U.S.'s 'Iron Hammer' Code Name 1st Used by Nazis - BS article alert

Yahoo News ^

[KantianBurke]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military's code name for a crackdown on resistance in Iraq (news - web sites) was also used by the Nazis for an aborted operation to damage the Soviet power grid during World War II.

"Operation Iron Hammer" this week launched the 1st Armored Division's 3rd Brigade into the roughest parts of Baghdad to ferret out the attackers who have killed scores of U.S. troops since Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) was ousted in April.

A Pentagon (news - web sites) official said the name was chosen because of the "Old Ironsides" nickname of the 1st Armored Division. He was unaware of any connection to any Nazi operation.

"Eisenhammer," the German for "iron hammer," was a Luftwaffe code name for a plan to destroy Soviet generating plants in the Moscow and Gorky areas in 1943, according to Universal Lexikon on the www.infobitte.de Web site.

A researcher at Britain's Imperial War Museum confirmed the existence of Eisenhammer.

The Nazi's long-range bombing operation was repeatedly postponed and was finally scrapped after an allied air assault destroyed many of the German planes on the ground in 1945, shortly before the defeat of Germany.

After it declared war on terrorism, U.S. officials changed the code name for its impending attack on Afghanistan (news - web sites) to Operation Enduring Freedom.

The original name, Operation Infinite Justice, was jettisoned amid fears that the Muslim world, already leery of U.S. intentions, would object on the basis of Koranic teachings that only God can provide infinite justice.

[KantianBurke]

For those who don't believe there's such a thing as media bias.

[TonyInOhio]

Just more proof that we are nothing but a bunch of right-wing Nazis.

[LiteKeeper]

My response? So What!!!

[KantianBurke]

So what? So lets dance!

[jjm2111]

Seig Heil, Rueters, Seig Heil.

[mlbford2]

In the last 24hrs my favorite bias is Rueters calling that red head Saddam guy Al-whatever-his-name-is as 'the commander most feared by the coalition forces'. PLEEEAAAASE

[Poohbah]

Oh, good grief, will Roto-Reuters ever grow the f*** up?

[StoneColdGOP]

And this is news... why?

[Tallguy]

Yahoo News: Spoon-feeding pablum to the ignorant masses since 1995.

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

I think that this is great- if these wienies have to reach THIS far to find something to smear us, they must be really desperate.

I suspect that almost ANY two-word combination you could think of (subject to some restrictions of length and taste) has been used for a military operation "code-name" at some point or other, by some military in the world.

[Callahan]

In other important news, if you re-arrange the letters in "Condoleeza Rice" you can spell "Ee! cold nazi oreo"

[struwwelpeter]

I suppose they would have preferred:

"Bang-Bang Maxwell's Silver Hammer"?

I dunno, doesn't have the same effect. "Operation Comfie Chair"? "Fluffy Pillow"? Hmmmm...

Actually, the German "Eisenhammer" kind of trips off the tongue. Howsabout Russian: "Zhelezniy Molotok"? Naaaah, too gutteral, hard to pronounce while eating a peanut butter sandwhich. Any other suggestions?

[Poohbah]

I dunno, doesn't have the same effect. "Operation Comfie Chair"?

You obviously weren't expecting the Spanish Inquisition...

[KantianBurke]

Sandy: Carl I want you to kill all the gophers on the golf course
Carl Spackler: Correct me if I'm wrong Sandy, but if I kill all the golfers they'll lock me up and throw away the key.
Sandy: Not golfers, you great fool! Gophers! THE LITTLE BROWN, FURRY RODENTS!
Carl Spackler: We can do that. We don't even need a reason.

[Steely Glint]

My God, talk about a reach.

I guess that they couldn't find anything else anti-American to say.

[Puddleglum]

The Nazis also used the words "the," "bomb," "machine gun," and probably "waffle." Coincidence? I think not...

[Recovering_Democrat]

The irony is great: the Nazis were HEROES of Saddam Hussein--read Con Coughlin's biography of Saddam and you'll find that out.

So adopting the moniker of the heroes of Saddam to defeat him is really a great psychological move by the USA.

[Jonah Hex]

You obviously weren't expecting the Spanish Inquisition...

NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION, BWHAHAHA..(choke)..HA!!!

[Dr. Frank fan]

Of course when Clinton launched "Operation Desert Fox" we heard equally shrill howls from the media about naming a military operation after a Nazi general.

Um... right?

[Poohbah]

I seem to recall a deafening silence over that one.