Thursday, January 25, 2007

Tell it like it is

The successor to Operation Forward Together II in Baghdad has been announced. And it's not Bride of Operation Forward Together. It's Operation Imposing Law. Really.

UPDATE 15 FEBRUARY: In keeping with the trend of announcing operations long before their implementation, Operation Imposing Law only began yesterday, and the Times (UK) explains that there are already issues with its name --

The dispute coincided with US officials unveiling the official name of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Baghdad operation, ’Fahd al-Qanoon (Imposing Justice), in Arabic, although US officials call it Operation Law and Order.

The American concern being, presumably, that the former more accurate name implies that there was no law before the operation began.

FINAL UPDATE 18 FEBRUARY: A Pentagon news release announces the official name of "the latest iteration of the Baghdad security plan" as Operation Enforcing the Law, but (one more update) a MNF-Iraq news release avoids using its English name, sticking with "Fardh Al-Qanoon (the Baghdad Security Plan)".

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