ill-fed

Even before the war, Mr. Irisov and others noted, Russia struggled to train its two classes of about 100,000 conscripts every spring and fall, with reports of problems like ill-fed troops.

But there are millions of poor people, abject people, dirty people, ill-fed, ill-clothed people.

American officers have long worried that rampant corruption, well documented in parts of Afghanistan's military and political leadership, would undermine the resolve of badly paid, ill-fed and erratically supplied front-line soldiers - some of whom have been left for months or even years on end in isolated outposts, where they could be picked off by the Taliban.

Of the debacle, an unhappy Eisenhower later noted, "the whole scene was pitiful. The veterans, whether or not they were mistaken in marching on Washington, were ragged, ill-fed, and felt themselves badly abused. To suddenly see the whole encampment going up in flames just added to the pity one had to feel for them."

Mr. Edelbijev, the Chechen, initially assured his family that all was well, though his parents had doubts when he sent them a photograph from Syria that showed him looking gaunt and ill-fed.