Bug with cp command?

[Ted Fines]

Unless I am misunderstanding the options "--force" and 
"--remove-destination", these options just don't work with the cp command. 
I'm using RH 7.1 (kernel 2.4.2-2).

'cp --force /dir1/file1.dat .' or
'cp --force /dir1/file1.dat ./file1.dat' or
'cp --force /dir1/file1.dat /full/path/to/current/directory/file.dat'
all yield the same response:
"cp: overwrite `./file1.dat'? "

Likewise, so does 'cp -f ... ...', 'cp --remove-destination ... ...'

What am I missing here?

Thanks,
Ted Fines
Macalester College