Thursday, March 24, 2011

Why Libya operation is called Dawn Odyssey '?

Just as in 1991 the U.S. military called the intervention in Kuwait 'Desert Storm' (Operation Desert Storm) or two years later, in Somalia, the nickname was 'Operation Restore Hope' (Restore Hope) or 2003, in the second Gulf War, it was decided to "Operation Iraqi Freedom '(Iraqi Freedom), the current mission in Libya, also has its own name, in this case," Operation Dawn Odyssey' (Odyssey Dawn).

Why? Does it mean anything? Is there any reason? "'Dawn Odyssey' does not mean anything," said Africa Command spokesman U.S. Army (AFRICOM), Eric Elliott, in an interview recorded by the Washington Post. "Sometimes, some of the names can convey something like 'Desert Storm' and 'Iraqi Freedom'", titles that chooses the same White House or a senior Pentagon official.

"Others, like 'Leo Africanus', may have some symbolic relation to the location where the operation is performed." Dawn Odyssey' has nothing to do with these two cases ", assured the U.S. command spokesman. Whence, then, the name? U.S. military commanders can name two words to military exercises and various operations performed.

They must follow instructions given in a very precise document designed by the Pentagon. Under this regulation, each military command is assigned a range of letters with which it must 'invent' the name of the operation. According to the spokesman of AFRICOM, the U.S. command in charge of the mission in Libya has the range of letters JS-JZ, and NS-NZ OA-OS.

Apparently, one of the last military exercises conducted by this command led by name judicious Response (JS-JZ) (Response Prudente) and one of its latest operations the range of letters used NS-NZ. Thus, for intervention in Libya could only use the range OA-OS. According to Elliott, "really the goal was to create a name that had nothing to do with the region," he said.

The history of the name of the mission in Libya is pure pragmatism. According to Elliott, in the early stages of planning the intervention, a few weeks ago, U.S. military officials agreed that "Odyssey" (Odyssey) was the only word that could be used in the range OA-OS. Having decided on this word, "sat around a table and through brainstorming with the word was randomly combining well with the first," explained Elliott.

Under Pentagon rules, names of operations "can not be violent" or "offensive to good taste or derogatory to a particular group or belief." Commanders are prohibited from using the words "project," "exercise" or "operation" and can not use compound words ('moonlight', moonlight in Castilian, for example).

Other restrictions include the use of "exotic words," expressions trivial "or" known brands. "

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