Lite Overseas Contigency Operation....LOCO!!

"Overseas Contingency Operation" Huh?

Someone needs to keep a list of all the words Obama deems not PC these days. The word "terror" seems to be a no-no.

We should call it what it is: gross stupidity.

Or how about - Living in a Dream World.

I thought for sure it was going to be Global Peace Outreach.

That got my vote too, Bren.

That was my vote. We can name it whatever we want, or we can call a spade a spade.

GPO got my vote but apparently OCO is the name. Whatever. War is war.

Since when are the World Trade Center and the Pentagon "overseas"?

"The memo said the direction came from the Office of Management and Budget, the executive-branch agency that reviews the public testimony of administration officials before it is delivered.

Not so, said Kenneth Baer, an OMB spokesman.

"There was no memo, no guidance," Baer said yesterday. "This is the opinion of a career civil servant."

Coincidentally or not, senior administration officials had been publicly using the phrase "overseas contingency operations" in a war context for roughly a month before the e-mail was sent."

This is extremely interesting!

When our country was attacked, a lot of people were emotional and wanted to hear emotion-triggering words. Such as "war" and "terror" and "destruction". We wanted a clear distinction that those people were bad and we were good.

Now that there is less emotion being passed around by Americans, these heavy words, which should be used to serve as reminders that a majority of people were gung ho about getting back at the bad guys initially, are now deemed too strong and violent.

So we get, "Overseas Contingency Operation". Sounds a lot like "The Vietnam Conflict" to me.....

I fail and that's a mouthful.

Um, not everyone wanted a clear distinction that 'those people were bad and we were good' - back then I would have been very happy to hear Overseas Contingency Operation to Hunt Down Osama bin Laden.

stephley: since when is "a lot of people" the same as "everyone"?

I don't know about ya'll but I can car less what name we call a War. I just want to know why we're in it.

I also guessed GPO, which I thought was a horrible name by the way. But the real name sounds so stupid.

How about we call it the war to preserve Middle Earth?

Gpa I envision hobbits and elves running around looking for the precious.

Gun shot war, kind of like a gun shot wedding, go in prematurely, screw everything up and then your time is up so your on to the next.

this name is dumb. although the war on terror was even dumber.

This is stupid. If we have soldiers deployed and dying on the behalf of the Commander in Chief then it is a war.

Dying on behalf of the Commander in Chief???

"Sounds a lot like "The Vietnam Conflict" to me..... "

Beautifully said, TidalWave.

I was fine with War on Terror. Seems to me the change in name is to pacify the anti-war people.

Kind of reminds me of the two year old who covers his eyes with his hands so no onw can see him.

There is no new name for the war on terror.

The spokesman at the Pentagon says no one has told him to call the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan anything special.

He says Overseas Contingency Operations is a BUDGET term. The wars no longer will be funded through 'supplementals' that aren't factored into the budget - they will be part of the budget as 'OCO'.

In a memo e-mailed this week to Pentagon staff members, the Defense Department's office of security review noted that "this administration prefers to avoid using the term 'Long War' or 'Global War on Terror' [GWOT.] Please use 'Overseas Contingency Operation.' "

The memo said the direction came from the Office of Management and Budget, the executive-branch agency that reviews the public testimony of administration officials before it is delivered.
...
Coincidentally or not, senior administration officials had been publicly using the phrase "overseas contingency operations" in a war context for roughly a month before the e-mail was sent.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/24/AR200903...

If something doesn't make sense, it's good to dig deeper:

From. U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Transcript (March 25, 2009)
Presenter: Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell

"Q (Off mike) -- e-mail sent, from the Obama administration to Pentagon officials, about using the phrase the global war on terror, to using overseas contingency operations --

MR. MORRELL: I'm sorry. Say it one more time.

Q (Off mike) -- e-mail sent, from Obama administration to Pentagon --

MR. MORRELL: (Off mike) -- global war on terror directive that was or wasn't a directive.

Q Yes.

MR. MORRELL: I've never received such a directive. I think the White House and OMB for that matter have been very clear about this as well, that they have never issued such a directive.

I think they've explained that perhaps somebody within OMB may have been a little overexuberant and done so. But I can just tell you, I'm the one who speaks publicly about these matters. And I have never been told which words to use or not to use. So I don't think there's anything to the story.

Q You still use the phrase.

MR. MORRELL: I think I have used it. I think I have. I don't avoid it. I don't seek it out. If it's appropriate, I'll use it. I could be wrong, but I think the president has used it. But, so I don't -- I was surprised to see that story, as well, because I know of no directive prohibiting the use of that term.

Q What's your preferred nomenclature?

MR. MORRELL: I don't really have one. I mean, I don't think a whole lot about it. I think that we are involved in global operations to protect the homeland and the American people. And a large part of that is going after terrorists, seeking them out, wherever they are, wherever they're plotting, wherever they are training to launch attacks against us.
So --

Q (Off mike) -- GWOT, global war on terror, lumps together an entire -- you know, the entire Muslim faith and an entire region. Do you see that as a concern?

MR. MORRELL: Well, I don't think there's anything in that term that identifies any particular faith or ethnicity. I mean, there are terrorists of all faiths, of all colors, of all races and ethnicities. And so perhaps a better -- another way to refer to it would be, you know, a campaign against extremists who wish to do us harm.
I mean, there's a variety of ways to describe this. But I don't -- the point is, there has been no mandate from anybody as to how we should talk about this.

Q How do you feel about overseas contingency --

MR. MORRELL: I think that is -- that is -- the new way of referring to WAR SPENDING is that overseas contingency -- it's still new to me, so let me get it right -- overseas contingency operations budget.
So.

Q So more of a budgetary term, would you say, than a kind of broader term of the administration to describe the military campaigns and --

MR. MORRELL: No, THIS IS A BUDGET TERM. I mean, this is --this replaces supplementals. But it's not just a -- this is not a matter of semantics. There is a difference here. And the difference here is that the overseas contingency operations budget will be sent to the Hill with the DOD base budget and considered with it so that the Congress will be able to assess it together and make determinations together with the base budget. So I think there is -- even though it is above and beyond the base, it is coupled with the base, it's part of the president's budget, it goes up there packaged together and they will consider them together.

Q Will the '09 supplemental be going up separately?

MR. MORRELL: The '09 supplemental is still a supplemental. It's the second tranche of the '09 war funding. And I think it's still to be determined, Tony, when it goes out. There's been some dates that have moved. I don't know if it's moving still. But the hope is to get it up there, I believe, soon, but I think OMB would probably offer you some more direction on that.