Details

Written by Fran Lucientes

Published: 06 October 2014

In an article that reads like something from the Onion, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday on the search by poets in the Pentagon for a name worthy of the nation's latest war.  --  American warriors have been assaulting the Islamic State for two months now, but the mission still lacks a name.  --  Some think that the reluctance to name the war is an expression of the administration's sense of having a war foisted on them that they didn't want.  --  They'll find one someday, but in the meantime military spokespersons are refusing to acknowledge "that the namelessness is unusual," Julian E. Barnes said.[1]  --  If humans fail to find a name, computers may be called in:  "A Pentagon computer program, the Code Word, Nickname and Exercise Term System, or NICKA, keeps track of previous efforts and sets parameters for future ones."  --  "In the absence of an official name, alternatives are bouncing around the halls of the Pentagon.  --  One top suggestion takes note of how U.S. bombing raids are targeting U.S.-made equipment nabbed by Islamic State fighters.  --  The suggestion:  Operation Hey That’s My Humvee." ...

Read more ...