Iraq war to get new name after US troops pull out

TROOPS WITHDRAWAL: The last of US combat troops will withdraw in August.(Getty Images)

The war in Iraq will get a new name after the last of US combat troops withdraw in August, the Pentagon said, prompting criticism of “public relations tactics.”

Defense Secretary Robert Gates approved changing the name of the campaign to Operation New Dawn from Operation Iraqi Freedom as of Sept. 1, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said in an e-mail. ABC News reported the change earlier on Friday.

The move reflects the drawdown of forces that General Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is preparing after the Persian Gulf nation’s March 7 general election, a shift to be completed in August.

That will leave about 50,000 U.S. troops in brigades that will advise and assist Iraqi Security Forces until the last American soldiers leave at the end of 2011.

“Aligning the name change with the change of mission sends a strong signal that Operation Iraqi Freedom has ended and our forces are operating under a new mission,” Gates wrote in a Feb. 17 memo to General David Petraeus, the top commander for the region.

Military Families United, a Washington-based advocacy group that has opposed Obama administration policies such as moving prisoners from the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the U.S., rapped the name change as empty “public relations tactics.”

“You cannot end a war simply by changing its name,” said Brian Wise, the group’s executive director, in an e-mailed statement. “Despite the administration’s efforts to spin realities on the ground, their efforts do not change the situation at hand in Iraq.”

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