Word: ragtag
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...Saddam's son Uday oversees a vicious 1,200-man commando force called al-Qarea, trained to carry out terrorist attacks against American targets. Washington counterterrorism experts are skeptical about whether Iraq really boasts such a cadre. A U.S. official who studies Iraq says al-Qarea is probably a ragtag collection of men Uday dressed up as militants to impress his father...
...team's ascent largely comes courtesy of one gray-haired Dutchman: Guus Hiddink. So popular is the national coach that newspapers have half-jokingly suggested he run for President. Never mind that he isn't Korean. After transforming the country's ragtag side into a power that beat favorites Spain, Italy and Portugal, Hiddink has become the country's favorite adopted...
...Until a year ago, the outgunned-and-outnumbered ragtag idealists armed with sticks, stones and World War I-era .303-cal. rifles seemed to employ a strategy of dying for their cause of ending monarchy, caste and feudalism: nearly 2,000 had perished while gaining little ground. But since Nov. 23 when the Maoist rebels ended a four-month truce and launched a string of attacks across the nation, it has become clear that the rebels, who take as a model Peru's brutal Shining Path, have transformed themselves into a lethal force. Since then, Nepal's civil...
...incompetent or corrupt despite charges that begin with ineptitude and run all the way to collusion. "The Abu Sayyaf has been lucky, but sooner or later their luck will run out," says Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes, a retired general. But why hasn't the military already brought this ragtag band to heel? Brutal terrain and a lack of equipment are the most cited explanations - the first soldiers on the scene in Lamitan didn't have radios. This is not a wealthy nation, of course, but one retired general in Manila points to corrosive mismanagement as the reason soldiers aren...
...Almost immediately they met resistance from the better-manned and better-armed Taliban. Depending on which account of the battle you believe, it was at best a defeat, at worst a rout. What is certain is that the reversal set the tone for a very bad week for the ragtag coalition of warlords ranged against the Taliban...