DeeKnow’s Grotto

According to an article in the Guardian a couple of weeks ago ... "electronics giant Sony has taken an extraordinary step to cash in on the war in Iraq by patenting the term 'Shock and Awe' for a computer game".

It seems that Sony applied to register the term just one day after war started, then last Wednesday following criticism of the move they backed out of the patent process saying they wouldn't be commisioning any games using the phrase.

A quick search for Shock and Awe turns up mentions of the Honorable? Donald Rumsfeld using it during the air-war against Serbian forces in '99, more recently the phrase popped during action in Afghanastan following Sep/11. But it seems the actual source of the phrase is the report
"Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance".

Published in 1996, it presents a new military doctrine "suited to the post-Cold War world" where you basically scare the shit out of the rogue state your picking on by spreading as much misinformation as possible, strike it hard with a relatively small but well equiped and fast attacking and moving force taking control of the situation as quickly as possible.

The report was prepared by the Command and Control Research Program in the office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense and is an alternative to brute-force like strategy where you try to overwhelm to opposition with a  larger or more powerful force (like the strategy used in the 91 Gulf-war)

9:23:15 PM