This was an overseas covert military strike intended to kill or capture Osama bin Laden. If anyone even asked Obama about the code word for bin Laden, they were wasting his time. I can understand why the Apache might object to the name, but this seems like the wrong bid for attention at the wrong time.
Thread on the use of “Geronimo” when jumping out of planes:
By the way, Geronimo isn’t unique in getting a “new name” from European-ancestored settlers. It was a common practice along the East Coast, where most prominent native Americans were given alternate, Euro-centric names. Just look up King Philip’s War.
[Harvey Korman]
“Too Jewish.”
[/Harvey Korman]
Thank og I got that waterproof keyboard a few weeks ago…
In WWII the British turned discovered German spies.
Called it ‘Operation Double Cross’.
Worst secret codename ever.
Maybe they’re grumpy because the Comanche program was canceled.
The phrase didn’t enter common usage until Operation Double Cross (actually, until a book about it came out after the war), so it was a decent codename at the time.
They called Congress a bunch of Indian givers. Totally went off the reservation on that one!
He wasn’t even named Geronimo. Should Geronimo dos Santos or Gerónimo Peña want to complain and say it’s offensive to all people with Latin names…well. Actually, that’s pretty stupid, since it’s still just a single name. If they’d used the code name “Martin”, would you be complaining on behalf of all blacks?
Look. In the US, the name Geronimo means one thing and one thing only. It refers to the Apache Indian, even if that wasn’t his real name. Pretending otherwise is just being silly.
Comparing “Geronimo” to “Martin” is just one really bad analogy.
…and if Obama doesn’t knuckle under and grovel appropriately to the tribe, he risks losing that critical Apache Swing Vote in 2012! :eek:
Speaking ex cathedra, as the world’s leading authority on the subject of military codewords…
The name of the operation was almost certainly selected through the official system. **Neptune Spear **uses a first word reserved for US Navy special operations. “Geronimo” was just most likely lingo the troops used because you had to call the target something.
While there is a semi-centralized system, there are so many exceptions that a pattern is hard to determine.
Soldiers (and sailors) simply like cool talk.
[QUOTE=Snowboarder Bo]
The leader of the Fort Sill Apache Tribe is looking for a formal apology from President Barack Obama for the government’s use of the code name “Geronimo” for Osama bin Laden.
[/QUOTE]
Can’t trust the white man.
It means one thing and one thing only? Really? Suddenly, everyone has forgotten how entrenched the term is in the US military. No one has ever, ever used it, ever, in their entire lives. Somehow, people have managed to blind themselves to this aspect of culture that has dated back at least as far back as 1940.
I’m not saying it wasn’t an offensive reference, but to assign some deep-seated racism to it is asinine. The word is used, without any thought to that historical figure, on a daily basis.
As soon as I heard the name of the operation I was willing to bet 1000.00 that there would be at least one whiner out there and that the media would report it as newsworthy.
Please for the love of fuck, shut up.
The name, not “the term”. It was a name given to a man. Geronimo, the name, means only one thing to Americans.
I’m not attributing deep seated racism to this. I’m just saying that I can kind of see where some people would object to this. It was insensitive, and a reflection of our culture that we tend to see things through Euro-centric lenses. And I’m not the kind of guy who likes to throw out “Euro-centric”, but I can’t think of a better description of what happened here.
No one said: Hey, let’s give ObL the nickname of one of then damn savage Injuns, cause the only good Injun is a dead Injun, just like ObL.
They didn’t think about it. But if someone had decided to nickname him “Washington”, one of the higher ups would’ve corrected that PDQ.
You’re right. I’ve thought about it a lot and have revised my earlier opinion. No, it wasn’t some massive racist plot, but it is indicative of prevalent attitudes and a general lack of concern. As was my initial reaction.
There’s a lack of concern because there’s nothing to be concerned about.
You’re right. Considering everything the Native Americans had done to them over the centuries, one more insult ain’t much.
This thread reminds me of the unveiling of the Apache helicopter years ago. The big curtain was drawn to present to the public for the first time the new technological marvel, named after the native American tribe.
Next to the helicopter was an Apache, in traditional dress, donning a couple of feathers in his hair, pirouetting proudly on a restless stallion. But what weapon did the Apache wield? No, it wasn’t a spear, not a bow-and-arrow either.
It was a lever action Winchester 30-06.