Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently announced that the United States military would officially complete Operation Iraqi Freedom on September 1, 2010 and American Forces would commence a new operation in Iraq—New Dawn. Many in the media have criticized the selection of the new name, saying that there has previously been a bloody Operation New Dawn in Fallujah, back in 2004. In actuality, there has never been an American operation called New Dawn.
As the November, 2004 operation to clear Fallujah of thousands of Anti-Iraqi-Forces neared (Phantom Fury), the Iraqi government assumed responsibility for what was about to transpire, and code-named the operation al Fajr, after a passage in the Qur’an. The loose English translation is “The Dawn” or “Daybreak.” The religious passage talks about wrongdoers returning to the grace of Allah. It speaks of an approaching New Dawn. While the official Iraqi designation was al Fajr, the American code name was Phantom Fury or al Fajr—never New Dawn.
My next book, New Dawn, tells the story of Operation al Fajr. I could have just as easily titled the story The Dawn, but I took literary license and selected what I believed to be a catchier title in New Dawn. I sincerely hope that my bastardization of the translation has not added to the confusion and I pray that 2011 brings a new dawn of peace and prosperity to the people of Iraq.
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