[Cardhu]

I lived through those times and there is much more than that in the Pope collaboration with the Axis powers with his supported Mussolini's invasions of Abyssinia Somaliland and later Albania - but it was simply an illustration that throwing the names of dictators like Hitler, Mussolini and Franco, which were all fully supported by the Pope at that time in relation to the Catholic church is not such a bright idea.

Strangely enough I was in Somaliland when the UN at Lake Success handed it back to the Italians. Big time riots.

[RobbyS]

Comparison of Mussolini’s Italy/Franco’s Spain with Hitler’s Germany is like comparing a “ Coreleone “ with an SS thug. There’s a qualitative leap. Mussolini, as you know, was much admired in the the USA and in Europe. The Western Powers were unwise enough to enlist Mussolini as an honest-broker. And he was the “protector” of Austria until he decided to enter into a partnership with Hitler, seeing Germany as the strong horse. As of September, 1940, he had bet on a winner. The Axis Powers were on the top of the heap.