[Romulus]

The French surrendered without firing a shot.

Kindly explain then, how the French military of the second world war took casualties numerically equivalent to those of the USA, but in only one theatre of operations, in an army less than half the size, raised from a population one third the size. Not to mention the civilian casualties. Never checked them, have you? It's always easier to be a canting fool, isn't it?

And speaking of "sempre ragione", trouble yourself to compare France's wartime losses to Italy's.

[ffusco]

I know a lot of Frenchmen died during WW2, most of them were Jews, Gays, cripples, and other undesireables, a few of them were soldiers since they had surrendered so quickly.
OTOH: Italy has a pretty lousy military record and I make no claims otherwise: 500k dead in WW1. WW2: Lackluster army, poorly equipped for mechanized war, poor leadership still fighting the last war. Formidable Navy, modern, fast and not used effectively, no radar or sea-worthy carrier, most of it sunk in harbour by Brits. Air Force- some decent planes but not in enough numbers to matter in the end. But I'm an American and I appreciate what PM Berlusconi said about America. Italy will help the US in Iraq - even if it mean only the use of Italian bases, replacing US forces with Alpini in Afghanistan, and a few Tornado sorties, they are doing what they can. They don't have a big offensive capability and prefer to do peace-keeping, mine clearing, road building etc. and that's fine. Nobody expects a big Italian Troop deployment to Iraq, but I bet they build a few hospitals and schools like they did in Lebanon in the 80's. And that's why America loves Italy, they don't pretend to be so important, like the French, God knows why?

[metesky]

And that weary old joke, "rifle for sale, never fired, dropped once" was origially told about the Italian army.