I began with the intention of posting a complaint about the name “Operation Infinite Justice” applied to the terrorist retaliation efforts.  Does “Operation Infinite Justice” cause you (the reader) to shudder?  What we are hoping for (right?) is a finite struggle.   And damaging as it may have been, the attack was of finite scale, and therefore deserves finite retribution.

It is also problematic that “infinite justice” comes with heavy religious weights attached to it.  To propose that the U.S. could (let alone should) mete out such retribution would seem to offend most people.  The religious would be offended by the implicit arrogation of divine right, while the non-religious would be offended by casting a secular, military-political issue as a religious conflict.  I grimaced when George W. Bush used the word “crusade” to describe the conflict, but “Operation Infinite Justice” is not much of an improvement.  As Salon’s Scott Rosenberg writes, “The crusade, it seems, is on again.”

But good news, in the “this just in” sense: Rumsfeld announced he is “considering” finding a new name after hearing from Muslim clerics that it was offensive.  I think this can be read as a guarantee that they will change it (What else would he do?  Hold a press conference, announce that it is offensive to Muslim Americans, and then keep it?)

Thu, 20 Sep 2001 12:22:46 +0000
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