Operation Just Cause

[DashOneBravo]

My buddy spent 4 years with one of the battalion’s that participated in the combat jump. He left 4 months before it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_invasion_of_Panama

December 1989, the "All-Americans," as part of Operation JUST CAUSE, conducted their first combat jump since World War II onto Torrijos International Airport, Panama. The paratroopers' goal was to oust a ruthless dictator and restore the duly-elected government to power in Panama.

https://m.facebook.com/82ndAirborneDivision/photos/december-1989-the-all-americans-as-part-of-operation-just-cause-conducted-their-/10152293794225387/

The 82nd air landed in Grenada.

[Aristus]

1. "Just Cause".

That's really when the military went off the rails on their naming of operations. Using code names for political propaganda instead of practical field necessity.

It used to be military operations were given code names like Torch, Husky, Neptune, Overlord, etc. Names that often had vague real-world meaning, but were used primarily for planning, logistics, and coordination. Grenada was "Operation Urgent Fury", which was cool-sounding but wasn't really meant to persuade a civilian populace.

Even Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, while perfectly descriptive of their intent and/or effect, were otherwise innocuous.

Then September 11th happened, and the FOX News, post-Newt Gingrich, party before country-era Republican strategy of all-war-all-the-time went into effect.

This gave us Operation Enduring Freedom, the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan.

Operation Iraqi Freedom, the invasion, occupation, oppression, and subjugation of Iraq.

Thank God Barack Obama was Commander-in-Chief for the killing of Osama bin Laden, otherwise Operation Neptune Spear would have been called Operation Kill Osama Bin Laden.

[Midnight Writer]

2. The story was that they had to change the name of Operation Iraqi Liberation when they realized

it spelled OIL.

Don't know if this is true or not, but it was a story that was "going around" at the time.

[Aristus]

3. Yeah, I remember hearing that story.

That was before the repukes felt comfortable saying the quiet part out loud.