1. Mess2. Confusion caused by incompetence and/or lack of organisation3. Complete cock up4. Unsatisfactory result, often with comic consequences5. Misguided effort6. Fiasco 7. Result of failure to recognise consequencesBelieved 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.