Bas Wijnen <wijnen@debian.org> writes: ... >> (or fighting "bitter rearguard battles"). > > This may be a language issue, but I have been thinking about what a > "rearguard battle" is, and I can't think of any way Ian can possibly be > talking about himself. The rear guard is on the back. This must mean > that somebody has won a fight, but continues fighting anyway. Since Ian > doesn't seem to have won the fight at least so far, don't you think he > would be talking about the opposing army? And from what I've seen, that > might be correct, too. At least Lennart seems like he can't get enough > of fights. (But then complains that he gets attacked so much...) A rearguard action is one in which the rearguard of a retreating army lays traps and ambushes for the advancing force, to impede their progress. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/rearguard-action You seem to have misunderstood that, and have based much of the rest of your post on that misunderstanding. Cheers, Phil. -- |)| Philip Hands [+44 (0)20 8530 9560] HANDS.COM Ltd. |-| http://www.hands.com/ http://ftp.uk.debian.org/ |(| Hugo-Klemm-Strasse 34, 21075 Hamburg, GERMANY
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