It is interesting while thinking of the cost in dollars and the cost in death and carnage of the Iraq incursion, the question of naming.
And here, I rely upon an unimpeachable source [would that there were to have been impeachment], the official page of pages, the site whose name we do not mention - we only say, whitehouse.gov
So okay - What's in a name?
Operation Iraqi Freedom, heard hundreds of times. This page, check out the heading. Another page, here, Iraq a topic.
Why focus on two such pages out of many? Because these are ones where Ari Fleischer spoke tellingly, his mouth running a clip or two ahead of the censor in his head.
For each, do a page search, Operation Iraqi Liberation.
One hit, only one, each time.
So why change the name, that's a nicer one actually - with a descriptiveness of purpose entailed that had over four thousand Americans killed, multiples of that number wounded, and magnitudes of greater Iraqi citizen injury and death.
All for the overriding goal, that transcended possible weapons of mass destruction, transcended Saddam, transcended being boss of a sandpile, transcended going into that nation over "terrorists" all of whom were known to be in Afghanistan, i.e., the exemplary true American transcending goal of Operation Iraqi Liberation.
Don't take my word for it. Ari said so. Twice, despite the name change.