Freedom's just another word for war at Pentagon
by Beth Teitell

Thursday, September 27, 2001

I was exercising my rights as an American on Tuesday, driving - alone - in my car to run an errand although I could have walked, when the Pentagon's new code name for the current military buildup came over the radio: Operation Enduring Freedom.

As everyone knows by now, the first name - Operation Infinite Justice - was dropped after objections from some Islamic scholars, who explained the Muslim view that only God, or Allah, could mete out infinite justice.

At a press conference announcing the new name, a reporter asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld if this one was a keeper: ``You're not going to take it back, you're going to stick with that?''

``Unless it too has a problem,'' Rumsfeld replied. ``Which after the vetting we've been engaged in, would be a disappointment.''

I hate to disappoint the defense secretary, but is he aware that the new name makes a pun? A very sad pun?

Rumsfeld explained the word ``enduring'' was chosen to ``suggest that this is not a quick fix. It's not something that all of us who like to have things immediately over and - it isn't that way. It is not going to be over in five minutes or five months.''

His point, I guess, is that those of us in the Most Impatient Generation, the generation that complains about slow Internet hookups, overly long voice mail messages and, before Sept. 11, 15-minute gate holds, will have to chill out.

But I hear something different in the word ``enduring.'' I hear not ``lasting'' or ``durable'' - the first definitions in my dictionary - but what we're going to have to endure for our freedom: a possible loss of civil liberties, a country where everyone's a cop ready to engage in socially acceptable racial profiling, the disappearance of a sense of personal safety.

The other thing that bothered me about the Pentagon's announcement of the new name, is why something as important as the eradication of worldwide terrorism needs to be sold to the public like an SUV or a soda or software. Ford Explorer, Pepsi One, Windows XP, Operation Enduring Freedom.

In the old days, the purpose of naming a war was to describe it so people would know what you were taking about: the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War. It's tempting to think Madison Avenue's involvement coincided with the growth of cable talk shows, but it turns out that Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm weren't the first logoed military operations.

In America, the War Department started using names of colors for operations just prior to World War II, and things accelerated from there. Since 1975, a Pentagon source told the Washington Post, the process has been aided by various software programs called the CodeWord, Nickname and Exercise Term System.

``Basically what happens,'' the source said, ``is that each of the theater CINCs - the commanders in chief, that is the admirals and generals in charge of regional theaters - is given a database of words. A name is randomly selected - normally a word that is pertinent to that region - like `desert' in Desert Storm and Desert Shield,'' for operations in the 1991 Gulf War.

``The commanders are then presented with a new database of words. They choose another word they like and pair it with the first. They are given some leeway, but they are instructed about which two letters to use first.''

The officers choose words and then send them up the chain of command - and a name is selected.

Sounds like a good process, it's just strange to think that the commanders are planning PR strategy along with military strategy. I guess it shows what it takes to mount a war in today's society.