With the majority of American troops expected to withdraw from Afghanistan in the coming weeks, the United States has quietly dropped the words “Enduring” and “Freedom” from the operation formerly known as Operation Enduring Freedom.
“Henceforth, all U.S. military activity in Afghanistan shall be known simply as ‘The Operation,’” read a Department of Defense press release, which went largely unreported by major news outlets. “This new mission is better aligned with our country’s strategic goals in the region moving forward, of which honestly your guess is as good as ours.”
The statement added that the name “The Operation” was chosen because it was the only thing “appropriately vague and ridiculous enough to capture the full absurdity of the past 20 years.”