Spaced Odyssey

Desert Storm and Enduring Freedom were bad enough.  But who the hell came up with the moniker "Operation Odyssey Dawn" for what could either be the beginning of World War III or just a quickie multinational air raid lasting a few short days and costing the many millions of dollars we apparently have although we're broke?

Hmmm....What to Call a Temporary Humanitarian War?

Somebody from the Department of the Navy came up with it, apparently, but nobody is taking credit. Or has yet been fired. According to MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell, it was chosen by a convoluted process of alphabetizing or the Dewey Decimal System or something.  It was something like a Mad-Libs game in which the words that tell the ultimate story are chosen at random, make no sense, and have a bunch of drunken partiers collapsing in laughter.  Only, there's nothing really funny about war.  Anyway, O'Donnell is running a contest to find another name, any name, to replace Operation Odyssey Dawn.  Something that doesn't sound like psychedelic dish detergent or the name a stoned New Ager would pick for a first-born daughter.

Among the  early votes are Obama's Dud, Obama's Downfall, Oddly Disingenuous, Offal Dense (check out O'Donnell's blog, The Last Word, for the full list and details on how to enter). Meantime, my suggestion is just shortening the damn thing to Operation O.D.  As in, I am overdosing on the wars, the CNN coverage of the wars, the CNN doomsday soundtrack of the wars, the CNN bursting bomb graphics of the wars, the sight of Richard Engel at the wars (who by the looks of him hasn't slept for two months), and President Obama flying down to Rio as the curtain rises on the(undeclared) wars. Hey, but something good has come out of it.  For the first time, House Speaker John Boehner has uttered the word "humanitarian." I guess when it comes to cutting funding for WIC and NPR, that's not being inhumane - it's just being fiscally responsible. But when it comes to raining down bombs and firing missiles into North Africa?  Wow!  It just doesn't get any more humane than that!

One more thing - can somebody please decide how to spell that dictator's name before he is killed, leaves, or lives to see the new dawn of another massacring day? I have read Qaddafi, Khaddafy, Gaddafi, and ad infinitum.  How about just plain K-Daffy - or Godawful?