It was a giant bluff thought up by the Italian army as a substitute for having to recruit, train and arm hundreds of thousands of actual soldiers.
Gangs or rebel armies can provide substitute families, while orphans can make attractively nihilistic recruits.
Many substituted the name of the army chief, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, for Mr. Mubarak's, a terse shorthand for the growing sentiment among pro-democracy activists that the temporary military government has not moved fast enough with its promised reforms.
America and its allies are learning to deliver help directly through provincial reconstruction teams, but these efforts by foreign armies are no substitute for, and often retard, the growth of a national administration.
The monarchists, outraged and seeing their majority in the assembly dwindling because of by-elections, found an excuse to force Thiers's resignation as provisional president (May 1873) and hastily substituted the commander of the army, Marshal Patrice de Mac-Mahon.
Fourteen years ago, the N.B.A. locked out its referees, handed their whistles to an army of wide-eyed substitutes and watched the insanity unfold.
He proved part of Fleetwood's promotion-winning team, scoring once in 13 appearances for the Cod Army, nine of them as substitute.
His popemobile arrived last week, but an army dune buggy was customized as a substitute for his trip into the Old City, whose alley-like streets are too narrow for his usual vehicle.
If any public money is going begging, it should be spent on bringing regular armies up to standard, not on buying substitute forces from elsewhere.
Starting in 1943 he spent 18 months in the Pacific Theater of Operations of World War II as an army chaplain; at one point he had to substitute peach juice for Passover wine.
