So I started a petition to rename INDOPACOM to PAINCOM on the White House petition site:
With no change to its territorial expanse, the Department of Defense renamed the geographic combatant command Pacific Command (PACOM) to Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) to highlight the unified nature of broad theater spanning the Indian and Pacific Oceans. This change is intended to highlight the importance of the region to American interests. To expand the emphasis on the importance of the command, the unwieldy INDOPACOM acronym should be replaced with PAINCOM, for Pacific-India Command, which is a more concise combatant command name. This acronym will emphasize the military power that America is committing to the region to reassure friends and deter potential enemies.
It's my first petition and I don't anticipate another. But this seems good. Or at least below the median in goofiness, I hope.
Actually, I don't think this would ever be done even if it gets the signatures over the next month!
I would be more than happy enough if PAINCOM becomes the unofficial name for the command.
UPDATE: And oh good grief, in what is a minor but annoying error, I meant to write "Pacific-Indian Command" for the two oceans--and not to add India the country to the name.
Oh well. It's not like it would be statutory language even if by some miracle it reached the signature threshold to get an official response.
