A war by any other name ,smells the same

I’m in shock, there is no Iraq War. What I mistakenly thought was an Iraq War is really Operation Iraq Freedom but not for long. The administration has called an end to Operation Iraq Freedom. It seems we have given up on freedom for the Iraqis. The Sunnis and the Shiites will go on fighting until the cows come home. That doesn’t mean that plane loads of American troops will be crowding the runways. No, in place of Operation Iraq Freedom , Operation New Dawn is being launched.

I thought we were winding down The Iraq War - oops, I mean Operation Iraq Freedom. New Dawn sounds like the beginning of something. We’ll have to wait for Operation Sunset to see an end to The Iraq War - there I go again, I mean Operation New Dawn which replaced Operation Iraq Freedom.

If naming that conflict in Iraq ( why didn’t they name it The Iraq Conflict) borders on the ridiculous , naming that conflict in Afghanistan really crosses the line. There is no Afghanistan War. Never has been. All those American lives being lost in Afghanistan are the result of Operation Enduring Freedom. An operation to secure enduring freedom is a tough road to hoe. It means we’ll be stuck in a rut. To make matters worseAfghanistan has no oil. Operation A Lick And A Promise would have been a better choice of monikers. Afghanistan will never experience freedom until hell freezes over.

All this war naming business does provide a ray of hope. It looks like we have given up fighting wars. We will submit to an operation now and then. I say now and then because operations are expensive. Health care reform is stalled in Congress so there will be little help from that quarter. Our operations will continue to be very costly ( I wonder if anyone has ever done a cost analysis comparing wars to operations?). Perhaps we should start engaging in exercises instead of operations. Better yet why not take an aspirin and hope the headache goes away.

Ed note: There are those like my high primal thinker who say that Iran will be the only winner in the Iraq War. I believe they are wrong. As long as we keep changing names, Iran will be so confused it will launch Operation Bide Your Time unless Secretary Gates copywrites it first.