Best Defense Libyan word watch alert

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Wednesday, April 6, 2011 - 10:09 AM Share

Boy am I getting sick of the word "ragtag." Anybody got another convenient one word way to describe a disorganized, untrained, ill-disciplined force? Bonus points for alliteration.

MAHMUD HAMS/AFP/Getty Images

EXPLORE:LIBYA, MEDIA

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WILLIEJOE

2:25 PM ET

April 6, 2011

name

the democratic parties continental army?(Vo ist Von Steuben)

DONDE

4:40 PM ET

April 6, 2011

The "rebels" are called the

The "rebels" are called the Cantankerous Castoffs of Cyrenaica. Their slogan is, "We can’t take the Tripolitanian Coffee with four Danish F-16’s."

8:33 PM ET

April 14, 2011

Name

Hogan's Goat

KINSHANE

2:28 PM ET

April 6, 2011

Agreed

'Rag tag' should only be used in reference to the fleet in Battlestar Galactica.

RUBBER DUCKY

2:30 PM ET

April 6, 2011

A thought

The US Army?

GOLD STAR FATHER

2:32 PM ET

April 6, 2011

Guys with Guns

as previously stated by LtGen James Dubik, USA (Ret).
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110403/ap_on_re_us/us_us_libya

TYRTAIOS

2:43 PM ET

April 6, 2011

Gung Ho : )

Let's push the limit: they certainly seem to be dedicated and therefore one might refer to them as "gung-ho" (a hyphenated word)?

JALEFKOWIT

2:49 PM ET

April 6, 2011

"Motley." For the bonus

"Motley."

For the bonus point: "Libya's motley militia."

TOM RICKS

3:21 PM ET

April 6, 2011

We have a winner

Who I am guessing is Jay Lefkowitz, right?
Thanks,
Tom

JALEFKOWIT

4:42 PM ET

April 6, 2011

Dangit, comment form ate my

Dangit, comment form ate my HTML. Link that was supposed to go in previous comment:

http://jasonlefkowitz.net/about/

TOM RICKS

10:02 PM ET

April 6, 2011

And good column on Amazon's Cloud storage of music

My wife (a recovering lawyer) signed up for this service and we were discussing the same thing.

http://jasonlefkowitz.net/2011/03/a-serious-question-for-you-technologically-inclined-lawyers-out-there/

But I see you are not the Jay Lefkowitz who used to be Bush the younger's cabinet secretary.
Thanks,
Tom

JPWREL

2:53 PM ET

April 6, 2011

How about ‘wretched’ or even

How about ‘wretched’ or even more to the point ‘hopelessly wretched’?

CHARLIE SHERPA

2:59 PM ET

April 6, 2011

With apologies to David Bowie and/or the Hamburglar

"Rebel-rabble."

SOLDIERSDIARY

3:08 PM ET

April 6, 2011

a disorganized, untrained, ill-disciplined force

"Cowboys"...
really, I feel bad for anyone who lives in Dallas. this word also works as in...those Libyan rebels are a bunch of Coyboys, who is leading them anyway, Jerry Jones?

GSTASIEWICZ

3:38 PM ET

April 6, 2011

"riffraff" though, generally

"riffraff"

though, generally a bit more disparaging: "Libya's rebellious riffraff"

GSTASIEWICZ

3:44 PM ET

April 6, 2011

"Libya's farrago of freedom

"Libya's farrago of freedom fighters"
"Libya's variegated Volkssturm"

ERIC HAMMEL

4:23 PM ET

April 6, 2011

Pick One

Mob, pack, herd, gaggle, bunch, cluster, crew . . .

Definitely not a "pride".

Why are so many tricked out in parts of 1980s woodland cammies?

BILL HARSHAW

5:07 PM ET

April 6, 2011

Boys With Toys

Or maybe "Boys With Toys and Trucks"

ASTONISHED VAG

5:51 PM ET

April 6, 2011

My turn!

Woe onto these willfully begotten warriors.

Okay, maybe not exactly what you were asking for but it sounds so biblical!

HUNTER

7:22 PM ET

April 6, 2011

I give them too much grace..

...undeserving as they may be...

warriors for the working day?

Let me speak proudly: tell the constable
We are but warriors for the working-day;
Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirch'd
With rainy marching in the painful field;
There's not a piece of feather in our host--
Good argument, I hope, we will not fly--
And time hath worn us into slovenry:
But, by the mass, our hearts are in the trim;
And my poor soldiers tell me, yet ere night
They'll be in fresher robes, or they will pluck
The gay new coats o'er the French soldiers' heads
And turn them out of service. If they do this,--
As, if God please, they shall,--my ransom then
Will soon be levied. Herald, save thou thy labour;
Come thou no more for ransom, gentle herald:
They shall have none, I swear, but these my joints;
Which if they have as I will leave 'em them,
Shall yield them little, tell the constable.

- Henry V, Scene III

MICHAEL VREDENBURG

8:21 PM ET

April 6, 2011

Synonymically Speaking

Ad hoc; pro tem; roughshod; slipshod; lackadaisical; freebooting; free-wheeling; jerry-rigged; contemporaneous; just-add-water; mix 'n' match; shaken and stirred; shake 'n' bake; dregs; flotsam and jetsam; creme de la crap; Berber-ian; Camel Corps.....

JONNY

8:51 PM ET

April 6, 2011

My vote...

...is for "creme de la crap". The Benghazi fellas we can call "Merde by the Mer".

MICHAEL VREDENBURG

8:23 PM ET

April 6, 2011

Milling About

Smartly

KAYKURI

10:42 PM ET

April 6, 2011

I'm late but at least I have alliteration...

"Feckless"

Feckless freedom fighters.

No, better yet: feckless fighters for freedom.

Wait, on a roll: feckless fighters for freedom from fear.

...feckless furshlugginer fighters for freedom from fearsome foreigners.

Okay, that's enough.

STEVE358

3:20 AM ET

April 7, 2011

"Civilians"

Civilians, from a rather unsophisticated urban ME area, and not from a colony chock full of fierce,courageous, field savvy, independent woodsman/pioneers skilled in using a firearms and other weapons to defend their families and put meat on the table.

DANMOREN

4:07 AM ET

April 7, 2011

Hapless

"Many of the fighters are brave, but they are a hapless bunch." - ny times

DANMOREN

4:08 AM ET

April 7, 2011

Hapless

"Many of the fighters are brave, but they are a hapless bunch." - ny times

AFLAPR

12:54 PM ET