Pundits have depicted the U.S. military strategy of "shock and awe" in largely sanitary terms [3], suggesting that the high accuracy of laser-guided "smart bombs" will make it possible to decapitate the Iraqi command and control structure while leaving the country's infrastructure intact and limiting civilian casualties. Like other examples of doublespeak [4], however, this term obscures the human cost of war even as it contemplates the massive use of deadly force. As we document in the PR Watch "Disinfopedia," the strategy of "shock and awe" is based explictly on past military strategies such as the Nazi blitzkriegs and the dropping of atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.