Word: ragtag
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...forces appeared at last to have won a round in a murky conflict that some Africans have dubbed "the Termite War." Neither side seemed able to do any more than nibble away at the other. But last week government troops not only halted the advance of the ragtag invasion army toward Kolwezi, the center of Zaïre's copper-mining district, but also took the initiative for the first time. By week's end, government spokesmen were claiming that "a general offensive against all enemy positions" was under way with the primary purpose of recapturing the towns...
...invaders were a ragtag army of 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers; most of them, apparently, once fought in the forces of Katangese Leader Moise Tshombe and fled to neighboring Angola after Tshombe's secessionist movement was defeated in the mid-1960s. What made the invasion ominous, to Mobutu's allies, was that the Katangese invaders had obviously been trained and armed by the Angolans and their guests, the Cubans, with the support of the Soviet Union. At little cost or risk to themselves, the Cubans and the Soviets seemed to be using the Katangese rebels...
...point, France delivered an $880,000 ransom in cash and promised another $ 1.4 million in the form of nonmartial military goods, including a field hospital. Habre refused the bait, and the result was the astonishing spectacle of a nuclear power virtually helpless before a guerrilla leader with a ragtag army of fewer than...
...Somme. At Agincourt a tired, hungry English band of about 5,000 archers and 1,000 foot soldiers met a French force of some 25,000 on Oct. 25, 1415. In Shakespeare's Henry V the English king naturally dominates the stage. Keegan is more interested in the ragtag soldiers and what sustained them: prayer, a hope of booty from French casualties, ransom for prisoners and plenty of strong drink. Against all odds, the English won. Keegan dwells on the small, sometimes accidental events that determined that outcome. The British archers (the lowest caste of warriors in the late...
...weekends ago a ragtag line of some 150 blacks and whites, members of an obscure group called the Martin Luther King Jr. Movement, decided to challenge the discriminatory patterns in the Marquette Park area. Their tiny demonstration brought Chicago to the brink of its worst racial outburst in ten years...