OxBlog

Wednesday, April 02, 2003

# Posted 10:30 AM by Patrick Belton  

ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE: Alternate headings for this post are "Sandraker" and "Giving Saddam the Goldfinger." While not fighting pitched battle in Basra, Britain's commandos have apparently taken to culling a large portion of their codenames for the Iraqi war from Bond movies - thereby giving military history "Operation James" as well as military targets with names like "Goldfinger" and "Blofeld" (i.e., the famous villain with the white Persian - the feline doesn't actually appear in the novels). UK operational code names have often betrayed a decidedly Brittannic sense of humor - as opposed for instance to the "Operation Free Iraq" of current U.S. military usage, the U.K. has adopted the name "Operation Telic," - a term from the philosophical lexicon meaning "purposeful" (from the Greek telos). Says Paul Beaver, a London-based military expert: "Operation James is an objective named after something the soldiers will remember easily. James Bond is a No. 1 Brit, and he's a hero."

As are you, mates.
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