Vs what they are trying to do right now??? How would we tell?
I meant that in a decade or two whoever is running Russia might decide to invade somewhere to overcome the humiliation of defeat in Ukraine.
Was that corruption or just incompetence?
Valid question, but Italy was fully competent during the run-up to WWI and through the last gasps of global imperialism. I donât think it was a coincidence that the rise of fascism in Italy corresponded with the decline of their military capabilities. And corruption goes hand in hand with fascism like Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
Give me an effinâ break. The world is (deservedly) a 24-hour PR machine for Zelenskyy, but meanwhile weâve got to tread carefully to avoid WW3 and even NPR is amping this?
Which will lead to another humiliating defeat.
Itâs humiliating defeats all the way down.
John Kenneth Galbraith was watching the approach of war between Egypt and Israel in May 1967 (see âLife in our Timesâ pg 523). His neighbour, Robert Graves, pointed out that Egypt hadnât won a war since Ramses II, and later Gideon Raphael added that Ramses II had been defeated, but told a good story after getting home. In Mitla Pass, Leon Uris puts that down in modern terms to corruption within the Egyptian Army.
Now, I donât have any arguments with the Egyptian Army; they were nice enough to provide a squad to escort my wife and I through some of the dodgier parts around Abydos when we were visiting shortly after the Luxor Massacre. The officer in charge reassuringly told me that the sugar cane and brush had been cut back (IIRC) 800 ft from any roads tourists were expected on. At that range an AK-47 bullet doesnât get through a car door, it seems.
I mean, polls are fickle and depending on how they are worded, you can have the same people taking the same poll that has similar questions, and get different results because of the wording.
But yeah, Zelenskyy is charismatic and we have seen an idealized version of him. Biden is⌠old and boring. He did show some fiestyness in that NATO speech. And overall, I think he is doing above average as far as leading. But he is both old and boring.
I aspire to be both, someday.
Iâm going for old and eccentric.
The same Egyptian army that oppresses itâs own people? That one? 
Theyâre nice to tourists, because thatâs a major part of the economy. Egyptians who oppose them, not so much.
While Iâm sure corruption was involved (because, as you say, fascism) Italy had a proud tradition of military incompetence in both world wars, with this clown as the textbook illustration:
Thatâs a better example of corruption undermining a modern army. The Egyptian military is less a fighting force than it is a crony-capitalist industrial conglomerate.
I always carry a car door to help keep cool when in a hot climate. If it gets too hot I can roll down the window.
I canât find a good reference, but I am recalling the Italians got beat up pretty good in Ethiopia before the Germans helped them out. I could be misremembering, but I used to be a WWII buff, as I think a lot of 11-12 year old boys were at the time.
Car door between me and gun was the assumption. In Hyena Road one of the Canadian snipers called it a âgreat weapon if youâre fighting in a telephone boothâ.
At what cost? The previous (mid 20th century) strong man mourning what the world had done to âhumiliateâ his country 20 years before extracted a terrible cost.
They will find an excuse, whether it exists or not. Failing to act because of a fear of provoking fascists is the worst kind of cowardice.
