Snipe Hunt From CNN -- XAVIER MENS BASKETBALL

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[> Text -- MS, 22:17:19 05/03/02 Fri

Snipe hunting in Afghanistan
May 3, 2002 Posted: 9:24 PM EDT (0124 GMT)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The latest mission to pursue al Qaeda and Taliban fighters is drawing chuckles from American forces -- not for its objective, nor for its methods, but for its name.

In a tiny case of cultures clashing, "Operation Snipe," a name chosen by Britain, fails to take into account the existence of a more jocular American tradition: the "snipe hunt."

What exactly is a snipe hunt? It depends on where you come from -- or which dictionary you're reading.

Webster's defines the snipe as "any of various usually slender-billed birds" -- the accepted British meaning. But The Dictionary of American Slang calls it "a nonexistent animal," and says a snipe hunt is sending out someone on a wild-goose chase.

The quest to clear up the confusion led a reporter on what at times appeared to be a snipe hunt of his own Friday.

It began with the British peacekeepers in Kabul, who were oblivious to the linguistic gaffe involved in the new operation's moniker.

"It's a game bird, a bit like pheasant," said Lt. Col. Neil Peckham of Wiltshire, England. "It would be a bird that is hunted as part of an organized shoot."

And in the United States? Capt. Bill Peoples of the U.S. Army, a native of Nashville, Tennessee, stood silent for a few moments, then exploded.

"You have got to be kidding!" he bellowed, angrily waving his arm. "I'm not going to answer that question."

He said a few other things, too -- less polite things -- but asked that they not be published.

Then he kicked the reporter off his base.

Britain, Peoples said once he calmed down, "is a coalition partner of ours, and I don't think it's right for us to make fun of what they name their operations."

Fair enough, but the question remained.

Joe Crowley, an aid worker from Morgan Hill, California, had a clue: "I think it means maybe to search for something that doesn't exist?"

Maj. Steve Daugherty of Clarksville, Tennessee, was more confident.

"You just send somebody to find something that doesn't exist so you can have some fun at their expense," he said.

The American Dictionary of Slang says that in a snipe hunt, "an uninitiated person is left to watch for a `snipe' ... while his supposed hunting companions, the hoaxers, leave him to discover the joke."

That's the meaning Col. Wayland Parker learned the hard way at his Jacksonville, Florida, high school.

"They took all the new guys out to the beach on a snipe hunt," he said. "Of course, not a single snipe showed up and we were left there to figure it out on our own. I waited there for a couple of hours."

Then he leaned closer.

"Believe it or not, they actually have snipes here in Afghanistan," he confided. "If you go out to the stadium, we'll herd them in to you."

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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[> [> Those Brits have culture and class. I wonder what "less polite things" were said that went unpublished? Capt. Bill Peoples is no friend of the Snipe. He was probably the one who received demerits for suggesting "Operation Homeskillet". -- Operation Snipe, 10:24:50 05/06/02 Mon

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[> [> [> Peoples and I go way back. Did you notice he was from Nashville? He did try to push through "Operation Homeskillet" but the silly Brits were dead set on Snipe. Your name is now the subject of international ridicule, but at least your pathetic moniker has given our soldiers a reason to laugh. -- Homeskillet, 10:49:40 05/06/02 Mon

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[> [> [> [> Your Nashville connections will be your undoing, Mr. Skillet. You and your brethern have dared insult the House of Snipe. Prepare yourself for the consequences. On a side note, I wonder what the Brit's would have said had we actually named it 'Operation Homeskillet'. -- The House Of Snipe, 14:39:20 05/06/02 Mon

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[> [> [> [> [> No, Sniper, many other things will be my undoing before my Nashville connections undermine me. Rampany alcohol, porn, and related addictions are well on their way to ending me. I will face whatever consequences you dole out in my typical haze and only realize years from now what you have done. On another note, my "brethren" has not insulted your house. I have no brethren. I am brethren-less. The Brits would have found the name "Operation Homeskillet" to be jolly good fun. -- Homeskillet, 15:12:34 05/06/02 Mon

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