1. Mess
2. Confusion caused by incompetence and/or lack of organisation
3. Complete cock up
4. Unsatisfactory result, often with comic consequences
5. Misguided effort
6. Fiasco
7. Result of failure to recognise consequences
Believed to have been in common usage in the
British armed forces from WW2, now (2007) largely anachronistic and used by older persons who remember it or have
parents who did... may link to the phrase "Don't let the buggers get you down" which probably refers primarily to the
bullying of private soldiers during induction training by non commissioned officers.