Learning your ABCs

Reporters need more than English and Arabic skills to decipher events in the combat theater of Iraq. Assignments here also require fluency in the U.S. military’s ever-evolving language of euphemisms and abbreviations.

As far as I can tell, military shorthand falls into four categories: practical, deceptive, funny and absurd. Iraqis aren’t Iraqis; they’re “local nationals.” Soldiers never commit suicide; they die of “non-combat injuries.” Sunni tribal leaders plucked from obscurity and portrayed as strong U.S. allies come from what some troops privately call the “make-a-sheikh” program.

  The military’s alphabet soup grows more confusing by the day. A recent security report included this line: “18 JUL insurgents attacked a CLP with an IED in the vicinity of CP12A, and followed up the attack with SAF.”

Translation: “On July 18, insurgents detonated a homemade bomb near checkpoint 12A and then followed up with small-arms fire.” I never did figure out what CLP was. I asked our resident security adviser, whose response was: “Hmm, not sure. That’s a new one.”

Below is a glossary of some more abbreviations, both old and new, that are part of the daily lexicon for soldiers, contractors, embassy staff and journalists in Iraq. There are so many out there that I’m sure I’ve left some classics off the list. Please write in if you have a favorite that’s not included!

• AO – area of operations

• AOR – area of responsibility

• IZ or GZ – international zone or green zone; the fortified U.S. and Iraqi headquarters in central Baghdad

• IED – improvised explosive device; homemade bomb

• EFP – explosively formed projectile; an armor-piercing bomb the military says Iran is providing to militants

• RPG – rocket-propelled grenade

• PX – post exchange; a shopping center on base

• JAM – Jaysh al Mahdi, the Arabic name for the Mahdi Army militia

• AQI – al Qaida in Iraq

• ISF – Iraqi security forces

• GOI – government of Iraq

• MOI – ministry of interior; the Iraqi government body that oversees police and security

• MOD – ministry of defense, the Iraqi government body that oversees the Iraqi military

• JSS – joint security station; garrisons where U.S. and Iraqi troops work in tandem

• COP – combat outpost; a small enclave of U.S. troops in a neighborhood

• FOB – forward operating base

• VBIED – (pronounced vee-bid) vehicle-borne improvised explosive device; car bomb

• VCP – vehicle checkpoint; typically refers to illegal checkpoints set up by militants

• PSD – personal security detail; bodyguards or private security contractors hired for protection

• MSR – main supply route

• ASR – auxiliary supply route

• SCIRI or SIIC – Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which recently changed its name to Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council; a powerful Iranian-backed political party

• KRG – Kurdistan Regional Government; the mostly autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq

• KDP – Kurdistan Democratic Party; a Kurdish political party

• PUK – Patriotic Union of Kurdistan; a Kurdish political party

• PKK – Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan/Kurdistan Workers Party; a militant Kurdish separatist group

• DFAC – (pronounced dee-fack) dining facility; chow hall on base

• CSH – (pronounced cash) combat support hospital

• CF – coalition forces

• MNF-I – multinational forces-Iraq

• MND-B – multinational division-Baghdad

• TCN – third-country national; anyone non-Iraqi and non-American, such as the South Asian laborers who work on many U.S. bases

• LZ – landing zone; helicopter landing pads

• CPIC – (pronounced see-pick) coalition press information center

• MNSTCI – (pronounced min-sticky) multinational security transition command-Iraq; the U.S. military’s overall training operation for Iraqi security forces

• PTT – police transition team; U.S. troops training Iraqi police

• MTT – military transition team; U.S. troops training Iraqi soldiers

• PRT – provincial reconstruction team; U.S. officials working with Iraqi counterparts on reconstruction and government of provinces

• IPLO – Iraqi police liaison officer; American acting as a training liaison for Iraqi police

• IP – Iraqi police

• IA – Iraqi army

• BSP – Baghdad security plan; now mostly referred to by its Arabic name, Fardh al Qanoun, which means “rule of law”

• OIF – Operation Iraqi Freedom

• UXO – unexploded ordnance

• EODT – explosive ordnance disposal team; clears munitions/bombs

• PSF – provincial security forces; low-level Iraqi patrols that provide backup to U.S. and Iraqi security forces

• QRF – quick reaction force; U.S. forces that respond quickly to emergencies

• PTSD – post-traumatic stress disorder; sometimes referred to as combat stress

• MRE – meals ready to eat; military-issued, prepackaged meals for troops

• BIAP – (pronounced bi-op) Baghdad International Airport

• RJ – Royal Jordanian, one of the handful of airlines that fly into Baghdad

• CODEL – congressional delegation; several have visited Iraq on fact-finding trips

• PPE/IBA – personal protection equipment/individual body armor; flak vests and Kevlar helmets

• INIS – Iraqi National Intelligence Service, the shadowy, CIA-supervised Iraqi spy agency

• IECI – independent electoral commission of Iraq; the Iraqi body that supervises elections

• ICC – Iraqi criminal courts

• IDF – indirect fire, such as mortars and rockets

• SAF – small-arms fire, such as from machine guns

• PAO – public affairs officer; a military liaison to the media

• OPSEC – operational security

• DoD – U.S. department of defense

• CPA – coalition provisional authority; the now-defunct U.S. occupation authority established in 2003; still referred to as in, “that error started with the CPA”

• IIP – Iraqi Islamic Party, a conservative Sunni Muslim political party

• MSA – Muslim Scholars Association; umbrella group for Sunni Muslim clerics

• UIA – United Iraqi Alliance; umbrella group for (mostly) Shiite Muslim political factions

• NVA – night vision aid; goggles and other equipment that allow troops to see in the dark

• RTI – Research Triangle Institute; influential North Carolina-based organization that won big U.S. contracts for rebuilding projects in Iraq; sometimes derided by troops as “Random Task Idiots”

Comments

[NewsSophisticate]

Hannah, I love the information you provide US in the states. Thank you for providing a 'view' that we, Americans, need to see and hear. Thank you, be safe, and stay strong.

[Paul]

Hey Hannah,
Great list. One of my personal favorites not on there was the Special Police Transition Teams for training the paramilitary police commandos, knowns as SPTTs (proncouned spits), which it was decided wasn't very nice, so they changed it to National Police Transition Teams, NPTTs, (now pronounced nip-its). And then of course there was the ridiculous proliferation of -BIEDs, as the VBIED turned into the SVBIED (suicide car bomb), TBIED (truck bomb) and I heard of a BBIED - bicycle borne improvised explosive device... but they could have been pulling my leg.

[McBeav]

CLP is a convoy logistics patrol.

[Hannah Allam]

Paul, SPTTs is a great one! Thanks! And your BBIED reminded me of another one, circa late 2003. An insurgent had fired a rocket from a mule-drawn wagon outside the Palestine Hotel. At the briefing the next day, Gen. Kimmitt called it a DMML: donkey-mounted mobile launcher!

[Hannah Allam]

Ah, mystery solved. Thanks, McBeav!

[Eric]

Actually, we always used CLP to mean "Combat Logistics Patrol"