From the DoD: Operation Iraqi Freedom is over... Operation New Dawn begins?



So -- what's in a name? While the Obama Administration clearly hopes that with a new name, a new sense of mission and understanding of US priorities will follow in Iraq, perhaps choosing a term so similar to the arabic Al Fajr, as in "Operation Al Fajr" -- perhaps better known as the second battle of Falluhah (2004), was a miss-step.

Most interesting in the memo is not a redefinition of Operation Iraqi Freedom, but a renaming of the mission. As such, what will truly be changing? Operation New Dawn will not be a new mission, but rather a renaming of a previously extant one. Time will tell what this change in semantics will mean for Coalition Operations in the Iraqi Battle-Space -- but clearly detectable here is a similar thinking to the naming of the Joint NATO - Afghan "Operation Moshtarak" (dari for "togetherness" in Marjah. The Obama Administration is seeking to redefine the military operations abroad as inclusively novel -- and aimed at a discernible end.