It's All Marketing

In Gore Vidal's 2002 book, "Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace," he has twenty pages where he lists conflicts with U.S. Forces Involved, starting with The Berlin Airlift in 1948 and ending with Determined Force in Kosovo, 1999. The list includes clashes in every part of the globe, including Counterdrug Operations which notes action in a few US states, as well as other countries.

What makes this section fascinating is the extraordinary names assigned to the operations.
Some terms which recur are: Hope, Guard, Guardian, Determined, Decisive and Deliberate. Marketing military attacks requires imagination. Here are just a few examples - some are quite interesting: Operation Tailwind, Laos (1970); Operation Pocket Money, North Vietnam (1972); Eastern Exit (1991) Provide Relief (1992), Restore Hope (1993) all in Somalia. I believe the Pirates won those! Since 2000, Vidal could add quite a few big ones to the list. However, if you wish to read the other 19 pages from Vidal's book, you'll have to visit the library!