“New” name for Iraq War another embarrassing moment for Obama appointee

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Jake Tapper strikes again with his breaking blog news on the Obama admin “renaming” the Iraq war as of Sept 2010.

In an effort to put a fresh face on a much maligned, but successful (in the end) Bush admin operation, Sec’y of Defense Robert Gates sent a memo to the CiC Obama yesterday, requesting a name change for US and/or coalition forces in Iraq starting Sept 1st of this year.

The whoopdedoo proposition? Change Iraqi Freedom to Operation New Dawn.

From Tapper:

Gates writes that by changing the name at the same time as the change of mission — the scheduled withdrawal of U.S. combat troops — the US is sending “a strong signal that Operation IRAQI FREEDOM has ended and our forces are operating under a new mission.”

The move, Gates writes, “also presents opportunities to synchronize strategic communication initiatives, reinforce our commitment to honor the Security Agreement, and recognize our evolving relationship with the Government of Iraq.”

This can only be another in a series of embarrassments for Obama and his choice of appointees. Operation New Dawn is the name used for the original Battle for Fallujah in 2004. Where has Gates been?

To make the faux pas even more obvious, there have been four such operations… as of April 2009. That means that the most recent “Operation New Dawn” in Fallujah happened while Gates held his current position.


This would be laughable, rather than tragically stupid, had this not been on the heels of Obama’s Veep, Joe Biden, attempting to rewrite recent history by touting Iraq as “one of the great achievements” of the Obama administration only a week ago.

[Biden] – I am very optimistic about — about Iraq. I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration. You’re going to see 90,000 American troops come marching home by the end of the summer. You’re going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government.

I spent — I’ve been there 17 times now. I go about every two months — three months. I know every one of the major players in all the segments of that society. It’s impressed me. I’ve been impressed how they have been deciding to use the political process rather than guns to settle their differences.

This is, of course, the perpetuation of the myth by Obama, the WH mouthpieces and a fawning media that the drawdown in Iraq is a byproduct of “da won”, and not the actual SOFA negotiated by the Iraqis and the Bush admin in December 2008…. before the PEBO embarked on his three day pre’Inaugural public relations campaign.

Obama has a truly deplorable track with appointees. One has to remember the hubbub over the Churchhill bust, the choice of gifts for visiting dignataries and, of course, the truly bizarre coaching by diplomatic advisors leading to embarrassing behavior exhibited by the POTUS INRE when to bow (and not) when receiving or meeting foreign dignataries.

But this one is simply inexcusable. And, beyond any plausible explanation.

If the Secretary of Defense wants to place an Obama “face” on the Iraq theatre, masquerading Obama success on Bush’s coattails, he might at least choose an original name not already used by Bush admin military officials. And most certainly one that hasn’t been used four times for a very bloody arena.

But then, the irony is delicious, no? Bad enough to steal the credit, but to steal the name of a theatre op??

Pathetic….

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Sounds too much like the movie “Red Dawn”.

It sounds like it is time to have a “Name That War” contest. What are some of the names you all can come up with? What will be the prize of prizes for the winner or winners?

My suggestions:
(1) Operation “Whit flag”
(2) Operation “We surrender”
(3) Operation “I’m sorry we invaded Iraq”
(4) Operation “Wait long enough and you can have Iraq back”
(5) Operation “We shouldn’t have come here in the first place”

If they’re still taking suggestions for renaming The Iraq War, I suggest ‘Steve’.

And this guy was trusted for heading up the CIA?

Oh, just noticed your fund drive. Hope to help you out within a couple of weeks. Has not been a stellar year for me.

“Red Dawn” a new kind of dish soap?

a very human mistake, but should have been caught by competent staffers…that’s the concern, isn’t it?

Gates is that of chameleon, changing its stripes to adopt the current bumbler-in-chief. Truly pathetic!

I think we should rename the executive branch TROJAN HORSE OPERATION.

Here in jolly old England, we’d call it “a spot of bother with the fuzzy-wuzzies”

They should name it: “Bush was Right”. :-0