversary by the initial imposition of overwhelming force and firepower. The concept was formulated by the American strategic analysts Harlan K. Ullman and James P. Wade in a Pentagon briefing document of 1996, and came to wider prominence during the campaign in Iraq in 2003. In a briefing in Qatar in March 2003, the American general Tommy Franks said, ‘This will be a campaign unlike any other in history. A campaign characterized by shock, by surprise, by flexibility, but the employment of precise munitions on a scale never before seen, and by the application of overwhelming force.’
