"Shock And Awe" as a term has been used for centuries it is not new. It was introduced into US military parlance in 1996 and is used to describe the rapid dominance

"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" (according to Authors Harlan K. Ullman and James P. Wade).

They went on to state that rapid dominance would:

"impose this overwhelming level of Shock and Awe against an adversary on an immediate or sufficiently timely basis to paralyze its will to carry on . . . [to] seize control of the environment and paralyze or so overload an adversary's perceptions and understanding of events that the enemy would be incapable of resistance at the tactical and strategic levels."

A demonstration of "Shock and Awe" was clearly seen five years earlier in the bombing campaign that preceded the ground attack known as Desert Storm in 1991.

What occured in March 2003 was nowhere near as intense for a very good reason. In 1991 infrastructure targets in Iraq had to be hit to prevent reinforcement of enemy troops in the south of the country and in Kuwait. In 2003 the aim was to remove Saddam Hussein from power and infrastructure that would have been targets in 1991 had to be left intact as the invading forces needed them to get to Baghdad as quickly as possible (Attacking forces tend not to blow up bridges that they are relying on to continue their advance).