Italy's horse of a different color

Long life to the British Imperial Army!  Or, what's the EU doing?   In the Malay States  they have hats like plates  that the Britisher won't wear  [“Mad dogs and Englishmen”, by Noel Coward]   No, not for how they managed to keep together the biggest and more extended empire that the World had ever seen. If anything, the Navy was the real glue, and the story of the Royal Navy and the Commonwealth Navies is a fascinating subjects, and HRH Prince Philip was an accomplished and highly regarded Naval Officer.  They were a small lot anyway, numbering at the height of British power, shortly before WW I, in the region of 200.000 men. Local militias supplied most of the manpower, usually. No, I am celebrating the British Army because given the economic and political situation in the EU, and the response to COVID, it looks as if the European Elites have taken the Old officer corp traditional toast, the one that resonated from the humid jungles of Bengal to Africa and the Pacific exp

  The Crisis that never was – An Italian perspective Originally hosted on "Intelligence Quarterly", https://www.intelligencequarterly.com/2021/02/the-crisis-that-never-was-an-italian-perspective/ Covid notwithstanding, I believe that the authorities do not yet appreciate the extent of the crisis now facing the EU.....they will, but we are not there yet. One of many things about Europe that irritates me, during such uncertain times, is how LITTLE we have changed the way we do things, given the scale of the problems facing the broad populace. No! This is not a particular gripe against the Draghi government, it goes way deeper and way beyond the Italian borders. It comes, in part, from my years of history fandom. Above all military history: War is the ultimate discoverer of real truth.  It is a terrible master  that like Atropos [1] , cuts the life of unsuccessful ideas short. Think Maginot line. Up until 1940, France had a perfectly reasonable strategy going forward, qui