01-10-2014, 10:44 AM
Based on the below news story which reveals that the US military still hasn't named the western military operation against IS, I propose we name it for them.
My two suggestions are:
1) Operation Fill the Coffers
2) Operation Manipulate the Public Mind
My two suggestions are:
1) Operation Fill the Coffers
2) Operation Manipulate the Public Mind
Quote:Operation Fill-in-the-Blank: why doesn't the campaign against Isil have a code name?
After weeks of bombing in Iraq and Syria, the Pentagon still hasn't christened its operation against Isil
The US began bombing jihadists in August but still has no name for the operation Photo: US Air Force/EPA
By Raf Sanchez, Washington
11:28AM BST 30 Sep 2014
The US military is fond of giving its operations dramatic code names. Its guiding principle seems to be the more it sounds like the title of a 1980s action film, the better.
When US forces were ordered into Iraq in 2003, the mission was christened Operation Iraqi Freedom. When they moved against Muammar Gaddafi in Libya in 2011 it was Operation Odyssey Dawn.
Which makes it all the more curious that after weeks of bombing, the campaign against Islamic State jihadists in Iraq and Syria remains unnamed.
"I don't have a good reason for why there isn't a name and, frankly, I'm not so sure that that's relevant," said Rear Admiral John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, during a briefing in August.
A Pentagon spokeswoman contacted on Tuesday was similarly unable to come up with a reason for its lack of a name.
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One theory is that the US is eager to stick to President Barack Obama's script that the campaign against Isil is part of a counter-terrorism operation, not a full-blown war. The US drone strike campaigns in Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan are similarly unnamed.
The military's process for naming operations remains opaque but a 1995 article published by Parameters, the US Army War College's in-house magazine, gives some insights.
The US first began giving code names to missions during the Second World War but often assigned random phrases, like Operation Market Garden for the Allied invasion into Holland.
Winston Churchill was more particular and was horrified when US commanders decided on Operation Soapsuds for a bombing mission in Romania. It was "inappropriate for an operation in which so many brave Americans would risk or lose their lives," he said.
Churchill - who favoured naming operations after "heroes of antiquity, figures from Greek and Roman mythology, the constellations and stars, [and] famous racehorses" - was also responsible for changing the name of the D-Day landings from Operation Roundhammer to Operation Overlord.
It was only in 1989 as the US prepared to invade Panama that American generals began picking a nickname with a view to shaping "domestic and international perceptions" about the mission, according to Parameters.
The invasion was initially titled Operation Blue Spoon but hastily renamed Operation Just Cause after a senior commander asked: "Do you want your grandchildren to say you were in Blue Spoon?"
Since then the US has picked ever-more theatrical names for its military operations around the world.
The allied mission to push Iraqi forces out of Kuwait in 1991 was titled Operation Desert Storm, followed by Operation Desert Fox, the US-British bombing of Saddam Hussein's forces in 1998.
Highlights from the war in Afghanistan include Operation Polar Harpoon and Operation Relentless Strike.
The author of the Parameters article, a former lieutenant colonel, notes that the modern war is fought in the arena of public perception as well as on the battlefield.
"The operation name is the first - and quite possibly the decisive - bullet to be fired. Mold and aim it with care."
Today's military planners are clearly still taking aim.
![[Image: Raf-Sanchez_60_1932308j.jpg]](http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01932/Raf-Sanchez_60_1932308j.jpg)
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14