I suppose this is rather trivial but I certainly would not want the name of any of my ancestors used to stand for bin Laden.
"He died 102 years ago in Oklahoma, a beaten warrior, a prisoner of war, an exile from his homeland, a propped-up sideshow, a gambler and a lukewarm Christian. His family was murdered by Mexicans. The Americans stripped him of most everything else.
And yet, the Apache born near the Gila River in present-day Arizona with the not-very-impressive name of Goyahkla ('One Who Yawns') rode into history as the legendary Geronimo.
It was his name that the U.S. military chose as the code for the raid, and perhaps for Osama bin Laden himself, during the operation that killed the al-Qaida leader in Pakistan.
In a triumphant moment for the United States, the moniker has left a sour taste among many Native Americans.
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13 comments:
These days, someone always has something to complain about. Never mind the fact that the word can also mean an interjection of enthusiasm, but why should alternate definitions be used when there's a Politically Correct one?
Lest we forget, Geronimo was a great American warrior, leader, and strategist, and a true hero to his people. With less than 50 warriors, he managed to not only keep the entire 6th US Cavalry at bay for a long time, but also nearly destroyed the Mexican army.
His undoing came about because he trusted what he was told by the US govt. If we were smarter, we'd learn something from that.
During WW II, tens of thousands of US Paratroopers were trained to yell "Geronimo" as they exited their aircraft as a means of timing whether the rip cord attached to the plane worked. This was recognized as a war cry by the airborne forces for years, and never was meant to denigrate the native Americans.
"No one would find acceptable calling this arch-terrorist by code name Mandela, Revere or Ben-Gurion," Harper wrote.
Actually, "Mandela" would have been a pretty close call.
Sama and Obama their names sound so alike
Anon 5:53 said;
"This was recognized as a war cry by the airborne forces for years, and never was meant to denigrate the native Americans."
American Indians have never had a problem with that, but it's a "far cry" from connecting Geronimo's name with a mass-murderer and terrorist.
While it may sound insensitive, the cold reality is that the American Indians lost. While we certainly CAN show them respect and compassion, they are the losers in an undeclared war, so said respect is not obligatory--unless you buy into the Politically Correct mindset.
sig you stated exactly what I said to my wife the other evening when we heard this story on the news. When will the hand wringing over beating a foe in battle stop in the US? A hundred years from now will there be people feeling sorry for the Germans and Japanese we defeated in WW2? To paraphrase President Obama, "We won. Get over it."
There are winners and losers on both or all sides of a war. The ones that die or suffer are obviously losers. Many benefit in the end, even in the so-called defeated countries like Germany and Japan, which are prosperous countries today: while winning countries like the US have many areas that are squalid and no better than poor 3rd world countries.
Everyone rmembers that inians name whenever their jumping froma plane
that his name is even mentioned a 100 years after his death is quite a feat. I wouldn't complain.
Liberals jump out of airplanes without paracutes becuase their minds are too far gone
If my ancestor was known for violence and being a mass murderer, I wouldn't care if anybody used his name.
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