Trapped with too much chai

So there I was one beautiful Iraqi morning, drinking chai, discussing upcoming operations with the squadron commander, the 3rd Peshmerga commander, the 4-1 Iraqi Army commander, and several of the Iraqi Army and Peshmerga operations and intelligence officers when a thought came to my mind...


...in reality the thought came to my mind after 3 cups of chai and 2 1/2 hours of me sitting in our conference room listening (zoning out) to everyone discuss which random area or villages we should be clearing next. Too much boredom and too much chai led to this masterpiece:

Written out in scribbly writing in my notebook which when I finally escaped the meeting turned into scribbly writing on my whiteboard. Good luck de-cyphering it. Here's my attempt at an explaination:

There are certain events occuring in the Province which may be happening due to various reasons to include drawdown of US forces, perceived election manipulation, on going operations, and overall crankiness due to hot weather. My notes on the whiteboard are supposed to show the progress of an insurgency (phase I, II, and III) and what attacks are likely to occur in each phase that may indicate a growing insurgency or dying one.

Phase I generally includes simple roadside bombs that do little damage but are intended to intimidate and deny that fundamental desire of freedom of maneuver for friendly forces and those bombs may be either detonated by command wire, some kind of remote detonation device, or detonated by the victim (pressure plate/pressure wire). Some small arms fire attacks may occur but are usually going to be quick and ineffective.

Phase II occurs as the insurgents gather and recruit more members and have more of the population on their side which enables more complex types of attacks but requires more planning and preparation. Small arms fire attacks are going to become more bold, especially if the insurgents feel they will not be actioned on or will only face a few rounds of .50 cal before the patrol they are attacking moves on.

Phase III is basically what US forces faced in many areas of Iraq in 2006-07 to include many neighborhoods of Baghdad and Baqubah. A well prepared enemy who has complete control over the population and has established defensive positions by cutting off roads with berms or emplacing bombs that are in key locations to deny movement into an area.

All those acronyms? Yeah, we speak and write in pretty much a whole other language in the Army.