Posted on 02/27/2003 5:03:32 PM PST by Utah Girl
Folks in southeastern Utah are up in arms -- pun intended -- about an enormous new bomb the Pentagon reportedly will use in any U.S.-led war on Iraq.
Its name? The MOAB.
Military sources tell ABC News the experimental, 21,000-pound bomb, about the size of a car, is similar to a small nuclear weapon. Its nickname is an acronym for "massive ordnance air burst" and not a reference to Utah's mountain-biking magnet, but that doesn't make Dave Sakrison feel much better.
"They could have picked a better name," grumbled the Moab mayor, who plans to e-mail Utah's congressional delegation to protest the missile's moniker. "Everyone I've talked to around town is pretty much appalled."
Moab, considered more liberal than most of southern Utah, has held a handful of anti-war demonstrations in recent months. Some residents fear the bomb's negative connotations -- and worldwide opposition to an Iraq war -- could dampen tourism in a town that attracts many foreign visitors. Others just hate seeing their hometown associated with a weapon capable of such destruction.
"This is not the way we want our town to be put on the map," said Grand County Councilwoman Joette Langianese. "I don't want to see on the news that the MOAB was dropped on Iraq and killed thousands of people."
In its Tuesday evening newscast, ABC News reported the MOAB is a bigger and better version of the "Daisy Cutter," used by the U.S. military most recently in Afghanistan. That weapon also has a Utah connection: It was developed by former University of Utah professor Melvin Cook 30 years ago to clear landing zones for helicopters in Vietnam.
The red-rock Utah town is the only community of any size named Moab in the country. It takes its name from the biblical kingdom southeast of the Dead Sea in what is now Jordan -- which, coincidentally, borders Iraq. No doubt Jordanians aren't too fond of the new bomb's name, either.
Elected officials in Moab don't know whether it is too late to rename the bomb. Military acronyms tend to stick, although the Pentagon changed its response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks from Operation Infinite Justice to Operation Enduring Freedom after Muslim groups protested that infinite justice could be administered only by Allah.
Not all Moab residents are fuming over their near-nuclear namesake, however. Adrien Taylor, editor of the weekly Moab Times Independent, believes townspeople are overreacting a little.
"Getting upset about it is not going to change anything. I don't think anybody did this to give Moab a black eye," she said. "If there was a town called Scud, would they have changed the name of the Scud missile? I don't think so."
Such a pessimist. How about this alternative headline:
MOAB Helps Liberate IRAQ
Upon the annoucement that ultra powerful bombs, nicknamed MOAB, were used and resulted in the death of Suddam Hussein, 100's of thousands of Iraqi's flooded the streets of Bagdad shouting:
MOAB, MOAB, MOAB
Bagdad travel agents report that thousands of Iraqi's are planning to vacation in the idylic community of Southern Utah.........
"Son, do you know why we call this town MOAB?"
"PLEASE! I'll pay anything, anything! Just let me go!"
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