who names the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Answer 1

It is now sort of done by a computer program called NICKA. That somehoe stands for Code Word, Nickname, and Exercise System.

Basically every command (i.e. CENTCOM or EUCOM) is assigned a 2 letter sequence and the commanding officer of the op picks the names, which must then be approved by the Joint Chiefs.

It's actually pretty convaluted. The link provided doesn't specifically mention current Iraq and Afghani operations, but you can get the idea and a bit of history behind it.

Answer 2

Military operations are named by an anonymous official deep in the bowels of the Pentagon, and are then approved by the relevant service Secretary and the Secretary of Defense. It is said that the White House also has approval powers on all Iraq/Afghanistan operations, due to their high visibility and importance to administration policy. They tend to go for very dramatic names.

Winston Churchill was a great advocate for care in the naming of operations. He wanted to use simple, serious sounding words but would have thoroughly disapproved of names like "Operation Enduring Freedom", on the grounds that if they were unsuccessful they would reflect worse on the government if they sounded overly melodramatic. Announcing the conclusion of "Operation Survival of our Nation" would be a little difficult. Churchill also hated names that sounded frivolous or silly, "Nobody wants to be told that their son was killed in Operation Piffle". During past wars, WWII especially, care was given to choosing names that would not give away any hints as to the operation's goals, for instance, Operation Overlord (the invasion of Normandy) and Operation Dragoon (the invasion of southern France that immediately followed) were changed from "Hammer" and "Anvil" because the names were too revealing of their purpose.

Answer 3

Operation Iraqi Freedom
Operation Enduring Freedom

Answer 4

In the British Military they simply come from a list of names which have been generated at random from a computer.

The point of this is that the name of the operation should not give any clue to the enemy what it is.

Hence Gulf War 2 was Operation Telic, which means precisely nothing.

The U.S tend to give more theatrical names like "Desert Storm" and Desert Shield" which kind of give the game away!!

Answer 5

Petey Pat Robertson

Answer 6

who know's does it matter