snafu n.

"a confusion, a mix-up," especially a big and complicated one, 1943, World War II U.S. military slang, from the acronym (attested as an expression by 1941) for situation normal, all fucked up, "an expression conveying the common soldier's laconic acceptance of the disorder of war and the ineptitude of his superiors" ["Oxford English Dictionary"]. As an adjective from 1942. In public explanations the word typically was euphemised to fouled.