Shock and Awe

Asked if “Operation Shock and Awe” had begun in Iraq, the Pentagon official said, “If you have to ask, it hasn’t started.”

If “awe” is defined as “an overwhelming feeling of wonder or admiration,” we respectfully disagree.

Asked if “Operation Shock and Awe” had begun in Iraq, the Pentagon official said, “If you have to ask, it hasn’t started.”

If “awe” is defined as “an overwhelming feeling of wonder or admiration,” we respectfully disagree.

We are awed by the size and scope of the American military deployment, by the fact that the U.S. has enough military power massed there to crater Iraq, and by the fact that we have chosen not to use it yet, preferring to allow the Iraqi military an opportunity for an honorable surrender. We are awed by the clearly sincere concern expressed repeatedly by American military and civilian leaders for Iraqi civilians and protecting the infrastructure that will allow us to do the reconstruction after the war. We are awed by their ability to worry about how to help civilians “after the war” even as the war begins.

We are awed by the sight of the American Defense Secretary telling Iraqi civilians to look for instructions on how to stay safe, and Iraqi soldiers to look for instructions on how to surrender – and the fact that Iraqi soldiers appear to have believed him.

Twenty years after Israel pioneered precision urban bombing (Beirut, 1982), we are awed by the skill of long-range American missiles that hit a single house in Baghdad. We are awed by the intelligence information that allowed us to hit the right house at the right time. And, speaking of intelligence, we are awed by the ability of the Pentagon to be engaged in e-mail negotiations with senior members of Iraq’s military leadership, and their willingness to do it.

We are awed by the pictures of Patriot PAC 3 hitting SCUD missiles aimed at our troops in Kuwait, and by the knowledge that Israel breathes more easily this time than the last. We are awed by the skill of the scientists and engineers who provide the quality equipment and materiel to our troops.

We are awed by the quiet confidence of American troops and their leadership, by the orders they received regarding respect for enemy combatants and respect for the civilians they will encounter, by their evident love of family and country, and their determination to do this job and do it well.

What about “shock” to accompany the awe? It would be overstatement to say we were “shocked” by France’s protection of Saddam’s ambassadorial envoy to Paris. And we weren’t “shocked” by Hans Blix when he said that “if” Saddam had SCUD missiles (after they were shot down by Patriots) “it would be a violation of the rules.”

But shock will come. We fully expect Dr. Blix and the French, and surely the Germans, to raise their eyebrows and be “shocked, shocked, I tell you,” at the coming discovery of Saddam’s arsenal and their complicity in it.