U.S. forces continue to hunt unknown assailants in Iraq. They're not the Iraqi army...that much we know. I mean, they couldn't possibly be remnants of the Iraqi army right? The war is over...Yeah sure it is.

I can't write about an international terrorist force without a name however, so from now on I will call this enemy Cobra. I think it fits...

Our latest operation against Cobra forces was known briefly as operation Spartan Scorpion. I say briefly because a couple of hours after the attack the U.S. media began to report it as operation Desert Scorpion.

Why the name change? Is it to protect sensitive battlefield information that might be harmful to our troops? Possibly. But I find it much more likely that someone in the Pentagon press office got a stern phone call or e-mail from a Military History buff who informed them that the U.S. might not want to be too closely associated with the Spartans of Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.) fame.

We can't have our military operations against Cobra named after aggressive, war mongering assholes you know.

Yooooooo Joe!

Labels: insurgency, iraq, occupation