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The people who came up with the name Operation New Dawn<\/em><\/p>\n When I woke up this morning, I got a message from my friend and paratrooper James who is currently in Afghanistan fighting the good fight. He asked me if I was “ready” for Operation New Dawn. Right away I assumed it was one of two things: 1.) the name of the bar-hopping campaign James and I will conduct when James is on R&R or 2.) the name the DoD is giving to\u00a0 the operation to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. However, I was wrong. Operation New Dawn will be the new name for Operation Iraqi Freedom, starting September 1st<\/a>. My reaction to this new name was a combination of laughter, disbelief, and anger.<\/p>\n My first question of course was what the hell kinda of name is Operation New Dawn? It sounds like it was made up by a bunch of hippies that live on a commune in Nancy Pelosi’s congressional district. Yeah we had Operation Red Dawn, but that was named after one of the greatest movies ever made and it was the op where we nabbed Saddam. How does Operation New Dawn fit in with these names: Operation Gothic Serpent, Operation Desert Storm, Operation Phantom Fury, Operation Overload, Operation Steel Curtain… <\/strong>it doesn’t. Operation Iraqi Freedom was a little corny but it got the point across about what we were doing in Iraq. Operation New Dawn sounds like for the next year and a half we are just going to have one big hippy jamfest in the desert.<\/p>\n Then there was the question of campaign medals and badges. What will the Operation New Dawn campaign medal look like? A rainbow with a smiley face in the middle? Will a Combat Action Ribbon earned in Iraq become the Combat Love Ribbon?<\/p>\n The next question is why change the name at all? I have a couple of theories on this. Last week, Biden’s dumbass was in the news for claiming credit for the successes we have had in Iraq<\/a>. Of course, it was pointed out that Obama really hasn’t done anything with Iraq and is just following the timeline that the Bush administration and Iraqi government agreed on towards the end of 08<\/a>.\u00a0 The war has effectively been on autopilot since Bush left office, with Obama and the DoD just changing a few units’ deployments around. This is the Obama’s administration way of trying to put their stamp on the war, now that Iraq has been stablized and we are withdrawing. Operation Iraqi Freedom was Bush’s baby, now Obama is trying to steal it from the hospital and rename it Operation New Dawn. Also look at the date of September 1st. I can see Obama and Biden declaring victory and claiming credit for “ending” Operation Iraqi Freedom just in time for the midterm elections. Yeah that may be a stretch for some people, but is anything this ridiculous a stretch for Joe and Barry?<\/p>\n Which brings up another point: the August date for the withdrawal of combat forces is just another day on the calendar, IT DOESN’T MEAN ANYTHING. There will still be combat arms units in Iraq. They will just be called by different names like “Advise and Assist Brigades”, Task Force MP, or military training teams. But they will still be combat units. Who do you think is going to guard the bases for the next year and a half? Who is going to train Iraqi soldiers? A bunch of pogues?<\/p>\n Of course don’t expect the MSM to report this. They have been wrong about everything from WMDs to body armor to the Surge. Don’t expect them to start getting things now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"