Shock 'n Awe ~ AKA Shekinah

Painting entitled "Shekinah" can be found on several right-wing Christian blogs and MySpace pages. Photos below show real "shock and awe" in Baghdad, 2003, courtesy of the Bush Administration.

I admit that in early 2003, during the run-up to the war in Iraq, I was perplexed by the phrase “shock and awe.” We all heard Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Bush and Cheney use it to describe the coming technologically blistering attack with which the U.S. planned to blow Saddam Hussein and his follows to kingdom come.

It struck me at the time as a colorful phrase, yet decidedly odd. Now, some five years after the fact, I learn that the term “shock and awe” sounds suspiciously like “Shekinah.”

Shekinah is an ancient Hebrew word – in ancient script written as SHKNH – with various meanings, but all dealing with divine forces protective of the Israelites.

Of course conspiracy theorists and anti-Zionists have made a point of this for years. I just learned of it when I stumbled across a blog post this morning about German historian Wolfgang Eggert’s current attempts to monitor cults of far-right Christian and Zionist zealots who lust for an Armageddon-like war so Jesus will come back to Earth, or they can go to Heaven, or something like that.

But back to SHKNH/Shock and awe:

From Gregory Reid's Youthfire: In the Hebrew traditions, there is a word that is used to define the cloud of God's glory: It is roughly translated as “Shekinah” but the Hebrew mystics wrote it as “SHKNH”. Shock and awe. It is highly probable that the strategists in the Psychological Warfare division of the army, who have a flair for the dramatic as well as the mystic and sometimes occultic, knew full well that the entire middle east would understand perfectly what “Shock and Awe” meant.

From Matthew Delooze's Voice from the Edge: “Shock and Awe” can easily sound like Shekinah and in ancient rituals it is the sound vibration that matters not spelling. SHEKINAH -Shakinah -Shakan. The return of the Shekinah is ancient prophecy. The word Shekinah is derived from the word Shakan. The return of the Shekinah is the “Mystical Presence in the Tabernacle.” The Shekinah is to guide and protect Israel.

As for the supposed U.S. military origins, from Wikipedia:

"Shock and awe, technically known as rapid dominance, is a military doctrine based on the use of overwhelming power, dominant battlefield awareness, dominant maneuvers, and spectacular displays of force to paralyze an adversary's perception of the battlefield and destroy its will to fight. The doctrine was written by Harlan K. Ullman and James P. Wade and is a product of the National Defense University of the United States in 1996.

"Rapid dominance is defined by its authors, Harlan K. Ullman and James P. Wade, as attempting "to affect the will, perception, and understanding of the adversary to fit or respond to our strategic policy ends through imposing a regime of Shock and Awe."

"Introducing the doctrine in a report to the United States' National Defense University in 1996, Ullman and Wade describe it as an attempt to develop a post-Cold War military doctrine for the United States. Rapid dominance and shock and awe, they write, may become a "revolutionary change" as the United States military is reduced in size and information technology is increasingly integrated into warfare."

If you want to learn more, look at this Google search on "shock and awe" and "shekinah."

No wonder conspiracy theories are sounding less and less theoretical these days.