from ةيلمع
Operación Opération Operation 行 动 Oперация © 2016 by Moez Surani. Used with permission of Book*hug Press.
Moez Surani
INTRODUCTION
ONE
This is a poem of violence. It is a collection of the
names of military operations conducted by member
states of the United Nations (UN) from the UN’s
inception in October 1945, to the incorporation
of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) document
in 2006. The title is the word “operation” in the six
official languages of the UN: Arabic, Spanish, French,
English, Chinese and Russian. The poem that follows
is a globe-spanning inventory of the contemporary
rhetoric of violence and aggression.
Representatives from fifty countries gathered in
San Francisco in April 1945, and by the end of June
an agreement was reached to create an international
system unifying these countries. President Truman
declared that this constituted “a solid structure upon
which we can build a better world” and “a victory
against war itself.” In light of the events of the Second
World War and military activities since that time, his
belief in the promise of that document now appears
naïve. Most prophetic was his conclusion: “If we fail to
use it we shall betray all those who have died so that
we might meet here in freedom and safety to create it.
If we seek to use it selfishly—for the advantage of any
one nation or any small group of nations—we shall be
equally guilty of that betrayal.”
The UN’s birth in 1945 is the opening frame of this
poem. A second UN document, the Responsibility to
Protect, sixty-one years later, is the closing frame. The
R2P language emerged from UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan’s question to the public in 2000: “If
humanitarian intervention is, indeed, an unacceptable
assault on sovereignty, how should we respond to a
Rwanda, to a Srebrenica—to gross and systematic
violations of human rights that offend every precept
of our common humanity?” Twelve people met
in Ottawa to determine how to rightfully breach
a country’s sovereignty to prevent calamity. Their
answer: a government has a responsibility to protect
its citizens. When this responsibility is abdicated, the
UN can rightfully intervene.
With this poem beginning at the outset of the
UN and closing at the 2006 ratification of the R2P
language, this framing embodies a movement in the
poem itself, away from conflicts between countries
and towards those within them.
ELEVEN
What I’ve found is that no word is exempt from
connoting violence. This poem makes “tulip” and
“grasshopper” equal to “killer” and “bone breaker.” No
word is inherently innocent, beautiful or good.
Also preoccupying me as this poem lengthened
was Walter Lippmann’s explanation of how to measure
the health of a democracy. He wrote that democratic
health is related to the vitality of the media and the
education of citizens. These three factors strengthen
or decay together. It follows then that operation
names that obfuscate their intentions depress the
robustness of democracies. They conceal intention,
delay understanding, and, in place of thoughtful
engagement, appeal to emotions or valour. But if a
citizen’s personal values matched those of the military
operations conducted by their country, an operation
ought to be named with perfect candour. This lack of
candour, and the propensity for euphemisms, exposes
a chasm between personal and national values. The
bits of language that follow document this gap.
2003
Mistral
Headstrong
Tsunami
Bastille
Eagle Fury
Mountain Viper
Epidote
Display Deterrence
Mass Appeal
Solitude
Iraqi Freedom
Iraqi Liberation
Telic
Falconer
Fusion
Northern Delay
Viking Hammer
Concordia
Airborne Dragon
Option North
Palate
Pebu [Shelter]
Terpadu [Integrated]
Planet X
Libertad Uno [Freedom One]
Caravan
Peninsula Strike
Providence
Shining Express
Artemis
Desert Snowplough
Desert Scorpion
Scorpion Sting
Spartan Scorpion
Sparviero [Sparrowhawk]
Arès [Aries]
Sidewinder
Tyr
Haven Denial
Iron Bullet
Soda Mountain
14 Juillet [14 July]
Antica Babilonia [Ancient Babylon]
Ivy Serpent
White House
Athena
144
Warrior Sweep
Tapeworm
Anode / Helpem Fren
Peregrine
Ivy Lightning
Silverado
Ivy Needle
Gemsbok
Longstreet
Nibbio [Kite]
Liane
Industrial Sweep
Desert Thrust
Montego
Tiger Clean Sweep
Chamberlain
Sweeny
O.K. Corral
All-American Tiger
Armadillo
Ivy Cyclone
Mountain Resolve
Boothill
Eagle Curtain
Buford
Matraqa Hadidia [Iron Hammer]
Ivy Cyclone II
Rifles Blitz
Rifle Sweep
145
Bayonet Lightning
Bulldog Mammoth
Clear Area
Abilene
Panther Squeeze
Red Dawn
Panther Backroads
All Clear
Proxima
Arrowhead Blizzard
Ivy Blizzard
Iron Justice
Rifles Fury
Devil Siphon
Overcoat
Salam
Santa Strike
Iron Force
Iron Grip
Benin / Cotonou
Choke Hold
