Jargon used in the Iraq War 2003

Speed bump
Anything that slows down the progress of war - including skirmishes. The resistance at Basra and the protracted resistance at Umm Qasr were particularly nasty speed bumps.

Effects-based warfare
A nuanced approach to war, combining strategic firepower ("graduated destruction") and pyschological operations (or "psyops") - such as leaflet dropping and interfering with TV or radio broadcasts. Some Iraqi commanders have even made "capitulation agreements" already. The effects-based approach is backed up by the provision of humanitarian aid to create a "benign campaign".

Digital battlefield
The US Army's 4th division is equipped with command and control systems that allow tank movements to be monitored on computers, seen as a first step towards a "digital battlefield" that involves "total situational awareness", ie, everyone can tell where everyone else is. The idea is to dispel the "fog of war" that leads to deaths from "friendly fire".

Boots
The antidote to smart bombing and precision planning, "boots" symbolise the traditional way of getting the job done. Land forces are known as "boots on the ground", while General Tommy Franks is known as a "muddy-boots soldier".

Dirty dozen
The US state department hit list of the 12 most wanted in Saddam's regime, including his sons Uday and Qusay, his cousin "Chemical" Ali Hassan Majid and deputy leader Tariq Aziz.

Shock and awe
The Pentagon's name for the mass bombardment designed to demoralise the Iraq and effectively win the war before an invasion. The author of the term, Harlan Ullman, says the phrase has "not been helpful".

Hammer time
A US admiral was shown invoking the spirit of 90s Christian rapper MC Hammer - albums include Let's Get It Started and Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em - when he declared to his fist-pumping troops that "hammer time" was upon us.

Target of opportunity
This is what American military planners called their chance to get in with a spectacular first blow, when raids on Baghdad attempted to "decapitate" Iraq by taking out Saddam. This seems to be a modified form of the rejected "inside-out strategy" that proposed attacking Baghdad and Saddam first to isolate the regime from the surrounding country

A-Day
The main attack that is still to come. One Pentagon official was quoted as saying today's attack was "a limited thing - it ain't A-Day". Last Thursday's attacks followed a process of "softening up", basically preliminary bombing.

from The Guardian Online

Post Script

In an interview with an officer and a soldier involved in a "firefight" in Iraq in June 2006, the two men used the following words as euphemisms for killing:

take down, take out, netralise, account for, eliminated

The interviewer had to ask for clarification on "account for" as he was uncertain whether this meant the opposition had been checked and counted or if this was a euphemism for killing.