Leaders of the rebels have never hidden their ambition to turn the irregular force into a professional defensive army.

He waited for that invisible player to move, to threaten his small defensive army.

Although these military reforms brought about a more effective defensive army than the previous arrangement had, it did have its pitfalls.

As for the military, he said the group would seek only to "become a defensive army."

Its task was to maintain the coastal defences in a state of combat readiness, and to assemble a defensive army if needed.

Lincoln had long advocated this strategy for his generals, recognizing that the city would certainly fall after the loss of its principal defensive army.

Yeah, that's the ticket - they're building a defensive army.

However, by then they will have built a formidable "defensive" army that antiwar activists can cite to avert "another Vietnam."

And it wasn't that they'd actually formed any kind of a defensive army either.

He was not necessarily opposed to the draft, telling reporters he would support it for a defensive army or to help eliminate poverty, illiteracy, and racial discrimination.