|
|
March 31, 2003
The difference between the US and British armed forces
For British soldiers fighting in Iraq, the code names involved in their mission are hard to forget — for anyone who has ever seen a James Bond movie. By alluding to James Bond, its star Sean Connery and some of the heroes and villains in the 007 movies, British commanders have several goals in mind. They include confusing the enemy, helping British soldiers remember the code words and boosting military morale with a little humor. By contrast, American code names in the Persian Gulf — such as "Operation Free Iraq," "Enduring Freedom" and mission titles like "Noble Eagle" and "Valiant Strike" — seem aimed at inspiring support. In general, the British don't use "Operation Free Iraq." Their version of that name is "Operation Telic," featuring a little-known word derived from the Greek that means "aim," "purpose" or "ultimate end." I have a cunning plan, Sir. Comments
I can remember when the code names of American military operations were randomly generated. But of course, latter-day imperatives of political spin won't permit this. That said, I still think we (the coalition) missed a good bet: how appropriate it would have been to name our present undertaking Operation Serious Consequence. Such a code name would be, um, serious -- and it would have killed two birds with one stone. Posted by: George Peery at March 31, 2003 04:31 PMgotta love the Blackadder reference. I love Bean, but it pales in comparison. Its a shame the UK doesn't use Blackadder in lieu of Bond for their codes. Talk about confusing the enemy -- that series confused half of the Americans with whom I shared my tapes. Edmund would be proud to be here. Posted by: Dave at March 31, 2003 04:32 PMI think it is Saddam who is working to Baldrick's amazingly cunning plan Posted by: JohninLondon at March 31, 2003 04:38 PMThe US does use randomly generated code words / phrases for intelligence operations where there is a need to keep the name of the operation completely separate from the actual goal of the operation. Non-secret military operations have well known code phrases that are chosen for their political impact: Desert Shield Dave, they do, it's in the article, hence my reference to Blackadder. :-) Posted by: Gabriel Syme at March 31, 2003 04:50 PMIt would be interesting to see what would have happened had they gone with something more like Operation Overlord for this one. Posted by: Hegel at March 31, 2003 05:21 PMAmerican Military Operation Name Generating Device Elsewhere at globalsecurity you can find a list of major US Military Operations and their code names since the founding. Posted by: jerry at March 31, 2003 05:23 PMWow, three big winners in a row: Operation Oversized Jack Russell Terrier Operation Locked-and-loaded Minister Operation Oil-lusting Tree Frog Well I just hope that it is a British unit which gets the call to polish off Saddam, and that they call that operation by using Baldrick's 'given name' as the title. Does anyone remember? (and which episode?) Geoff Posted by: Geoff Newbury at March 31, 2003 05:40 PMUh, I dunno about Shield. Thanks to Proctor & Gamble, they all sound like a feminine products to me. Operation Desert Shield? That's like a feminine product that won't make you sweat or something. Geoff, One thing you have to remember about code names for ops: don't make em too humourous or farcical. Remember the possibility of some poor Mum and Dad being told that their only son has died. "Your son died in operation Free Iraq" sounds just plain pretentious here in Oz, but it may play well in the US. "Your son died in operation James" is quite OK, everyone gets the reference, and there might be a tinge of pride amidst the sorrow. But stay away from Operation Fluffy Bunny, or Operation Sirry Irriot. This problem was first noted - and corrected - by Winston S. Churchill back in WW2 (see his "History of the Second World War") Posted by: Alan E Brain at March 31, 2003 10:00 PMPost a comment
|