Nomme de guerre
Posted on Oct 30 2006 | Tagged as: Uncategorized
With military operations, you can almost guarantee two things: that the British name for any given campaign will be entirely bland, and that the corresponding American name (assuming we’re always marching off into combat hand in hand, which of course we are) will be appallingly macho, nationalistic or otherwise, well, American - much like something straight out of Top Gun.
The names of the 1991 Gulf War were, respectively, Operation Granby (boooring) and Operation Desert Storm (huuah!).
The ongoing war in Afghanistan is known is Operation Veritas (odd allusion to “truth”, you might think) here and Operation Enduring Freedom in the US.
This is the campaign poster for Enduring Freedom:
This is what wikipedia has to say about the choice of name:
It was previously planned to have been called “Operation Infinite Justice” but it is believed to have been changed because of concerns that this might offend the Muslim community as some believe that Islam teaches that God is the only one who can provide Infinite Justice.
I know they might appear to be an easily-offended bunch, but I think they’ve got bigger problems than what you call the bombs you’re dropping on them. Like the fact that you’re dropping bombs on them.
(Similarly, the Iraq war is “Operation Iraqi Freedom”. There’s an expression in Latin: stat rosa pristina nomine, nuda nomina tenemus. Roughly, ‘when the rose has faded, all that remains is the name’. I’d suggest that this applies to Enduring/Iraqi Freedom, but I doubt the noble intentions implied by the name were there in the first place.)
on 06 Nov 2006 at 6:26 pm 1 Andrew said …
This definitely adds weight to my (as yet unwritten) second law of Britishness:
In Britain, all things tend toward mediocrity.
on 06 Nov 2006 at 9:39 pm 2 Definition Britain » Blog Archive » Commenting is wrong, even when it is right said …
[…] To illustrate my point I want to point to my comment on Christopher’s blog, which is comment on my blog was referring to. His article points out the different approaches used by the UK and US military to name their operations. On the one hand the US military uses terms that are, to British sensibilities at least, a tad macho and gung-ho. The plucky Brits on the other hand plump for something a little more public school; for example, The British version of Operation Enduring Freedom is operation Veritas. […]
on 06 Nov 2006 at 10:17 pm 3 Not Saussure said …
According to Wikipedia,
In a minute on August 8, 1943 Winston Churchill wrote to General “Pug” Ismay, Military Secretary of the Defence Committee of the British Cabinet:
Operations in which large numbers of men may lose their lives ought not to be decided by code-words that imply a boastful and over-confident sentiment, such as “Triumphant,” or conversely, which are calculated to invest the plan with an air of despondency, such as “Woebetide” and “Flimsy.” They ought not to be names of a frivolous character, such as “Bunnyhug” and “Ballyhoo.” They should not be ordinary words often used in other connections, such as “Flood,” “Sudden,” and “Supreme.” Names of living people (ministers or commanders) should be avoided. Intelligent thought will already supply an unlimited number of well-sounding names that do not suggest the character of the operation or disparage it in any way and do not enable some widow or mother to say that her son was killed in an operation called “Bunnyhug” or “Ballyhoo.” Proper names are good in this field. The heroes of antiquity, figures from Greek and Roman mythology, the constellations and stars, famous racehorses, names of British and American war heroes, could be used, provided they fall within the rules above.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_name#Churchill_on_code_names_for_military_operations
on 06 Nov 2006 at 10:32 pm 4 Christopher White said …
Yes, eminently sensible. I dread to think what the D-Day landings or the parachute landings at Arnhem would’ve been called if George (W or HW, makes no odds) Bush had been in charge.
Not sure why, but that’s juts made me think of the name of one of the horses in The Day Today - “Massive Bereavement”.