You are invading oil-rich Iraq, and much of the world thinks — rightly or wrongly — you are doing it because you want the country’s oil. You deny this vehemently. Yet when your troops name their “forward operating bases,” they choose the names Exxon and Shell.
I’m not making this up. Those are the names of the 101st Airborne’s helicopter bases in Iraq, according to this New York Times report.
The Pentagon is apparently explaining that these camps are refueling bases, and that justifies the naming. I dunno. This may be true. But it doesn’t help us. The Bush administration has been given lots of points for its handling of this war’s PR, but this looks like a ludicrously stupid blunder.
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