Friday, September 21, 2001
OPERATION 'SHUT THE FUCK UP,' ANYONE? The FBI calls its investigation of the terrorist attacks PENTTBOM. (Pentagon, Twin Towers and, uh, bomb. There was no bomb this time, but the idiotic UNABOM was such a success there had to be an encore.) The U.S. military calls its campaign Operation Infinite Justice, for now. (It's apparently being changed because we don't want to offend Muslims, we just want to kill some of 'em.)
My newspaper, The Washington Post, has a delightfully cynical section called Style, so I was thrilled to hear that Style was doing a story on this naming stuff. It was a good piece of journalism, highlighting just how much time and effort go into naming military actions, but the cynicism was conspicuously absent.
So I'll chime in and ask: Do we really need to come up with cute names for quests to kill people who piss us off? I forget -- what was World War II really called? Operation Kick Some Axis?
If we really think this Madison Avenue crap is appropriate, why not corporate sponsorship of war? "Doritos Operation Infinite Crunch" has a nice ring to it.
My newspaper, The Washington Post, has a delightfully cynical section called Style, so I was thrilled to hear that Style was doing a story on this naming stuff. It was a good piece of journalism, highlighting just how much time and effort go into naming military actions, but the cynicism was conspicuously absent.
So I'll chime in and ask: Do we really need to come up with cute names for quests to kill people who piss us off? I forget -- what was World War II really called? Operation Kick Some Axis?
If we really think this Madison Avenue crap is appropriate, why not corporate sponsorship of war? "Doritos Operation Infinite Crunch" has a nice ring to it.
