Has it occurred to anyone else that ``shock and awe'' is a pretty good definition of terror?

Speaking strictly literally (which is your job around here, I guess) the phrases sound similar... But when placed in the connotations I think you're speaking of (terrorism versus the use of military power to intimidate the enemy during an armed conflict) there's absolutely no connection at all. To try to equate suicide bombers and airplane hijackers to the massive use of Tomahawks and bunker busters in a war is way off base.

If you weren't trying to make that extra connection, and just wanted to point out the similarity of those two phrases on their own, out of context, then casually disregard the above statements.