A civilian can be driven to distraction by the slew of military and security acronyms that punctuate briefings in Iraq. Here's an essential guide to the Iraqonyms of note:
| IRAQONYM | LITERAL DEFINITION | PLAIN ENGLISH |
| AO | Area of Operations | here |
| AIF | Anti-Iraqi Forces | enemies |
| EC | Enemy Combatants | their bad guys |
| IED | Improvised Explosive Device | homemade bomb |
| EFP | Explosively Formed Projectile | really nasty bomb |
| HEP | Highly Explosive Projectile | same as above |
| MSR | Military Supply Route | nearly all highways |
| IDF | Indirect Fire | shelling |
| SAF | Small arms fire | gunfire |
| MI | Military Intelligence | military intelligence |
| FOB | Forward Operating Base (pronounced fob) | rear base |
| FRE | Former Regime Elements | Saddam's followers |
| FRL | Former Regime Loyalists | Baathists |
| TCN | Third Country Nationals | Anyone other than Iraqis and Americans (now includes Brits as well) |
| AQ | Al Qaeda | terrorists |
| JAM | Jaish al Mahdi | Mahdi Army |
| HUMINT | Human intelligence (pronounced hu-mint) | informers |
| OC | Operational Control | responsibility |
| MAS | Moqtada al Sadr | Moqtada is the only person with his own Iraqonym |
| IP | Iraqi Police | our bad guys, until retrained |
| TCP | Traffic Control Point | checkpoint, roadblock |
| EJK | Extra-Judicial Killing | murder |
| IZ | Iraqi Nationals | Iraqis (becoming obsolete; see IN); synonym: LNs, local nationals |
| CF | Coalition Forces | our soldiers |
| HVT | High Value Target | enemy bigshot |
| TTP | Tactics, Techniques and Procedures | What are we going to do? |
| VBIED | Vehicular-Borne Improvised Explosive Device | suicide car bomb |
| SVBIED | Suicide Vest-Borne IED or Suicide Vehicular-borne IED | suicide vest bomber or suicide car bomb |
| VCIED | Vehicular-concealed IED | old-fashioned car bomb |
| VOIED | Victim-Operated IED | suicide bomb |
| PBIED | Pedestrian-Borne IED | suicide bomber |
| IZ | International Zone | Green Zone |
| CP | Checkpoint | Not to be confused with Command Post |
| IRL | Improvised Rocket Launcher | homemade rocket |
| PSD | Personal Security Detail | bodyguards |
| FF | Friendly Fire | stupid mistake |
| ROE | Rules of Engagement (sometimes pronounced Row, but usually R O E) | when to shoot people |
| PSC | Private Security Company | mercenaries |
| FRAGO | Fragmentation Order (pronounced frag-oh) | a new order |
| MNF-I | Multi-National Forces-Iraq | Coalition of the willing |
| JASG | Joint Area Support Group | Green Zone U.S. military authorities |
| WIA | Wounded in Action | wounded soldiers |
| POC | Point of Contact | who to call |
| CSH | Combat Support Hospital (pronounced cash) | modern name for MASH |
| IN | Iraqi Nationals | Iraqis (replacing IZs) |
| RTA | Road Traffic Accident | car crash |
| VIP | Very Important Person | Iraqi bigshot |
| VVIP | Very Very Important Person | American bigshot |
| MiTTs | Military Transition Teams (pronounced "mitts") | American advisers |
| JSSs | Joint Security Stations | Iraqi-US neighborhood bases |
| COPs | Combat Outposts | (pronounced "cops") other neighborhood military bases |
| LZ | Landing Zone | helipad |
| MANPADS | Man Portable Air Defense System | Shoulder-fired missile |
| KIA | Killed in Action | dead soldiers |
| DBMRLP | Donkey-Borne Mobile Rocket Launching Platform | stupid terrorist with donkey cart |
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