One of several problems that delayed the formation of the new government was the rear guard action waged by the Shiite Fadila Party to hang onto the Oil Ministry, which it controlled under former Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari.

NPR: Iraq Oil Minister Vows to Fight Corruption, Smuggling

You and your lawyers want to thrash this out, case by case, fighting a trench-warfare, rear-guard action?

FORBES: These Bankers Knew What They Were Selling

Even now it is waging a rear-guard action to undo the easing that the FASB promulgated in April.

FORBES: Evil Agency--And It Ain't the CIA

The judge's clumsy move is a rear-guard action against a basic freedom.

FORBES: Fact and Comment

Brik may be fighting a rear-guard action.

FORBES: WTF? Israeli General Warns of Officers Texting Orders, Being Ignored

The printed word has fought a rear-guard action against not only computers and television, but also a whole horde of digital upstarts from DVDs and video games to mobile phones, iPods, YouTube and now the mobile internet.

ECONOMIST: Will reading and writing remain important?

On more occasions than even he cares to remember, Lord Steel has proposed a bill which would allow peers to retire, to be expelled from the House if convicted of serious criminal offences, and to exclude the 92 hereditary peers who continue to sit in it...that last provision was pulled in the face of a determined rear-guard action, the last time the bill went through.

BBC: Week ahead