\n Confused? So was she. The history of warfare is written in acronyms that The Iraq war has spawned its very own alphabet soup of abbreviations and Many, like MNF, just make the longwinded multinational forces less of a Ready for a translation? "U.S. and Iraqi forces fought with insurgents Long the exclusive lingo of soldiers on battlefields and generals in command From the hunt for WMDs to the search for HVTs, high value targets such The IED long predated the Iraq war, but as rebels get more creative, so VBIEDs, or vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, often spell death Since roadside bombs have emerged as the weapon of choice for insurgents When American soldiers are hit, they are often "medivaced" to If not they become Angels, a euphemism U.S. military doctors use for troops from Reuters<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BAGHDAD (Reuters) – "Hi Sergeant, we hear there are clashes in Baquba. Do you have any information on that?" screams the journalist down a bad mobile phone line from Baghdad. "Well Ma’am, MNF and ISF engaged with AIF, who were … Continue reading ![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/angelwar.jpg\")
BAGHDAD (Reuters<\/a>) – "Hi Sergeant, we hear there are clashes in Baquba.
\n Do you have any information on that?" screams the journalist down
\n a bad mobile phone line from Baghdad.
\n "Well Ma’am, MNF and ISF engaged with AIF, who were planting IEDs,
\n after coming under small arms fire," came the reply.<\/p>\n
\n cleanse the blood from gory wounds and strip the horror from bombs.<\/p>\n
\n battlefield buzzwords intelligible only to the military and war correspondents
\n trying to make sense of it all.<\/p>\n
\n mouthful. Some, like IED, take the bang out of an improvised explosive
\n device — a makeshift bomb. Others, like AIF, or anti-Iraqi forces, are
\n part of the information war — the U.S. military uses the phrase to describe
\n insurgents.<\/p>\n
\n who planted roadside bombs and fired guns."<\/p>\n
\n centers, the era of satellite television and instant Internet has brought
\n the bewildering jumble of military jargon into living rooms the world over.<\/p>\n
\n as Saddam Hussein, reporters "embedded" with U.S. military units
\n since the 2003 invasion of Iraq have brought the language of war and occupation
\n into the public consciousness.<\/p>\n
\n tongue-twisting variations on classics are born.<\/p>\n
\n for Iraq’s fledgling forces, who have borne the brunt of such rebel attacks.
\n They are better known as car bombs. If the bomber is still in the vehicle
\n when it explodes, it is an SVBIED — S for suicide. When the bomber straps
\n the explosives to his person,
\n he becomes a PBIED.<\/p>\n
\n attacking U.S. patrols, the military has begun to "up-armor" its "soft" vehicles.
\n Sometimes soldiers harden their vehicles using odds and ends. This is "hillbilly
\n armor."<\/p>\n
\n the CASH, or combat support hospital. If they recover, they will end up
\n RTDed, or returned to duty.<\/p>\n
\n killed in battle, and contender for Word of the Year 2004, the American
\n Dialect Society’s annual competition for the best new word.<\/strong><\/p>\n