The nearly two-month-old campaign of airstrikes against the Islamist militant group ISIS now has a name: “Operation Inherent Resolve.”
Speaking to a handful of reporters at The Pentagon, Col. Edward Thomas revealed the name of the mission against ISIS while declining to explain where it came from or why it took so long to come up with one, according to The Washington Post .
U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, said the name “Operation Inherent Resolve” will be retroactive to the beginning of the campaign, which officially began with an airstrike on August 8. President Obama announced on September 3 that the mission’s goal was to “degrade and destroy” ISIS, according to this Inquisitr report.
“According to CENTCOM officials, the name INHERENT RESOLVE is intended to reflect the unwavering resolve and deep commitment of the U.S. and partner nations in the region and around the globe to eliminate the terrorist group ISIL and the threat they pose to Iraq, the region and the wider international community. It also symbolizes the willingness and dedication of coalition members to work closely with our friends in the region and apply all available dimensions of national power necessary – diplomatic, informational, military, economic – to degrade and ultimately destroy [ISIS].”
Giving a military mission a name serves several important purposes, according to the Los Angeles Times , including giving the mission a reference point for funding requests, and for awarding medals. Every U.S. military operation since 1989 — Operation Just Cause, in Panama — has had a name, according to Fox News . Even the U.S. intervention against the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has a name: Operation United Assistance, which was announced the day the operation began.
Reports vary as to why Operation Inherent Resolve waited so long to get a name. One unnamed Pentagon official, according to Yahoo News , said the name lacked a punch, calling it “just kind of bleh.” And according to Fox News, an unnamed Pentagon official said that no one wanted to own up to the operation.
“If you name it, you own it. … And they don’t want to own it.”
The lack of a name for the anti-ISIS operation had become something of a joke on social media, with a mock campaign being conducted on Twitter to crowdsource a name. A popular suggestion was Operation Hey That’s My Humvee, in reference to the airstrikes against U.S. military equipment that had been taken over by ISIS militants.
So what to call the war on ISIS? Operation Hey That’s My Humvee? @jullianbarnes on the battle for war monikers http://t.co/Mfzh20iMbc
— Neil King (@NKingofDC) October 3, 2014
As of this post, Operation Inherent Resolve has failed to gain the upper hand against ISIS, according to the Los Angeles Times .
[Image courtesy of: PBS ]
