The Village Voice; What's In a Name?

John Pike's excellent and exhaustive site, globalsecurity.org, lists the "Iraq Pacification Operations." It's not a complete list — for example, right now the latest "surge" is Operation Arrowhead Ripper, directed at rebels in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad. What's in a name? Armies always do this kind of thing. Back in 2004, there was even an Operation Giuliani. No, it wasn't a series of high-paying motivational speeches playing off 9/11.

Here's a (small) selection:

Operation Iron Bullet; Operation Iron Hammer; Operation All American Tiger
Operation Bayonet Lightning ; Operation Panther Squeeze; Operation Arrowhead Blizzard
Operation Iron Justice; Operation Choke Hold; Operation Resolute Sword; Operation Tombstone Pile Driver; Operation Iron Fury; Operation Iron Fury II; Operation Soprano Sunset; Operation Swift Sword ; Operation Stallion Run

They sound like a cross between WWW wrestlers and titles for Sylvester Stallone movies. At least the people thinking up these names have a sense of irony. There was 'Operation Restoring Rights' a while back and another one called 'Operation Therapist' which was either a nod to the mental state of their comander-in-chief or a typo for 'The Rapist'.