Word: ragtag
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...would be hard to design a more tragically absurd war than the one raging in Liberia. Battles are fought mainly by untrained, doped-up kids from the countryside, and no one on either side has effective command of the ragtag militias. The majority of casualties are civilian. Most combatants avoid fighting, preferring to spray bullets at the other side and then run. The rebels' only stated goal is the ouster of President Charles Taylor, a recently indicted war criminal who insists he is willing to step down and go into exile in Nigeria but keeps creating excuses to postpone...
...real war-fighting capabilities from the U.N." But in at least some parts of Iraq, war fighting is exactly what's still needed. The model to aim for is an improved version of the one the international community stumbled on in Sierra Leone three years ago. A ragtag multinational U.N. mission policed relatively peaceful areas of the nation, while an independent British force outside U.N. command crushed a rebellion with efficient gusto. In Iraq it is possible to imagine a situation in which a U.N. force, with help from retrained Iraqi soldiers and police, would keep the peace in Kurdistan...
...backed court in neighboring Sierra Leone and charged with supporting guerrillas during the country's own brutal 10-year civil war, which ended in 2002. During peace talks in Ghana, the rebels demanded Taylor resign and allow the formation of a government of national unity. The rebels, a ragtag collection of groups opposing Taylor, have been fighting for three years to oust him. Overdue Overhaul ARGENTINA Wasting no time since becoming President by default last month, Nestor Kirchner fired 10 of 12 senior police commissioners and called on Congress to impeach the widely despised Supreme Court. He also forced more...
Uday held less impressive posts. Apart from heading the Olympic Committee, he supervised various Iraqi media outlets and oversaw the Fedayeen Saddam, a ragtag band of armed militants, mostly ex-felons, that eventually became part of Saddam's security apparatus. Whereas Qusay would icily and efficiently murder for his father to further a political aim, his brother pursued a brand of terror that was personal, arbitrary and spontaneous. He was a threat to any father whose daughter might cross his path, to the women themselves, even to his own friends, who, it turns out, were subjected to torture and humiliation...
...take exception to Klein's assertion that Bush is a "deft politician with big ideas and with the guts to take risks that can yield great victories." It was not a big idea or much of a risk to wage war against Iraq's ragtag military. Bush might have scared the bejeezus out of cream puffs like Iran and Syria, but North Korea turned Bush's pre-emption doctrine on its ear and obtained meetings with the U.S. Besides wage war and cut taxes, what has Bush done? PHIL KENNY Colorado Springs, Colo...