For all of you familiar with US government organizations, you'll know that acronyms are the bane of our existence. There's the old joke around DC that every time an acronym is created, a pixie fairy dies... [zap! flutter, flutter, flu- splat!] The military is not immune, of course, and there are entire classified web pages with alphabetical lists of approved acronyms.
Part of the reason for those is the requirements of daily reporting and briefings, where it would get very tiresome to say "Al Qaida in Iraq" or "Jaysh al Mahdi" four or five times a slide, so instead they write AQI or JAM.
And for the latter, we got a little punchy the other day and wrote the following fake report:
"J2 Comment: Reporting indicates the presence of a new militant organization within MND-SE, the Army of Najafi Terrorists (ANTS). This unit is assessed to have links to Jaysh al Mahdi (JAM). In fact, those links are so close that wherever there is JAM, there are ANTS. There is no firm assessment of why ANTS like JAM so much. It could be they are trying to recruit away members, since it has been previously reported that the sort of Shia Underground Generic Arab Rejectionist (SUGAR) that is so often found in JAM might also be attractive to ANTS. Further reporting casts light on the origins of this policy, in that JAM may have evolved out of an earlier organization known as the Army of the Prophet or Jaysh al Rasool (JAR). In sum, owing to their attraction to SUGAR, ANTS became interested in JAM after it poured out of JAR. Comment (and Sanity) Ends."
The attached picture illustrates why they hire those South Asians with brooms, because you get major sand buildup! And while I like to pretend its' not all about me, here is another pic of me, this time with my uber travel armor add-ons.
Fair Winds and Following Sands!
For past Brown Sand Sailor entries and pics, visit: Brown Sand Sailor Web Site